Since then, activists have used the symbol in various campaigns since, including in protests last year over concentration camps in Chechnya. How LGBTI people reclaimed the pink triangle The symbol went from being a badge of shame, to a symbol of pride. Many LGBTI people now proudly show off their tattoo pink triangles. ‘I got it after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida,’ Nick McGlynn told Gay Star News. ‘At the time, it really brought home the physical violence that’s still directed at queer people. ‘I was angry and I wanted to have my queerness permanently written on my body as a “fuck you” to the fear of being visibly queer in public,’ he said.
McGlynn is a teacher and says his pink triangle tattoo isn’t as obviously gay as a rainbow flag, so his students often ask him about it. ‘It gives me an opportunity to say out loud in public that I’m a gay man,’ he said. Greg Baillie got his pink triangle tattoo on his wrist so he can hide it under his watch if he ever feels unsafe. He said: ‘I got it to feel like part of a community whilst remembering the horror that had befitted some that had went before.
