A New Atheist Tattoo June 12, 2011

A New Atheist Tattoo

By Guest Contributor
June 12, 2011

Anthony Camilo designed an awesome tattoo — the “history of evolution” image walking along the Scarlet A 🙂

He got the tattoo on his arm and you can see that image here.

Feel free to share links to your own tattoos in the comments!

Previous Post
It’s Tough Being an Atheist in Mississippi
Next Post
National Atheist Awareness Day
Browse Our Archives
What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment

  • Very cool tat, but after a decade or so he’ll need to have some heavy duty touching up done on the light areas.

  • I have a good friend who was asking me about what she could get for a subtle atheist tattoo. I don’t think this is her best bet in subtlety, but it definitely looks good.

  • NotYou007

    It’s cool but I’m not into inking my body.

  • Anonymous

    I’m just cheating by linking to Carl Zimmer’s collection. (None of these are mine)

    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/tag/dna-tattoos/

  • Ravelyn

    I’m currently planning my next tattoo with my artist. It’s my first atheist one – it’ll be a celestial scene which includes a teapot. 🙂

  • Tony
  • daakujc

    Am I the only one who feels we need to ditch logos/tatoos that only have the letter A? I wonder how many people outside of Atheist blogosphere know what it stands for.

    Some people do think it is subtle. Meh!

  • Anonymous

    Am I the only one who feels we need to ditch logos/tatoos that only have the letter A?

    Disagree. I think it’s firm, eye-catching, and confident.

  • Rike D.

    I’m afraid my catholic upbringing caught up with me in that I saw the second guy from the front carrying a cross for just a moment! I think I’d try to change the angle a bit on that one.

  • I like the idea, but it kinda looks like a bunch of headless people walking off a cliff.

  • AteoAbsurdo

    I love the A.

    It’s a great allusion to the Scarlet Letter.

  • Nick

    I think the concept is good, but the actually design is ugly, and needs major work. Definitely would not get that tattooed onto my body.

  • @nick

    it’s not nice to criticize people’s tatoos
    do you imagine how you would feel if you made a dumb mistake and people keep pointing it out?

  • dune

    It would look better without a shadow. There are already too many messy lines to double them.

  • Claudia

    I like it, though I’m not sure we should continue to push the whole monkey—>human drawing. It makes good intuitivie sense and I understand it’s popularity, but I’ve also found that it leads people to the notion that evolution has a definite “direction” and that somehow humans are an endpoint of an evolutionary path that makes us “more evolved” than any other animal.

    Yes I know I’m probably reading way too much into it, but it bothers the über-nerd in me.

  • Here’s mine

    I’ve also got the Darwin Tree on my left arm.

  • Darwin’s Dagger

    What does the evolution of headless stick figures have to do with atheism?

  • Steve

    The second to one right one is carrying a cross. The rightmost one doesn’t and seems to be the “most evolved”

  • 1. I think it’s fine to criticize tattoos people get. If people get tattoos they later regret and think are tacky, criticism actually helps prevent people from getting these on the whole. Also, people should express their opinions about all forms of art — this is what helps art improve and develop in the country instead of having nothing that has merit or talent.

    2. I personally don’t like the tattoo because it heavily links atheism and evolution. I think that evolution is a tangent to non-belief and that it just fuels the religious nuts who claim we have some ideology from Darwin that we worship like a religion. I support science and I accept evolution and even actively combat creationism. However, I don’t think it’s something that should characterize the atheist identity.

  • Smidget

    @Alan
    Pardon my ignorance, but I have no idea what that means, which saddens me as I find it awesome. Since I can’t exactly type that into Google, could you please enlighten me to the meaning in that particular piece?

  • Smidget

    @Alan
    Nevermind, dude. My husband is clearly better at reading between the lines than I am.

    Nice concept.

  • Mac

    Clever and interesting as a website logo. Terrible design for a tattoo. Not every kind of art translates to tattooing. This is one type that doesn’t translate. Not to mention on his blog he says he simplified the figures to save himself pain. If you can’t take the pain of the actual tattoo you want (especially on such a sissy spot as your forearm) you just shouldn’t get tattooed.

    Mine: http://twitpic.com/34huvy:

  • Anthony Camilo

    I am amused by the criticism and wholly appreciate the kudos. I
    responded to someone on my blog post about the source material for the
    walkers. Here’s the gist of it:

    The ascent of man is a work of art that overly simplifies the darwinian
    tree and is probably partially to blame for the “we come from monkeys”
    argument. My design is a further simplification of the original art
    because the stick figures kinda remind me of a deconstructed Darwin’s
    tree. I actually traced the joints of each figure in that drawing. The reason
    for its simplicity was pain avoidance, survival of the wimpiest. I had
    no intention of enduring the pain required to etch each figure in detail.