And now, by popular demand, a tour of my vegan tattoos. Or at least the ones in locations
I can show you on YouTube. Get ready to be up close and personal.
I just got out of the shower, so I’m clean and ready for the tour. I figured I’d show you guys each tattoo
and show you a little bit about the significance. And also show you the scar from the cattle
brand that I had done for a performance art piece. Let’s get started. I thought I’d
start with the one you see the most: my neck tattoo. On my right side I have a pig and
on my left side I have a cow, and they both have ear tags, just like the animals who are
in our food industry, who are reduced to numbers instead of getting to have their own identities.
The back of the neck piece sums it all up: fear is fear, blood is blood, suffering is
suffering. It doesn’t matter what your race is, your gender, or your species, we all hurt,
we all fear, and we all suffer. Now we’ll move onto my spine piece. This was my first
big tattoo I ever got. It depicts the seven chakras. In Hindu and tantric/yogic traditions
and other belief systems, chakras are energy points or knots in the subtle body. Now as
far as why I have them on my back, I enjoy doing yoga and I’ve lived and studied in
India, and I just find the chakra system pretty fascinating. My first tattoo ever is actually
under this tattoo. It was my father’s initials that I got in remembrance of him when I was
seventeen. Which is funny, because my Dad hated tattoos. And at that point I didn’t
think I would ever get a tattoo, let alone any more. I was wrong. Moving on to my chest
piece, which was very unpleasant. I eat a lot of fruit and I ride my bike a lot. So
my bikes are fruit-powered. I’ve got my cantaloupe and I’ve got some other fruits
over here, and my banana. And underneath it says “nur Tarnung,” which, in German,
means “just a disguise” or “just camouflage.” And you can see that the big nasty heart has
a cute little heart mask on it. My side tattoo is an image of Noodle, the guitarist from
the Gorillaz. If you’re unfamiliar with their music, I suggest you check them out.
Anyways, the significance of this tattoo is hard to explain in a short clip, but basically,
in one of the music videos, Noodle gets shot down on this island by enemy helicopters and
is presumed dead for a very long time. But it turns out she survived and she comes back
for vengeance. So here she is, 100 times life-size and standing on the island holding the very
helicopter that shot her down. For me, this tattoo is all about overcoming challenges
in life and being made stronger because of them. On to the sleeve. There’s a lot going
on here. I’m not going to be able to explain everything in detail, but basically, all of
these are embodiments of lyrics of the band They Might Be Giants. Every image on here
is based on one of their lyrics. And yes, there’s a deeper significance for me beyond
that, but I only have five minutes and I have a lot of tattoos. I will say that the text
on my forearm actually came before the entire sleeve. And it says “heute werde ich mein
eigener Retter sein,” which means, in German, today I will be my own rescuer. Now you can
probably see that I have a lot of scars on my arm. I started cutting myself when I was
seven years old and I got this tattoo not to cover up my self harm scars, but to remind
myself that I have the strength and ability to overcome the challenges that I face in
life. Now this tattoo is still in the works and it’s bothering me that it’s not finished.
It’s going to be a bunch of farm animals that are running for freedom. And even though it’s
not done, I can say that my cock reaches my ankle. For this next tattoo story, I need
to introduce you to my artist, Sean Wilcox. Just look at this magnificent bearded specimen
of a man. I first met Sean when accompanying a friend to get a tattoo finished, and I asked
him if he ever had people come in and ask what they should get. So for six and a half
years, Sean had been telling them “get a seahorse playing a banjo!” Because, of course,
no one is going to get that and hopefully it would make them realize that they should
probably think a minute or two about something that’s going to be on their body for the
rest of their lives. Well this story and imagery amused me quite a bit. So… And thus began
a wonderful, tattoo-based friendship. Now on my other foot is a visual embodiment of
my amygdala. The amygdala is a part of the brain in the limbic system that’s linked
to emotions and aggression. Sometimes called our “reptilian brain” or the fight-or-flight
center. So much of our behavior as humans is ruled by this emotional center. And really
isn’t it just a scared little bunny in a lizard suit? I think so. And for the tiny
tattoos, I have the word “intuition” behind my right ear and the number 269 in my left
ear. And then two small white ink tattoos that I could not get to show up on camera
for the life of me. The number 269 has to do with a movement started by vegan activist
Sasha Boojor in Israel. He and two other activists were branded with a cattle iron in a public
square in Tel Aviv with the number of a calf that they had encountered in a factory farm.
This was to give a face to the billions of faceless animals that are slaughtered every
year. In concert with the 269 movement, I performed the first North American branding
myself in Iowa, where I was dragged across rocks, had my head shaved, and was branded
with a cattle iron heated to over 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Now the day that this happened
it was freezing rain in Iowa, so part of the brand didn’t get all the way to 500 degrees.
Here’s what the brand looks like today, and you’ll see these raised portions. That’s
where the brand didn’t quite get hot enough, and so my skin ripped off with it. This is
what it looked like the day of, and then the healing process was kind of long and gross,
so I’m not showing most of those pictures. Now if you want to watch the full length of
my video or Sasha’s, there’s links to them in the description below. I hope you
enjoyed the tour of my body art. If you guys like the video, give it a thumbs up. If you
have ideas for other videos you’d like to see, you’re always welcome to leave them
in the comments or contact me through BiteSizeVegan.com. Now I’m going to go put my clothes on. I’ll
see you guys soon.