PSA: Your "Vegan" Tattoo Is Probably Made Of Animal Bones

Is this anonymous woman now the title-holder of the world's most regrettable tattoo? It may look simple enough, with the word "VEGAN" inked discreetly inside of her mouth. However, it turns out that black tattoo ink is more often than not made with burned animal bones. According to Boing Boing, this was pointed out to her on her Facebook page after she proudly posted the photo of her inked-up inner lip. The site writes that the "string of congratulations comes to an abrupt end when one friend points out that black tattoo ink is made from burnt animal bones, and thus the VEGAN in question will forever have an animal product in her mouth."

Over at Reddit (in a thread about the tattoo titled, "What an awful return to omnivorism"), one person points out there is such a thing as a vegan black ink, but more likely than not this girl got the animal bone version, which is more common. (Note to NYC-based vegans and vegetarians, you can get an animal-free tattoo at Fun City on St. Marks.)

As for this girl, at least her tattoo was subtle... sometimes they aren't.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Food on May 9, 2011 11:57 AM

Comments [rss]

Jesse Bourke

i am a vegan and have tattoo's, any vegan would inquire about vegan ink before getting tattoo's. why would we just get tattoo's without making sure first?

Judith

The author of this article (and most of the commentors, too) is ignorant of veganism and tattoos.

German Verzegnassi

at this time many ink companies are making vegan-friendly inks, but is important to let your artist know that you are vegan and you would like vegan safe inks on you, also the liquid soap and petroleum jelly used are not vegan safe so if that is a concern for you, its good to try to find a tattoo artist who only works with vegan-safe products. check this website if you are from the east cost: www.vegantattooartist.com

Sally Andersen

This is ridiculous. Vegan ink is so common and easy to find. All of my 3 tattoo studios use ink that's vegan, some by choice, some by chance. Bone char black *used* to be the norm but synthetic blacks are cheaper.

wchanley

http://www.workhorseirons.com/...

randomtransplant

One of the things that I personally would value if I were vegan would be a good chemistry background. How can you define your life by an aversion to common ingredients and not know what the basic elements of common substances are likely to be?

Much like using hand soap in a public bathroom, though, I imagine there are alot of situations where vegans would have to be blissfully ignorant for their lifestyles to make sense.

Nunya

Well, I guess all you have to go on is your 'imagination'. Ever heard of portable hand sanitizer? Not much of an imagination you've got there.

Melisser Elliott

Haters gon' hate. Seriously, there's plenty of vegan ink options, including some of the most used brands out there like Eternal. I'm covered in "vegan tattoos".

Fofofofofo

Inner lip tattoos are just dumb in the first place.

Mathew Thomas

oh hahahahahahaha.....big dummy

veganinbrighton

I can assure you that I, and most vegans I know, will have done their research into animal inks before getting tattooed.

Guest

Oh. The Irony and the stupidity.

Spirit of 76

Take heart, Miss. Nothing that a little painful and expensive surgery couldn't fix. Besides, she's still a vegan. The ink is just embedded in her. She didn't eat it. Well, not directly anyway.