There ain’t no two way about it, some pigs just have tattoos. And there is more than one ways about how they got that way. The piggie you see above is one inked by a mister Andy Feehan, who had a rather interesting obsession with drawing the little buggers before he found the perfect combination, the solution to his unstoppable tick tack, that being the application of ink to the pig. And thus it was done. Below you’re going to find quite a few pigs tattooed by artist Wim Delvoye, who has made it a large part of his art career to do just this sort of thing, along with a bunch of unknowns as well.

There is a question of ethics, but since I’m almost certain Dolvoye and Feehan knocked the pigs out while they were cutting ink into their skin, I think it’s just a lovely activity.

Now the spraypainting of cows, on the other hand, that’s pretty gross.

As I’m sure you’re aware, the skin texture and softness and basically everything else is very similar to that of a human being. Thus, tattoos on a pig act very similar to the tattoos a person gets. Of course, as the pig is generally a subject of some joking existence, the tattoos on a pig are generally made in parody, as you’re about to see.

Below you will notice pigs that are alive, pigs that are stuffed and posed, pig skins that have been taken off of the pigs after they’ve kicked the bucket, and pig skins in frames. Any pig skin OFF of the pig is from Wim Delvoye, he is the only person who inks the live pig, skins them when they are dead, and displays the skin in a frame or naked. Unless you count the movie GOZU, in which they do the same thing, only with humans instead. Blech.

ALSO, as Jane Rainwater kindly reminded me, tattoo artists that generally work on human beings also sometimes practice on the skin of a pig. This is a reason why I’m baffled that I was only able to round up the small amount of images that I have here.

Personally, I am ashamed at my inability to find a photo of a pig with the Motorhead dog inked on its back. I assume it isn’t made yet now that I’ve searched, so this post is also a call out to all you artists to get that sow and sow that sow a nice one, metal style.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies unnatural nature category.