| Sascha (E-Mail nur eingeloggt Sichtbar) am 14.04.2008 05:59 Uhr |
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.
But at least some tattoo shops are seeing more and more Iraqis who, like Abbas, are
willing to risk offending Islam to ease their families’ grief in the event of their deaths.
The owner of one tattoo shop in central Baghdad admitted that he’d done such tattoos,
but said he didn’t want to talk about it for fear that he’d be killed.