Starting in 2005, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) began to branch out from their "Naked" campaign, which used fashion models posing nude to bring awareness to animal cruelty in the fur clothing industry. The models would pose naked for posters proclaiming they'd rather not wear anything than wear fur. What resulted from the branching-out was "Think Ink, Not MInk," a series of images of tattooed celebrities posing in just their tattoos for the cause.
PETA got celebrities from the world of sports and music to kick things off but with their more recent entries for the series, they've gone to a more immediate and more broadly-recognizable world of pop culture: television. To the under-thirty crowd, both of these people are going to be readily recognized from their popular cable tv shows: from the Learning Channel is Miami Ink's Ami James and Steve-O from MTV's Jackass. 
Steve-O, who's known for doing all manner of stupid things to himself, nonetheless decided to participate for the rights of animals, who are frequently raised under terrible conditions and suffer horribly in fur farms solely for the purpose of being killed for their skins. His back piece tattoo is a portrait of himself, done by LA tattooist Jack Rudy, who is known for his mastery of fineline, black-and-white portraiture. This is just one of the images Steve-O posed for. The second shows him jumping into the air, wearing just his skin art.Ami James from the tv show "Miami Ink" is the latest tattooed celebrity to pose in support of a fur ban. He's the co-owner of Miami's Love Hate Tattoo shop (which is featured in the television show) as well as a night club of the same name. An animal lover since he was a child, James famously turned down a prestigious commission to create a tattoo vodka bottle design because the fashion designer connected to the project uses fur in his fashions. He also designed a special tattoo design for PETA for their campaign, inspired by his beloved pet bulldog Bella.
Click to see more pics and Ink Not Mink videos, or learn more about PETA's "Ink, Not Mink" campaign at their site furisdead.com.
