ExtInked: Tattoos to save the world

How far would you go to help save an endangered animal? How about allowing someone to jab ink into your skin with tiny needles, 150 times a second?

That's exactly what hundreds of volunteers signed up for last weekend at ExtInked, where people came from far and wide to have one of Britain's most endangered species permanently tattooed on their body, making them a life long ambassador for that species.

ExtInked is the brainchild of the Ultimate Holding Company, a Manchester-based arts collective. Each volunteer filled out an application explaining why they deserved to be the canvas for their chosen flora or fauna. Of the hundreds that turned up, 100 were chosen and, over the course of the weekend, 100 original tattoos were carefully inked onto shoulders, calves, backs and hip bones by artists from the local studio Ink vs Steel.

I watched a biology teacher covered in tattoos find enough space on her leg to fit a bee hawk moth, a nervous tattoo virgin get a striped dolphin on his shoulder and a woman who had come up from Cambridge get an oyster - also her first tattoo - on her hip.

Joe Richardson, founding member of the collective, is confident that the social experiment will rouse people to action. He was surprised to see how personal the tattoos were to the volunteers, who touchingly described their relationship to their chosen species in their applications.

One woman, who worked as a conservationist and wanted a tattoo of the crested newt, burst into tears when she got to the desk only to find they had run out of applications, he says.
The demand for certain species was so high that many volunteers didn't get their first choice - but most were still keen to take part. "The idea of the permanent loss of an organism that has taken millennia to evolve is so important to many people that they still thought it was worth doing," Richardson says.

As one woman pointed out, a tattoo is a great talking point - people always ask what they are and whether there's a story behind them.

"The stars on my arm mean nothing but this one really does," she says, showing me the illustration of the tall thrift plant on her arm, now wrapped in clingfilm. "I'm going to do some research so I can tell people about the plight of my plant when they ask."


ExtInked's Facebook page.

That's a nice idea. I would get one.

^ Wonder if this will catch on in and around other places.


Oyster ... that's got to be a conversation starter.
I'd especially like to see that one.

It's a great concept.