All my tattoos are vegan–in the sense that I checked with my tattoo artist to make sure the inks didn’t contain animal ingredients. But my latest tattoo is my real vegan tattoo because it’s an homage to three of the most abused animals on the planet: pigs, cows, and chickens.

I had this done by Suzy Todd at Two Birds Tattoo. Suzy did my bee tattoo and my skull one. She’s a great artist and when I saw in her portfolio, a wonderful, painterly tattoo that spelled “vegan” I knew she’d bring my idea to life.

Is a tattoo a form of activism? Before I got this one, I might have said no. But at least once a week I have someone admire this tattoo. Yes, I got it for me, but every time someone asks me about it I have another chance to tell someone a bit of the story behind it.

Sometimes I say, “It’s my vegan tattoo.” Other times I say, “I’m vegan and these are some of the animals I don’t eat,” or “this is milk, meat and eggs in their happy state–the way they should be.” Just a little seed that I plant.

As is often the case with people who have tattoos, I have more ideas in mind and they’ll probably have animal or vegan themes too.