Free Geometric Tattoos Replace The Need For Organ Donor Cards In Germany
By Nicole Rodrigues, 31 Mar 2023
Suppose you’re keen on being an organ donor after you pass. In that case, you will most likely be handed a certificate—usually in the form of a card—which you will have to carry with you so that medical staff will know what to do with your body should anything happen.
Unfortunately, in Germany alone, around 10,000 people await a transplant, and patients are in dire need. And as the country continues to debate on whether or not to implement an “opt-out” legislation—this is where everyone is opted-in at birth and will automatically be a donor unless stated otherwise—much of the population has not yet been certified.
A non-profit organ donation awareness organization Junge Helden and global advertising agency network McCann are working together to ink out an all-new way for people to be certified as tattoos.
#OPTINK is a simple geometric shape of the design that might look like a cool minimalistic illustration from afar, but up close, it’s the letters ‘O’ and ‘D’ as half circles interlocked—a symbolic interpretation of how important a piece of you could be to someone you might never meet. As the two halves are to make a whole, you and this stranger you could help will forever be a part of each other too.
The tattoo was created by Berlin-based artist Gara, who was tasked with devising a design easily adaptable by different parlors around the country.
Junge Helden has posted the template on its website for anyone (in Germany) to take it to a parlor and get the piece done for free. According to LBB Online, over 100 tattoos have so far been done since the start of the campaign, which marks the potential to save 70 lives.
[via LBB Online and Junge Helden, cover image via Junge Helden]