Inked for animals? Talking tattoos and veganism with Simon Kleinert
Moby’s ‘Vegan for life’ neck tattoo, followed up with the words 'animal rights’ on his forearms. | Via Instagram: @moby
When Simon Kleinert was a teenager, he went out into the countryside with a friend to test their wilderness survival skills, inspired by survival shows they’d seen online and on TV. The adventure spelt the end for one slow worm and one lizard, whom Kleinert and his friend caught and killed for their dinner.
“The look in the animals’ eyes got burned into my brain,” says Kleinert, a PhD student in animal studies. “They were probably the reason why I started to think about veganism and animal ethics.” Later, he got a tattoo of a slow worm being held by a hand on his forearm. “The tattoo is to pay tribute to what we did and to remind me of it.”
He also has more overtly vegan and animal rights themed tattoos, including “a torch with a V in it that stems from a song about animal liberation,” the logo of his local animal rights group, and “a bolt cutter that is cutting open a fence and that has “Until every cage is empty” around it.”
Kleinert’s slow worm arm tattoo. | Photo: Simon Kleinert
Vegan and animal rights tattoos are hugely popular - there is an extensive Tumblr page dedicated to showcasing them. Some are simply direct statements; take for example Moby’s ‘Vegan For Life’ neck tattoo, which he followed up with the words ‘Animal Rights’ on his forearms. But many are beautiful portraits of animals like chickens and cows captioned with messages of compassion such as ‘Here with us, not for us’ and ‘Friends not food.’ Among the more whimsical and witty designs is a happy block of tofu and a picture of a cow with the words ‘Hail Seitan’.
Like Kleinert, some vegans like to get a ‘V’ tattoo to easily indicate their beliefs. Jennifer Broome, a personal trainer from Leeds, got her ‘V’ tattoo to help her explain her veganism when she gets older. “I had this awful thought at how challenging it might become to explain my lifestyle choice when older and maybe in a care home,” she says. “So I can now just point to this little tattoo on my wrist and make my point clear. This may sound dramatic but it gives me peace.” She also finds it a useful way to communicate her commitment to not eating animals or animal products while on dates. “As some men in the past have tried challenging me on my views, the tattoo works a treat at diminishing this! It also serves as a daily reminder to myself of how much confidence I have achieved with eating in the way I want to eat despite all its stigma.”
While more people than ever are dabbling in plant-based eating, many vegans insist that what they eat is only one part of being a vegan. It’s no wonder then that so many are comfortable with getting symbols of their beliefs permanently marked onto their bodies. But getting a vegan tattoo is no guarantee that a person won’t return to consuming animal products in one form or another. Once famously vegan, Miley Cyrus had The Vegan Society symbol and the words ‘BE KIND’ tattooed on her arms in 2017, only to announce last year that she would be eating fish again for health reasons. Whether or not that means she should cover up or laser off her vegan tattoos is something on which many people will likely have opinions.
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It’s not just those getting inked who are using tattoos to share their belief in animal liberation. There are a number of well-known vegan tattoo artists, whose studios use all-vegan products, such as Melbourne artist Avalon Todaro, who is sought-after for her animal and vegan designs and who recently told the Guardian that her distinctive style frequently gets ripped off by others. The artists at vegan Gristle Studio in New York use tattooing as a way to raise awareness and money for animal causes, such as holding fundraising events for animal rescue centres and holding pet adoptions. “Tattoos are a great way to promote cruelty-free living and bring awareness to animal equality issues,” studio owner Dina DiCenso recently said in an interview.
So what does being a vegan tattoo artist entail? A growing number of studios use vegan inks these days, but the stencil paper, soaps, ointments, and razors used by artists can all contain animal products. It can therefore be harder to come by a fully vegan studio, but the website vegantattoostudios.com aims to be a comprehensive database of vegan studios around the world.
The exploitation of animals is not the only message that people try to convey about our nonhuman friends through tattoos. Retired vet technician Debi Altfillisch McGregor from California made the news in June for her collection of endangered species tattoos. So far her ink includes an Asiatic Bear, an elephant, a toucan, a white tiger, and the extinct Javan rhino. “I want people asking questions and being more proactive in saving any species that are in trouble or are endangered,” she told the Metro. “People stop me in stores to comment on how beautiful they are, how colourful they are, or to comment on how realistic they look. Conversation started.”
Hedgehog ecologist and author Hugh Warwick wrote a whole book, The Beauty in the Beast, documenting his quest to be persuaded enough of the charms of another British species that he would get one tattooed on his body. He already had a hedgehog tattoo from taking part in ExtInked, a project by artist Jai Redman, who “had drawn pictures of 100 species from the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan and then set about trying to find 100 volunteers willing to become their ambassadors, displaying their commitment to the animals, plants and fungi with a permanent tattoo.”
After travelling the country meeting people obsessed with different species, the creature that stole Warwick’s heart was the toad. Having one animal you are so besotted by you would be willing to get it inked onto your skin, is what he describes as a “gatekeeper species” that can help you “to develop a relationship with nature” which can let you see the “bigger picture” of our connection to the world’s many and varied forms of life.
In Amsterdam, the Sea Shepherd Tattoo studio was set up in 2018 by Sea Shepherd Global’s Artistic Director and tattoo artist Geert Vons, with all profits going towards the marine conservation work of Sea Shepherd. The studio mainly does Sea Shepherd and ocean-themed designs, especially marine animals like whales and sea turtles, to promote awareness of marine wildlife and their habitat.
Now that both tattoos, veganism, and concern for wildlife struggling to survive in a human-shaped world have all become more mainstream than ever, it seems inevitable and perhaps right that they should overlap more and more. For many people, a commitment to animal liberation or saving nature is as enduring as tattoo ink.
Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.
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