Austria offers a year of public transportation in exchange for a tattoo

Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Officials in Austria have drawn criticism for a scheme offering residents a year of free nationwide public transportation in exchange for getting a tattoo.

The country placed pop-up tattoo shops at the Electric Love Festival in Salzburg and the Frequency Festival in St. Polten to offer residents the chance to ride public transportation anywhere in the country for free for a year if they get a tattoo reading "Klimaticket," the name of a recently launched annual pass that fills the same purpose.

Klimaticket, which translates to "climate ticket," is aimed at discouraging "motorized individual transport" and bringing the country closer to its climate change goals under the Paris Agreement.

Campaign officials said six people have thus far taken the offer and gotten Klimaticket tattoos in exchange for free tickets. They said several more people received free tattoos with various environmental themes, but all they received for them was the tattoo itself.

Leonore Gewesseler, a member of parliament with the Green party and the country's climate minister, was criticized by some for promoting the tattoo offer at the Frequency Festival.

Henrike Brandstötter, a member of parliament for the NEOS party, said on social media that "offering people money for putting advertising under their skin reveals an unacceptable view of humanity from a government minister."

Gewessler said the tattoos are only offered during the daylight hours, when festival-goers are less likely to be intoxicated, and the tattoo artists ensure that every recipient is over age 18.