[spud]

<a href="http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_739153.html" target="_blank">http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_739153.html</a><br><br><br><br>
A Belgian animal rights group has protested against the plans of a famous vegetarian artist to tattoo piglets as a piece of art.<br><br><br><br>
Wim Delvoye says he wants to tattoo 23 piglets weighing about 50kg with poems and then exhibit them during a cultural festival in Watou in the summer.<br><br><br><br>
"At the end of the summer the pigs will weigh about 300kg and the poems will have reached a huge size", Mr Delvoye said.<br><br><br><br>
The artist says he wants to protest against the attitude of considering art more and more as a financial investment.<br><br><br><br>
"The value of paintings is rising and so will do the pigs", he said.<br><br><br><br>
Because animal rights group Gaia has protested against the idea, Mr Delvoye has promised to take proper care of the animals.<br><br><br><br>
The tattoo session will be filmed and all the animals will receive sedation before being tattooed.<br><br><br><br>
"They won't feel anything", promised Mr Delvoye. "And we will use cream in the summer to prevent them getting sunburn.<br><br><br><br>
"And after the festival the animals won't go to the butcher. I'm a convinced vegetarian myself and I'm against animals suffering."<br><br><br><br>
Gaia is said to be pleased the artist and organisers of the festival have agreed to a meeting.

 

[GhostUser]

ummmmm...what? Sedation alone has the risk of death, this man is obviously uneducated.......or just plain insane.

 

[VealPrincess]

You'd better the hell believe a 50 kg pig is going to be sedated for tatooing (and guess what, it's not for the pigs sake!)<br><br><br><br>
Although I'd prefer to see the scene of this extremely ethical vegetarian trying to do it <i>without</i> sedating a 110 lb animal....

 

[spud]

Monsieur Delvoye should have a poem tattooed on his knob and leave the pigs alone IMO

 

[Seadolphin]

What is this??? Pigs are living beings, not property for humans to turn into works of art!!!! And what I really dont get is that the person doing this is a vegetarian! So, he feels its not okay to eat animals, but its somehow okay to toruture them & turn them into works of art??! I don't see the logic here...I'm just really bothered by this whole issue!!!!

 

[Thalia]

Maybe he should also tattoo babies with poems about child abuse and make them works of art. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="">

 

[GhostUser]

Very good point Thalia!<br><br><br><br>
I can't comprehend how a vegetarian could be thinking of doing that! I'm assuming he isn't vegetarian for ethical reasons. Why would anyone want to do that anyway? What a stupid, ignorant man he must be!!!

 

[mushroom]

He is inflicting animal cruelty with poems against animal cruelty.<br><br>
How ironic.

 

[kpickell]

This isn't the first time.<br><br><br><br>
He's already done an exhibit where he tattoo'd pigs with various rock & roll tattoos. See <a href="http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/fiers/fiers1-9-01.asp" target="_blank">*this article*</a> for some pictures. And it's doubtful that he'll take proper care of the "poem"-tattoed pigs since he ended up stuffing and skinning the other ones, selling some at auctions. He has a book of his pig artwork entitled "Pigs" <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325&tag=veggieboards.com-20&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fexec%2Fobidos%2Ftg%2Fdetail%2F-%2F9057790122%2Fqid%3D1043399017%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fref%3Dsr_8_1%2F002-8887873-8533634%3Fv%3Dglance%26s%3Dbooks%26n%3D507846" target="_blank">*for sale*</a>.<br><br><br><br>
He is also famous for his "marble floors" which are made from salami and ham cut into squares to look like fancy marble floors.<br><br><br><br>
His most recent project was a machine that took a piece of meat, processed it, and turned it into a <a href="http://www.cloaca.be" target="_blank">*pile of *****</a>.

 

[GhostUser]

Clearly the man is insane.....

 

[Music Girl]

Stupid.<br><br>
Poor pigs.