Tattooed Vegan 101: You May Be Vegan, but is Your Tattoo?

The choice to live a vegan lifestyle is not always a popular one. As with any unconventional affection, it is routinely frowned upon by one faction and glorified by another. The same can be said of self expression. The act of willfully scarring one's skin often incites stereotypical assumption and even religious consequence.

A vegan is defined as a strict vegetarian; someone who eats no animal or dairy products at all. But, where the diet ends, a vegan's virtue continues, abandoning such things as the use of (or wearing of) animal byproducts.

As a vegan myself, I devote a good chunk of my time perusing ingredient labels and researching the ethical behavior of manufacturers. Although I strive to be proactive, I have come to learn some things the hard way, such is the case with my own colorful skin. The vegan police would be justified in issuing me a summons for failure of knowing the origin of some of my own ink.

Naturally, the topic may not be broached as often as "what's for dinner?", but the origins of tattoo ink should be a legitimate concern among vegans, especially when the peanut gallery is perpetually itching for a reason to devalue the principals we share.

Well, suffice to say, most vegans, at least those of us that have been sporting ink for a decade(s), are more likely than not, parading around with ink that may not exactly be kosher. We may not be able to undo the sins of yesterday, but we can move forward courtesy of the information we have at our fingertips today. With so many sporting vegan themed tattoos to proclaim their devotion , it seems perfidious to disregard the facts behind the ink.

Is my tattoo vegan?

Odds are if you have to ask, then likely not. It's not exactly a big selling point since many vegans are still unaware that there is such a thing as a vegan tattoo. Truth be told, some artists don't even know what's in the ink's contents themselves, since suppliers are not required by law to list the full ingredients. Unfortunately, unless you use a tattoo artist who is vegan, or mixes their own inks, then what goes in is often a mystery.

What is tattoo ink made of?