Submissions for the #BraveOfUs tattoo design contest are officially closed, and our judging panel is now reviewing the entries. We’re so excited that we received fifteen eligible designs from artists who answered the call to create a tattoo that expresses immigrant solidarity, courage, and community.
Thank you to every artist who submitted an entry. Each design reflects real care, skill, and commitment to the people this movement is for. Here is what happens next!
How Judging Works
Our four judges are currently scoring every eligible entry using the criteria published on the contest page:
Tattoo Viability (40%): Is it executable as a real tattoo? Clean lines, appropriate sizing, and works across skin tones.
Artistic Merit (30%): Craftsmanship, originality, and visual impact.
Message Alignment (20%): Does it genuinely express immigrant solidarity consistent with #BraveOfUs?
Emotional Resonance (10%): Does it move you? Does it tell a story that stays with you?
On Thursday, October 29, the panel will meet to review the combined scores and select the top six designs. Those six will move on to a public vote, where the community decides the grand prize winner. The other five will be named finalists. All finalists plus the grand prize winner will receive monetary prizes.
Meet the Judges
Our panel brings together a local Ohio tattoo artist, a young artist, and the Executive Director of Ohio Immigrant Alliance to provide a variety of different perspectives, expertise, and feedback in the judging process. We’re happy to announce our Judging Panel for the #BraveOfUS Tattoo Design Contest!
Shema Asifiwe (he/him) is a student, young author, artist, and advocate based in Cincinnati. Born in Burundi to Congolese parents, Shema drew Ohio Is My Second Country, a coloring book published with Ohio Immigrant Alliance, in 2026. He connects with his community by hosting story times, reading his books and sharing his experiences with younger audiences. Purchase OIA merchandise with some of Shema’s other designs and watch him read his illustrated memoir, published by Maketank.
Khaila Carr (she/her) is a Virgo (sun) and tattoo artist (rising). She is a visual artist and illustrator who will begin a tattoo apprenticeship in 2027. Khaila started tattooing as a teenager, giving handpoke tattoos to friends in her bedroom. In 2022, she returned to her birthplace of Manila, Philippines, where she spent a month with family and learned about Batok (meaning "to tap"), the traditional Filipino tattooing practice of the Kalinga people. Before leaving, she received several tattoos from her cousin in her family's living room.
Back in Ohio, Khaila became shop manager at a local tattoo studio, where she realized tattooing was the creative practice she was called to pursue. For Khaila, tattooing is the art form that bridges her mixed Filipino-American identity. Over the past four years, she has built a portfolio that blends American Traditional and Filipino Batok iconography. Her solo exhibition, Soft Skin, Hard Feelings, is on view at WIT Gallery in Columbus' Franklinton Arts District through the end of October. Follow her work or grab a zine on Instagram at @baby.lumpia.
Lynn Tramonte (she/her) is the founder and executive director of Ohio Immigrant Alliance. She also runs the communications firm Anacaona, serves on the board of the Justice Action Center, and is a 2018 Marshall Memorial Fellow with the German Marshall Fund. Read her column about the origins of this contest on Medium. “Every time I feel the need to get a tattoo, it’s like my skin is itching. I want that pain, because it makes me feel powerful. I have survived,” she wrote.
Coming Up: The Public Vote
The six designs chosen by our panel of judges will go to a public vote on Ohio Immigrant Alliance's Instagram throughout November. The design with the most votes will be named the #BraveOfUs grand prize winner, and all six winning designs will be announced in November. After that, we will produce free downloadable flash sheets for permanent tattoos and a temporary tattoo booklet to sell as a fundraiser for OIA.
Follow Ohio Immigrant Alliance on Instagram so you don't miss the vote. Your voice helps decide which design carries the message of immigrant solidarity forward.
