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Tattoos have become less of a taboo and far more mainstream in the past decade. Two reality shows are focused on tattoo artists, many magazines are published specifically about the craft and tons of products have hit the market that either sport tattoos or are tattoo-inspired, be them dishes, furniture or clothes. To see many available products with tattoos, real or otherwise, click here.
Belgian artist Wim Delvoye launched an Art Farm Pigs Growth Fund whereby people can invest in his swine farm outside Beijing in China. This farm, established in 2005, has nine boars and sows which are tattooed with a variety of designs created by Delvoye and three other tattooists in residence. “The pigs art fund will be an official Chinese company which I hope to launch in the next few weeks”, he says. “The new bonds and pig farm shares scheme make the mechanisms of the art market so transparent”, he added.
“This initiative is in its early stages”, said Mr Delvoye’s assistant Gianni Degryse. “We may set up a similar bond scheme for the pig farm. People may even be able to purchase one of the animals”.
A vegetarian who tattoos live pigs, in the name of art. Wim claims it's ‘Because they grow fast and they are so much better to tattoo than fish.’
Above: Louise, a stuffed pig (yes, sorry folks, she's no longer with us) sporting her Louis Vuitton Tatts.
Below are live pigs with Wim's artwork permanently inked on their backs. Project and photos taken at artfarm china
Art Farm
Yi Shu Nong Chang
Xin Zhuang Zi
Yang Zhen, Shun Yi District
Beijing, China
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF WIM DELVOYE
Jonathan West of Vice Magazine asked Wim a few questions:
Vice: Why did you start tattooing pigs?
Wim: I started tattooing pig hides, which I’d get from the slaughterhouses, in 1994. It was only in 1997 that I started to work on live sedated pigs. I tattoo pigs because they grow fast and they are so much better to tattoo than fish. I tattoo them when they are young and I like the way the artwork stretches and distorts over time. Essentially, we invest in small tattoos and we harvest large paintings.
Have you ever tattooed a person?
Yes, of course. I have tattooed art critics, art dealers and art collectors, and lots of butts. I come across my needlework everywhere I go. Some designs I try for the first time on people and, if they work, I will surely re-create the tattoo on a pig.
To the close observer your work is laden with contradictions. For example, aren’t you a vegetarian?
Yes, I am a vegetarian. I am also very, very clean. I wash my hands like 100 times a day.
See a more recent post about his tattooed stuffed pigs and tattooed pigskins for sale here.
Wim Delvoye has done several interesting art projects. Tattooed Swine is just one of them.
Visit the artists site here.
To see more of his work, visit the Sperone Westwater Gallery by clicking here.
35 comments:
This is disgusting and cruel to the animals. Simply unacceptable.
I do hope you are a vegetarian, mate!
Otherwise it's full of hypochrites like you....
G
This work is beautiful and very tongue in cheek. I love it and think there is nothing wrong with it at all. I am an artist and animal rights activist and there is nothing cruel about Wim's method and practice.
Kat
This is absolute cruelty... Kat how could you say it is not cruel?? Sedation alone stresses any animal to the max let alone to flippin tattoo the poor beast... You should be ashamed of yourself... sick bastards.
This is absolutely cruel. What is wrong with people these days. Kat you
my dear are simply an effing idiot. And you call yourself an animal rights activist?
oh my god....i love tattoos, but im a vegetarian and hate animal cruelty...and this just makes me feel sick. Absolutely disgusting is what this is.
Lighten up folks! I am also a vegetarian and an animal rights activist and find this to absolutely hilarious! These pigs are getting the royal treatment. Drugs, tattoos, fame, aire libre and a life of leisure...sounds like rock and roll to me. Life could be a helluva lot worse, check it.
I am still trying to figure out exactly how I feel about this. I am an animal lover and a vegetarian and initially I admit I was taken back and rather disgusted by the idea.
Another poster stated: “These pigs are getting the royal treatment. Drugs, tattoos, fame, aire libre and a life of leisure.. Sounds like rock n roll to me”
I have to say that my opinion is leaning in that direction. These pigs look pretty content compared to those that I have seen crammed in cages or in line at the slaughter house. Even “Post” death they are being admired as art versus just having their bones swept up off the floor after an all you can eat night at Chile’s.
I am a vegetarian and love all animals. I wish this world was a better place for most of them... I have tattoos and they hurt, but I would choose them over a life in a factory farm, however, it is not clear if the tattooed pigs are getting the alternative...If the ink saves them from a hideous fate then I'm ok with it, but if it just adds insult to injury then I find it cruel, useless, and an unscrupulous way to get famous...
this artwork is original and interesting, I am a vegetarian (seeing as everybody is making a point of saying so) and I think it is far less cruel than the way most of the other animals kept by humans are treated. if you are going to disapprove of something and call it sick there are far worthier causes, these pigs lead full and, as far as we can tell, pleasant lives.
I think this is very interesting but think it's kinda sick on the pigs. It's sorta cruel.
Maybe Wim washes his hands"like, a hundred times a day" because he feels guilty. He's a rip-off of the American artist Andy Feehan, who tattooed pigs twenty years before.
Ehh, I love bacon and tattoos, great combo.
This is disgusting. Those animals have rights and they are denied when they are held down and tattooed. It may not seem like a big deal, but could you get away with the same on humans?! You'd be thrown in jail! If people didn't see fit to abuse and murder animals for food and other petty reasons, then stupid things like this wouldn't happen either. Go vegan and stand against this bull shit.
