Singapore’s coolest couple shares how you can practice body art ethically
Nick and Anthea Wong might just be the coolest couple in Singapore. Both vegan, Nick is a former member of hardcore punk rock band The Caulfield Cult, one of the first Singaporean punk rock bands to tour Europe, while Anthea is a hugely talented tattoo artist with a penchant for startingly-detailed, animal-based artwork.
Former rockstar Nick, who has been vegan for over 14 years now, is laid-back, intelligent, and hilariously honest. In a 2017 interview, he described his former band as “mediocre” and “not very good”, claiming they had “reached their plateau” and saying “I wouldn’t listen to our stuff on the regular”.
Both Nick and Anthea went vegan for ethical reasons, with appalling slaughterhouse footage the catalyst for conversion in both of their cases. “After being exposed to these videos, I didn’t want to be part of something so cruel and disgusting,” says Nick. Clearly compassionate people, like so many ethical vegans both Nick and especially Anthea (who survived on “Oreos and soda” during her first few years as a vegan), have struggled over the years to maintain a balanced vegan diet, although things have improved markedly in recent years as veganism has flourished both at home and abroad. As a former member of a band that toured across multiple continents over the course of many years, I was especially interested in getting Nick’s perspective on the international vegan scene, and how things have changed over time:
“I’ve always been vegan on tour. It’s not the most difficult, but it was definitely more challenging ten years ago. I remember it was a big challenge when we went to Japan in 2014, but I look at HappyCow now and there are a ton of vegan places in Tokyo. Europe is extremely vegan-friendly – German supermarkets are full of vegan products, so I’d just assemble my own sandwiches and eat fruit half the time. In America however, I had a lot of $1 bean burritos from Taco Bell, so that wasn’t so great”
It's great to hear Nick’s overall positivity about the increasing availability of vegan food, and his personal experience is reflected in the data too – between 2016 and 2020, Southeast Asia saw “a 440% increase in vegan and vegetarian plant-based product launches,”, while over the past two years “40% of European consumers either significantly reduced their meat intake or cut out red meat entirely”. Veganism is becoming more and more normalized across all strata of society, as misconceptions are quashed, new and delicious plant-based foods and recipes are developed and publicized, and people become more and more aware of the environmental and ethical consequences of second-hand participation in the animal industry.
Of course, having a supportive network of friends and family members makes the transition to veganism that much easier, and both Nick and Anthea are blessed in that regard. However, as is often the case, it took some people time to get used to it: “My parents worried for the longest time, but they adjusted. My mom makes really dope vegan meals for me now, and I’m really grateful that she does!” says Anthea happily.
With Anthea being a vegan tattoo artist, this seems the perfect opportunity to highlight the lesser-known fact that some tattoo ink is not vegan. Because there are effectively no benefits to non-vegan tattoo ink, the vast majority of tattoo ink you’ll find in tattoo parlors these days is, fortunately, vegan by default – but, as both Nick and Anthea recommend, err on the side of caution and always ask your tattoo artist, just to be sure!
The final question I had for Nick and Anthea concerned the global phenomenon that is Veganuary, an event now in its seventh year, that will be crash landing with fevered gusto on the streets and in the homes of Singapore in the very near future. Nick is an eloquent advocate for the benefits of Veganuary, so I’ll leave the final word to him:
“There are so many people who are conscious and aware of the harms of eating meat, for the animals and the environment, but because we were brought up with an omnivorous diet, it's sometimes difficult to make a big leap, to give up something that's so culturally present in our lives. Veganuary encourages people to give it a go in a less intimidating manner, and hopefully helps people to realize that the small sacrifice is worth it.”