Tattooing Yourself in the Name of Humanism February 24, 2009

Tattooing Yourself in the Name of Humanism

By Guest Contributor
February 24, 2009

Here’s a cool fundraising idea:

Hanne Stinson, the head of the British Humanist Association, promised to tattoo the “Happy Humanist” logo on her arm if the fundraising goal of £20,000 was met — the more money past that amount that was raised, the larger the tattoo would be.

Ultimately, £25,000 was raised and the (slightly larger) logo is now permanently displayed on Stinson’s arm:

tattoo

Very nice. And very positive. Much better than, say, a burning cross or something else anti-religious.

…

I think everyone who reads this site should get communal tattoos.

What should be our logo?

(Thanks to Claire for the link!)

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What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment
  • Hank Bones

    i’m not sure how i feel about an atheist logo. i’ve always hated the happy human logo, and i’m not particularly fond of dawkin’s scarlet letter.

    how bout we all just get dinosaur tattoos?

  • Shawn

    I vote for the sign instructing you to feed your children to crocodiles.

  • llewelly

    Much better than, say, a burning cross or something else anti-religious.

    A burning cross is a symbol of the KKK – a christian organization.

  • I think everyone who reads this site should get communal tattoos.

    And then drink the Communal Kool Aid?

  • I have an IPU tattoo in exactly the same place.

    Where’s MY $25,000???? 😉

  • If people pay off my student loans, I pledge to get a large image of Hemant tattooed on my back.

  • Dave

    I got a stylization of the cross of confusion on my shoulder.

    http://tinyurl.com/c4xrqn

    I really liked it, but didn’t like how it looked, but a band had a really cool version of it which I used…(The band being decent doesn’t hurt either) Band is Devildriver.

    http://tinyurl.com/c7tgdf

  • Bfuentes

    Sorry, I don’t do tattoos. Body adornment seems to be a waste of money. In 20 years they all just look like a green blob. I’d rather buy art and stick it on my wall.

  • I’m getting a Phil Plait on my left arm, a PZ Myers on my right, and a life-size Hemant on my back. These are all lies.

  • epe

    I’ve got an IPU tattoo in the same spot on my *other* arm. That’s 2 votes for IPU. 🙂

  • Awesomesauce

    I too don an IPU tat in a special place. Guess what its horn is…

  • epe

    It must be tiny. Are you sure it’s not a horse? 😉

  • Mike

    I don’t know if you could consider my tattoos atheist, but here they are:

    I have one tattoo on my left forearm of the (Star Trek) Vulcan symbol IDIC, which is part of their belief in logic.

    I have another tattoo on the left side of my chest that is derived from one described in Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. He described the followers of Michael (the lead character, a man raised by Martians) as having a tattoo on the left side of their chest of a stylized sun with 9 concentric circles around it, so I used the Mesopotamian Sun God symbol and put some circles around it.

    My next one will be of the Starfleet Acadamy logo, so I know that one doesn’t count (though Rodenberry was a Humanist.)

  • DUG853

    I’ve considered getting a ‘completed’ American Athiest tat to go along with the Peace-Sign that I already have.

    Now just to decide on above, below, or at the same level-?

  • Jen

    I can’t even imagine how quickly I would come to hate any tattoo I could get. Temporary tattoos are all the flesh commitment you are getting out of me.

  • mikespeir

    I realize a tattoo would have the positive effect of covering up part of my body, but people will just have to live with the pain of seeing me the way I am.

  • JimboB

    I’ve got a humanist tattoo.

    It’s the little humanist guy superimposed on a globe. And there’s a (butchered) quote by Thomas Paine spanning around the outside of the globe: “The World Is My Country. To Do Good Is My Religion”

    The full Paine quote contains the phrase “All men are my brethren.” I left it out because (1) it could be seen as sexist, and (2) my arm simply isn’t that big.

  • RobL

    No thanks. I have never met anyone who was all that happy about their tattoo 20 years later and 20 years happens faster than you would think. Also something kind of creepy to me about tattoos related to religious affiliation. The Nazis did that for a while and it didn’t work out well for the Jews or Jehovahs Witnesses.
    Also not so sure it would be safe to go to the gym around here with a big red A tattooed on my arm. There are some awfully big scary Marines in the locker room who would probably stuff me in a locker for being an atheist. (Yes I’m a chicken.)

  • Eric

    My tattoo came from an idea I saw about an atheist symbol. I liked it because it represents not so much my atheism (which frankly has become less and less important in the years since I decided I was no longer Christian), but rather the reason I’m an atheist: because I think. Add in the fact that the gamma waves shown are filtered out using digital signal processing (one of my favorite parts of my electrical engineering career), and it seemed perfect for me. I tossed on the music notes on each end to add another layer of how I’m constantly thinking in terms of music, and love to learn new instruments, and I went from not being sure I ever wanted a tattoo, to getting this one two weeks after I came up with the design. And I LOVE it.

  • I have a few tattoos, oddly, many have religious meanings;

    Shiva and Kali; Hindu, God/Goddess,

    Sanskrit Prayer; God/Goddess,

    Buddhist ‘Wheel’…

    etc….

    http://www.coreymondello.com/Tattoos.html

  • Chris

    I have the American Atheist logo on my upper arm- underneath it is the Great Lord Anubis… statement of Atheism over theism perhaps?

  • I got an image of the earth and the moon being illuminated by the sun with the words “The only home we have ever known” (from Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” quote of course) under it.

  • Emanuel Goldstein

    Great. A Tatoo. Just like the Nazis.

  • Wendy

    This feels kind of wrong, following that last comment, but…. I too have an IPU tattoo!
    http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/freeluvfreeway/IPUover.jpg

    Anatoly Says: I got an image of the earth and the moon being illuminated by the sun with the words “The only home we have ever known” (from Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” quote of course) under it.

    That sounds beautiful!!

  • Douglas_Einer

    I finally got my American Atheists tattoo-!

    With he little ‘tiniest-of gaps’ at the bottom arc to indicate the.000000(Ad infinitum) 1% chance of there being any god/s existent in reality. 

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=493070990718372&l=88463a9c0b