Hand in hand with an exciting campaign in Germany, free tattoos are being made for those who declare themselves voluntary organ donors: it is a tattoo that has been designed by the famous Berlin tattoo artist Gara with a geometric and minimalist style. The idea was to create a design that was easily recognizable, scalable and could be reproduced by other artists. Will he be able to cross borders?
Under the name #OPTINK, in Germany they have created a free tattoo that makes you one of the many organ donors. To tell the truth, the tattoo would be a last instance in the consent process: that is, the stage of externalizing such decision. The initiative is to turn the normal tattoo consent form into an organ donation consent form, making #OPTINK act as explicit proof of willingness to donate.
Why did this campaign arise? Curiously, although 84% of German citizens declare themselves willing to donate their organs, the real number of voluntary organ donors only reaches 0.001% of the population. Consequently, Germany ranks among the countries with the lowest donation rates in Europe, largely because there is no “opt-out” legislation, it is an “opt-in” country.
As an effect of the absence of legislation, there is also no national registry of organ donors and that current law requires people to explicitly demonstrate their consent to donate. A free tattoo could mean a symbolic gesture in the face of this problem: McCann and the NGO Junge Helden have found a very interesting solution to solve this concern.
