Sea Shepherd Puts Tattoos Of Extinct Animals On Bodies For Lifelong Awareness

Some animals are, unfortunately, lost in the past. Once their species dies out, it’s easy to forget that they even existed.

Marine conservation nonprofit Sea Shepherd is preserving the memory of extinct ocean creatures through an unexpected canvas: human skin. It has teamed up with creative boutique FRED & FARID New York and renowned Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Stephen Carballo to create body art of animals that have disappeared as a result of irresponsible human activity, allowing them to forever live in our consciousness.

The marine animals may be gone from the planet, but they’ll now float about on these walking mediums as beacons for action, potentially saving other endangered species from going extinct. Tattoos happen to be easy conversation starters, so the charity thought, why not set the ball rolling with them on World Animal Day on October 4?

Sea Shepherd’s new Extinct Ink campaign pays homage to creatures like the Mexican Dace, a ray-finned fish that once lived in Mexico but died out in 1983 due to a rise in agricultural activities and water resource demands. It also remembers the Baiji, or Yangtze River Dolphin, a white-finned dolphin from Eastern China that was hunted down and subjected to pollution until its demise in 2002.

There once also lived the long-legged Javan Lapwing bird of Java, Indonesia, which was left to die after its habitat was wiped out in 1940. And the Silver Trout, a fish species native to the Northeastern United States, disappeared in 1939 as a result of overfishing and being chased out by human-introduced fish.

Click to view enlarged version

Click to view enlarged version. Image via Sea Shepherd

The hope is that these unfamiliar marine creatures will spark strangers’ curiosity and get them talking.

“I think it’s a very good conversation starter, especially because they are not the typical animals that you will see as tattoos,” shares the tattoo artist.

According to Sea Shepherd, everyone meets an average of 10,000 people in their lifetime. Since body art is permanent, that means there are “10,000 opportunities” to educate others about protecting the ocean, the nonprofit tells DesignTAXI.

Owners of the art will essentially be lifelong ambassadors of ocean animal conservation. “What’s so powerful about these tattoos is they’re not just spreading our mission for a day, or a week, or a month… These tattoos will last a lifetime,” explains Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson. He adds that the collection of body art is “a reminder to all of us about what can happen if we don’t protect marine life.”

Lex Ryan, who was among the first to be inked with one of the poignant designs, says: “I like the idea of having something—if someone asks me the question about it—I can kind of give them some knowledge about what we have done basically to make these animals go extinct.” Ryan had the Javan Iapwing etched into the skin of her biceps.

Sea Shepherd says a number of other tattoo studios are joining in on the inking initiative to revive long-lost species in our conscience.

[via Sea Shepherd]