This isn’t the first time that 43-year-old Belgian artist Wim Delvoye has been in the news. Hell, this isn’t the first time that Wim Delvoye has been featured on this blog.
The controversial artist, who is known for art projects that have involved such things as a video of him popping his zits (I’m not kidding), to a “feces machine” (also not kidding), has been tattooing live pigs since the 1990s. He doesn’t seem to be slowing down now, either, despite complaints from animal rights activists and a ban from last year’s Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair.
Instead, Delvoye works at tattooing his pigs on a farm that he purchased (most likely with his zit popping, poo-machine and pig tattooing money) in Beijing, China, where tattooing pigs isn’t a big deal at all.
The tattoos are done after the pigs have been drugged, so that they remain unconscious throughout the procedure. According to Delvoye:
“They don’t feel it, they don’t even know they have been tattooed afterwards. The pigs enjoy better living conditions than millions of poor Chinese.”
Hmmm…well, my inevitable question to Delvoye would of course be, how the hell does he know whether or not the pigs feel it or if they are aware of having been tattooed once they awaken? What is he, totally and completely in tune with the animal world? I don’t think he is, because if he were he’d probably hear the pigs saying “Please don’t tattoo me and then sell me so that people can hang my skin in their home.”
Anyway, he’s recently tattooed 12 more pigs and if you’re interested in seeing some of the photos, you may do so here.