Iraqis turn to tattoos as indelible IDs

[Judi Lynn]

Source: L. A. Times

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: MESSAGE FOR LEADERS; A DIFFERENT KIND OF IDENTITY CARD
Iraqis turn to tattoos as indelible IDs

With violent deaths all around them, some Shiites opt for distinctive marks so loved ones could identify them.

By Christian Berthelsen, Times Staff Writer
April 20, 2007

BAGHDAD — The ghastly procession of decapitated corpses and mutilated bodies that has defined death in Iraq drove Firas Adil Saadi to do something that was once the province of convicts and degenerates here: He got a tattoo.

The 28-year-old Shiite Muslim now has a marking on his right shoulder so his family may avoid the despair of not being able to identify his remains. In ornate Arabic calligraphy, it says "My brother Husam," after a cousin who suffered such a fate. Saadi also carries paper identification, but he believes it would be burned beyond recognition in a bombing.

"The idea came to me after seeing these daily incidents during which some corpses are mutilated and distorted, some were even headless, and the fact that the identity cards are either lost or destroyed," said Saadi, a trader who works in Baghdad's Shorja market, which has suffered numerous bombings. "Even the water of the firefighting equipment is destroying them, so I thought about an irremovable identity card, which is the tattoo."

Death trumps taboo

In Iraq, it has come to this: Faced with the omnipresent specter of death, an increasing number of people, mainly Shiite men, are willing to contravene social taboo to accommodate it.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tattoo20apr20,1,5600748.story?coll=la-headlines-world

[benh57]

1. 'raqis'?

Um, was that 'raqis' on purpose?

Nice edit.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Got a little slipshod copying & pasting! Nearly screamed when I spotted it. Sorry.... n/t

[annabanana]

4. (you weigh in for a typo?). . . .

[LiberalVoice]

3. Funny

I don't know if the writer uses the word taboo incorrectly in this instance but tats aren't just culturally unacceptable they are against both Sunni and Shiite religious beliefs. Funny how war changes peoples idea of right and wrong. :shrug:

[annabanana]

5. He SHOULD have mentioned it. There are Doctors in THIS

Country who have refused to treat patients because they have a tatoo, as his particular branch on fundi objects to them

http://tattoo.about.com/b/a/257753.htm

[Tesha]

6. This has been going on (and being reported) for a while now. (NT)

[Judi Lynn]

7. First I've heard of it. The reason Iraqis have chosen to get them is painful,

and should be made public to Americans, as this was never a consideration for them before the invasion and bloodbath.

It's a filthy shame.

[Tesha]

10. Oh, I wasn't criticizing you for posting.

> First I've heard of it.

Oh, I wasn't criticizing you for posting. What I was trying
to suggest was that the Iraqis invented this strategy a
while ago and it's been reported in obscure media (and
the inside pages of some mainstream media), but this
newest level of desperation on the part of the Iraqi
populace hasn't yet risen anywhere near the consciousness
of the average American.

Tesha

[MrPrax]

8. Right said...

Last summer, the WP wrote the same story. And much more dramatic to boot!!

Operating Quietly, Tattoo Artists Make Their Mark in Iraq

Tuesday, July 25, 2006; A10

BAGHDAD -- If you found the artist, someone must have told you about him, and this was precisely what scared him, because it could have gotten him killed.

He neither advertised his services nor hung a sign on his door. But he could be found: through a small art gallery on the first floor of an anonymous two-story building in downtown Baghdad, up a narrow, twisting flight of stairs, and into the cramped, dank studio with only one low window obscured by a purple curtain.

"You shouldn't have come here," he said the other day, after pulling back the curtain to reveal a machine gun propped on the sill. "If they find me, they will cut off my head."

The artist drew tattoos.

....

OMG!! What happens next!!


On the other hand, McClatchy last October adds a lot more 'SAW'-like elements to their story:

These tattoos aren't artful - they help identify Iraq's dead
Tue, Oct. 31, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ali Abbas decided that his upper right thigh was the best place for a tattoo because no one gets tortured there.

He'd seen hundred of bodies in the city morgue and dozens of hospitals during his 18-day search for his missing uncle. He'd seen drill marks in swollen, often unrecognizable heads, slash marks across necks, bullet holes in backs, abdomens and swollen hands. He'd seen bodies that had been thrown into the river, so swollen they'd barely looked human. But by and large, the thighs had been intact.

So that's where he decided to have his name, address and phone number tattooed, in case the day comes when someone is searching for his body.

Tattoos are considered a sin in Islam, which holds that believers shouldn't deface their bodies. And tattoo shops are difficult to find in Baghdad. They're often in the basements of more reputable shops.

More... Really Imaginative Unique stories by highly trained professional journalists.

No report on whether the Iraqis are having Tupperware parties yet...which, no doubt, the din of which would be shattered by Iraqis violence along with their dreams of peace...

[Tesha]

11. Thanks for the links. (NT)

[psychopomp]

9. Things are not even close to normal in Iraq

It is terribly sad that it has come time for measures such as this but we are deep in a hole with fanatics just digging and digging more.

[lonestarnot]

12. Is this so they can "stroll the streets of Bagdad?"

[DixieBlue]

13. This is so incredibly awful.

Sure, Gates, the war's not lost.

Not at all.

We're building walls around parts of Baghdad and now some Iraqis are tattooing themselves for ID purposes.

Sure, things are going great.

[eppur_se_muova]

14. This was the original reason for sailors (& later, soldiers) getting tattoos.

If their bodies washed up on the beach after several days at sea, they could still be ID'd. And of course pictures cross language barriers.

[Kali]

15. my sister

had her soc sec # put on one of her ankles. She has some other decorative tats, but that was her weird one.