You want to wear a colander on your head in your driver’s license photo and call it a form of religious expression as a Pastafarian of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Go for it, say Austrian authorities. But first, you might have to prove you’re sane enough to be driving in the first place.

An Austrian atheist claiming his right to wear a pasta strainer as “religious headgear” in his official photos will be able to do so, after reading three years ago that you could only wear headgear in official pictures for confessional reasons and filing an application with the colander pics, reports the BBC.

When he applied back then, he said it was a requirement of his pastafarianism religion. It’s taken three years for his license to come through, but now that it has, a police spokesman explained that it wasn’t issued on religious grounds, but simply because he fulfilled the requirement of having his whole face visible.

“The photo was not approved on religious grounds. The only criterion for photos in driving licence applications is that the whole face must be visible,” said a Vienna police spokesman. He adds that it’s been ready since October 2009, but “it was not collected, that’s all there is to it”.

Authorities did require the man to get a doctor to sign off on his application, saying he’s “psychologically fit” to drive. Because the first thing someone might wonder when you insist on wearing a colander on your head is, well… never mind, who am I to judge?

“I didn’t know I was guilty of not collecting it,” the man explained of the delay. “That doesn’t alter the fact that it still took nearly a year [to be issued]”.

Austrian driver allowed ‘pastafarian’ headgear photo [BBC]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.