At what point did he think this is NOT animal abuse. Maybe if he has another child, I'll take it from him and scar the child for life. Fair's fair eh. Totally disgusting. Total moron. Hope he ends up getting fed to the poor animals he's harmed.
You should be shameful of yourself. Put art where it belong. This is cruel, exploiting animal isn't humane!!! Animal has life and feeling, they are not your toys!!! Try this on your own child and see how it feels.
ANIMAL CRUELTY ISN'T ART!!! You are disgusting. Please stop animal exploitation!!!
Dude, you seriously suck. I assume you are a vegetarian for your own reasons, which are not likely to have anything to do with animal rights. I love tats, have a few myself, but make no mistake - - your 'artwork' is is absolutely animal cruelty, and I hope you're charged with it. It is not art, it is disgusting and wrong.
Leave the pigs alone. They never asked you to mutilate their bodies. How would you like it if someone came poking you all over with needles, without your permission??
i love tattoos, but not when it's done without permission! this is definitely ANIMAL CRUELTY! please consider other beings besides yourself when creating art - this is not artwork.
I am vegan and I have pigs that I rescued. Obviously, he ends up 'harvesting' the pigs or shall we say--slaughtering them. Not art--just cruelty and exploitation.
If you are taking the time to tattoo the pigs, why are they sitting within concrete walls? Perhaps tattooing them will keep them alive and not slaughtered but I am not sure what your point is here.
Is this only for your pleasure? Or is there something you can do to make the lives of these pigs better by doing this?
If it is only for you, that is inhumane. If you can use it to save these pigs lives and give them a place to live in good conditions, you are actually using your art to help lives. Which is it?
I really don't know how to feel about this but I had a good look round the artists site (it's a hideous site to navigate btw)
Did anyone check out the photos?
http://www.wimdelvoye.be/artfarm.php#
When I first learnt of this I was outraged and I still am. Any form of animal abuse is abominable.
I think compared to the life these pigs would otherwise have this is the lesser of the two evils, but that doesn't make it right in my opinion.
Of course in an ideal world all animals would be free to roam in their natural habitats but that's another discussion for another day.....
I eat meat. I believe animal rights groups have a serious lack of perspective given all the challenges the poor and underprivileged humans face in this world. But this gratuitous, cruel and absolutely needless disfigurement of animals is revolting. It is a cynical gambit for attention and fame. We should all just ignore this guy and his "art".
Wow, I don't have a problem with the tattooing of the pigs. However, the use of their skins means we are now thinking of another living thing as even less than food. It's now just a canvas. That's a bit morbid for my taste. I hope the pigs are truly well cared for. But, I have to think you may someday look back on this and have trouble forgiving yourself.
Maybe if you just let the pigs live out a long life, and just use the photos and a petting zoo type of setup... But, selling skins? Morbid.
It is amusing/serious art looking at issues of capitalist attitudes of ownership etc among many other current ideas. What better way to get this message across than to tattoo a pig.
He is famous for a whole array of work in the art world. Famous in the e-animal rights world for his pigs.
I suppose being dogmatic is easy - it means you don't need to think.
Andy Feehan
Tattoed Pigs and Hairless Dogs
1976-1984
http://www.centripedus.com/afa/pigtitle.html
It's hysterical how so many people have the courage to say that this is animal cruelty as an anonymous lurker on someone else's blog, but live on nothing but their principles and fail to act on them in their own community.
And to the person calling tattoos mutilation compared the butchering that happens to most is a retarded statement, just because you don't approve doesn't mean you have to label it with a derogatory term.
Consider the other types of "mutilation" that people inflict upon animals, which are socially acceptable; docking the tails of dogs, cutting the ears of dogs, nailing shoes onto horses, cutting the horns off of cows. I'm sure there are others that I can't think of at the moment, but some of these things probably hurt more than tattoos under sedation, and some are done for purely aesthetic reasons.
I'm not so sure how I feel about this, but at the very least, there aren't any obvious long term ill effects on the pig, and if you weigh its options, it is probably better off tattooed and happy than on somebody's plate.
I wonder how the tattoos effect the pig's psyche, if at all.
but they dont want it. who are you to do what you want in the name of art? they are living animals that feel pain. this is just really sad.
animals aren't self aware,
these pigs have no idea they
were sedated or tattooed,
nor do they care. I have a lot
of tattoos, and a lot of pets so
believe me I sympathize, but
c'mon people, lighten the fuck up.
This is absolutely awesome. Kat & anon, as an artist & animal lover I agree with you both.
I especially love the humor... louis vitton as a tattoo, on a pig. Genius.
www.katiepoterala.blogspot.com
I had many thoughts about this thing. But at the end of every possible reason, putting in everyone's shoes here commenting, there's always one way out: the thing is WRONG.
Pigs self-aware or not, this man is doing a violence on these creature.
Someone says better a tattoo than a slaughtering, this is a silly statement. I say better live them in peace.
I don't see the big deal. Tons of animals get tattood all the time for identification purposes which is socially acceptable. People dock the tails and ears of dogs and it's socially acceptable. People eat meat and it's socially acceptable. Who gives a fuck? Pigs are stupid creatures, they really aren't anything special and at least he sedates them. When it comes down to it they're just pigs.
I might as well also throw it out there that I'm a strict vegan as everyone seems to find one's dietary habbits a relevant factor in these types of discussions.
dinosaurs ruled the earth for 165 million years, and you guys are worried for tattoo on a pig?
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