Everyone is born free and equal. Freedom and equality are the cornerstones of what it means to be human. No matter our skin colour, gender, nationality, ancestry or sexual orientation – we are equal. We are free to dream, travel, work, write and speak.

Freedom and equality form, together with 29 other articles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

1 tekst
30 articles
6.773 individual letters

This declaration of fundamental human rights applies to all of us and that makes it the most important text written in human history.

A Human Rights Tattoo is symbolic. Human rights are not. History is written again, one letter at a time.

Since 2012 Human Rights Tattoo sparks social change through the power of art, traveling around the world to tattoo the complete Universal Declaration of Human Rights onto the skins of 6.773 human beings. From CEOs to residents of slums and from human rights lawyers to LGBT-activists. Everybody gets one letter. Everybody has their own unique story. And everybody is connected by bringing to life the complete and groundbreaking text from 1948.

I was commissioned to photograph the Human Rights Tattoo event in the Mauritshuis in The Hague on the 12th of December. 72 people were to get their letter, because it’s been 72 years since the declaration is signed.

Want to know more about Human Rights Tattoo click here to see their website.