‘Your own Minnesota badge of honor’: The Rebel Loon becomes walking resistance artwork
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Jordanne Le Fae reserved a spot near her bicep for a tattoo of what has become a new Minnesota symbol: the Rebel Loon.
The round graphic of the state bird with wings outstretched above has become synonymous with Minnesotan's resilience during the immigration enforcement surge. It didn’t take long for the arts world to adapt it into anything imaginable, including tattoos.
As a tattoo artist herself and the owner of St. Paul's Weird Ink Society tattoo shop, Le Fae had an artist in mind.
“Our artist, Erin, she actually has merch on our website from long ago that says ‘loons are goth ducks,’” Le Fae said. “She's always liked loons, so when I said I wanted to get one, she was like, ‘You better let me do your loon.’ I was like, ‘Who else would I have do it?’”
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For months, Weird Ink had at least one Rebel Loon tattoo scheduled every day, with weekends sometimes having a half-dozen bookings. It has slowed down since, but orders have continued months after they first went viral.
Le Fae's shop adapted the design in just about every way. They made the original, a knitted-pattern, a watercolor, a Pokémon and a pride loon, just to name a few.
The loon has also taken the form of murals. Artist and bartender Natalie Reynolds-Wolff designed a sprawling Rebel Loon for Insight Brewing.
“I think this is just a symbol of unity, a symbol that you're welcome here, that you're safe here, and that we will protect our neighbors,” said Insight marketing manager Joey Steinbach.
Founded on uniting people
The Rebel Loon has come a long way since January when Bernardo Anderson of Moorhead shared the design inspired by the Star Wars “Rebel Alliance” logo.
After seeing Minnesotans come together for their community, Anderson said it only seemed right to adapt the symbol to feature the state bird as a new logo of resistance.
“I wanted a symbol for uniting people and not dividing people,” Anderson said. “I wanted the symbol to be for something, not against something.”
When Anderson, a web developer, conceived the idea, he figured someone had already made a version. To his surprise, he found nothing after as comprehensive a search as possible.
He deliberately used only three colors —black, blue and red — to make the logo easily replicable.
Originally, he wanted to be anonymous. That did not last long as people quickly connected him to the design, which he made publicly available.
"It's everyone's logo, because it symbolizes an idea, and I can't copyright an idea," Anderson said.
Now, the logo is on everything from onesies to beer mugs, stickers to neon signs. And, to Anderson’s initial surprise, people.
“It got really serious when I first saw somebody saying they're going to get a tattoo of it,” Anderson said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, that is serious.’”
The story of Minnesotans’ resistance through tattoo
Mitchell Plisek was one of the first artists to replicate the design. His first Rebel Loon was posted by his client on Twin Cities Geek, a Facebook page that is now saturated with different tattoos marking Minnesotans' resistance through art.
Angela Caldwell, 54, had just one tattoo prior to sitting down with Plisek. She sees getting the tattoo as a way to support her community she has called home for 10 years.
The two-day endeavor resulted in a Rebel Loon surrounded by the Northern Lights spanning a portion of her forearm.
“It's kind of cool that this hits so many marks for you, for your time in Minnesota,” Plisek told her. “It’s kind of like your own Minnesota badge of honor.”
Le Fae of Weird Ink has long lost count of how many loon tattoos her shop has done. Some of her favorite clients had no tattoos, are over 50 and are “so passionate” that they walk in needing the design, she said.
“We've seen people from all walks of life. People that you know are obviously very upset with what's happening in our world right now,” Le Fae said. “This feels like a tangible way to put a mark on their body saying, ‘No, I officially am putting this so seriously that I'm against what's happening right now, that I'm willing to mark my body and become part of a movement.’”
Le Fae and other artists are discussing ways to archive the resistance art trend.
Alongside the Rebel Loon Archive, an organization cataloging the many artworks and materials created since the onset of the enforcement surge, started archiving Minnesota resistance tattoos for what will turn into a book coming out next year.
