A sea turtle can easily end up as a motif on someone’s skin. Seagrass that produces oxygen, filters water and sustains an entire ecosystem probably will not. It was precisely among the species that rarely attract attention that MedPAN found the main protagonists of its new campaign.
The organisation that connects and supports Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean joined forces with the agency BETC Paris to bring marine life protection closer to younger audiences through tattoos. The The UnSEAn campaign, presented on 16 July, starts from a simple difference: concern about the state of the sea often remains far from the top of the list of priorities, but its aesthetic already occupies a visible place in fashion, content and visual culture.
According to data presented with the campaign, searches for beach- and ocean-inspired tattoos increased by 150 percent over the course of one year. Still, the most common motifs largely remain limited to waves, shells and recognisable marine animals, without the species on which the health of the Mediterranean directly depends.
The UnSEAn uses that popularity as an entry point into the story of organisms whose importance is not proportional to their visibility. Around ten tattoo artists from Mediterranean countries created their own interpretations of species selected because of their role in sustaining the marine ecosystem.
Among them is posidonia, a marine plant known as the lungs of the Mediterranean, whose meadows produce oxygen and create conditions for the life of numerous other organisms. The grouper appears as an indicator of the recovery and good condition of protected areas, while the giant pen shell filters seawater, but at the same time shows how sensitive the Mediterranean is to rising temperatures.
The designs also include the Mediterranean cuttlefish, an important link in the food chain, the purple gorgonian, whose colonies provide a habitat for other species, and the loggerhead turtle. This migratory species connects beaches, the coastal zone and the open sea, transports nutrients and supports biological interactions between different parts of the ecosystem.
Each artist involved in the project was given space to interpret the species in their own tattoo style. Their studios and locations have been brought together on an interactive map created through Google Maps, where users can find the nearest project participant and view the available designs.
As part of prize competitions, the artists will each offer one flash design, through which the campaign seeks to turn information about a marine species into a lasting and personal symbol. Content creators connected to environmental topics or life in the Mediterranean region will also contribute to spreading the project.
The campaign was developed within the BETC Academy programme, through which the agency’s young interns work on real briefs and are given space to develop ideas outside the standard commercial process. The agency, artists and content creators worked on the project without compensation, while The UnSEAn has no budget for paid advertising.
Its reach will therefore depend on the community gathered around tattoo studios, social media and people willing to spread the designs further. The interactive map and competitions were launched during the summer season, when travel around the Mediterranean is more frequent and a new tattoo motif can also become a permanent record of a place someone has visited.
