Limited-edition LGBTQ+ STI testing kits launch for Londoners
1,000 limited-edition STI testing kits featuring queer artwork are being released in London through a new sexual health collaboration
A limited run of colourful STI testing kits featuring LGBTQ+ artwork is being released across London, turning an everyday home health test into something designed to be more visible, approachable and connected to the community using it.
The project brings together LGBTQ+ sexual health organisation The Love Tank, artist and illustrator Fredde Lanka and Sexual Health London. The collaboration was initially unveiled at Body Movements Festival on August 30, but it is expanding this week with 1,000 specially designed kits becoming available for London residents to order online from the week beginning September 21.
Each Sexual Health London SmartKit in the limited run comes with a specially designed sleeve featuring Fredde's artwork, alongside stickers and a postcard. The project is the first creative collaboration of its kind for Sexual Health London and takes something normally associated with clinical packaging and gives it a much more distinctive LGBTQ+ identity.
The Love Tank is also taking the artwork beyond the testing kits themselves, with temporary tattoos and postcards carrying QR codes that direct people to Sexual Health London's free testing service. Those materials will continue to appear at outreach events across the capital as part of efforts to make conversations around sexual health and regular testing feel more accessible.
London residents ordering one of the limited-edition kits complete an online consultation before receiving the self-sampling test at home, with samples returned through a freepost service. The specially designed version remains available only while the 1,000-kit allocation lasts.
It is a relatively simple change to something thousands of people already use, but the collaboration brings LGBTQ+ creativity directly into a practical health service while giving Londoners another reason to talk openly about sexual health and testing.
Follow Sexual heath Londons official pages for more updates and details
