On the 16th of November, the International Day for Tolerance, a young Roma women was tattooed with the message “Soy gitana y no soy de fiar” (I’m a gipsy and I am not legitime), in protest of the everyday social rejection of Roma people. This initiative is part of a campaign launched by the Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) to fight against discrimination and promote equal opportunities and dignity for Roma.
The campaign aims to highlight the profound, entrenched social rejection of the Roma community, the everyday discrimination that is often obscured but has highly negative repercussions on people’s lives and is a barrier to a fairer society. Anti-gypsyism manifests itself in multiple ways: problems in renting housing, finding employment, getting a job interview, access to leisure establishments, school segregation or unjustified police stops.
“The Most Painful Tattoo” campaign shines a light on this social rejection using the tattoo as a symbol. Stereotypes and prejudices are a painful mark for their victims. This campaign aims to reveal this mark and its repercussions through painful and permanent means. Stickers simulating tattoos with the sentence “Prejudice is the most painful tattoo” have been distributed as part of this mobilisation, which can be found on twitter with the hashtag #ElTatuajeQueMásDuele and following the account @gitanos_org_INT.
For more information, please click here (ES, EN).