Mailto image

I don’t particularly like having to use a contact form for my WP Italian blog, so I’m trying to use an old-skool trick and insert a little text image (GIF) in my header with my blog’s address, to fool harvesters.

I added a mailto link to my text image, using the the WP function to disguise email adresses from spammers, like this (in my header.php file):

<a href="mailto:<?php echo antispambot(get_the_author_email());??>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_directory');??>/images/mailto.gif" alt="..." /></a>

Unfortunately the link opens a new message window in my e-mail application as it should, but no address is displayed.

I checked, and the address is correctly listed in my admin profile.
What am I doing wrong? ??
Any help appreciated.