Tattoo parlors have offered free swastika tattoos in a bid to “reclaim” the Nazi symbol as an ancient Buddhist and Hindu sign of peace.
More than 120 tattoo parlors around the world offered the free tattoos as part of the controversial campaign “Learn to Love the Swastika” this week, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.
In Copenhagen, Meatshop tattoo parlor artistic designer Peter Madsen says he had to turn away dozens of people queued up to get a free swastika tattoo.
“We had to stop taking in people after the 54th client,” Madsen said. Every person who received the tattoo first had to sign a form stating that the tattoo was not for neo-Nazi reasons, he said.
The campaign aims “to reclaim this symbol, which the Nazis abused, and restore it to its original meaning in India, where it has served for thousands of years as a sign of peace and goodness,” he said.
The swastika has been banned in several European countries as hate speech, and remains a symbol used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists. However, it is also an ancient symbol used by Buddhist and Hindu communities to represent peace and love.
The movement has prompted outrage from members of the Jewish community.
“I believe that a symbol that was once something else, but which the Nazi took hostage, cannot just be washed clean,” Finn Schwarz, president of the Jewish Congregation of Copenhagen, told mx.dx.
Meatshop owner Madsen says he understands the criticism, but that anyone who gets the tattoo because they are a neo-Nazi “may think they are wearing a symbol of racism, but that doesn’t change the fact they are actually wearing on their bodies the symbol for a better world.”
This article originally appeared on News.com.au.