Can Tattoos Help Israelis Heal From Terror Attacks And Military Stress?
Image by Artists4Israel
A group of Israelis who were physically and mentally scarred in shootings, suicide bombings and military operations were given free tattoos this week by artists who hope body art can help their recovery.
The Healing Ink project brought artists from Israel, Europe and the United States to Jerusalem for the event, which took place at the city’s Israel Museum.
The 11 people receiving tattoos on Monday included a military veteran injured by an anti-tank missile on a battlefield and a woman caught in a bomb at a Tel Aviv nightspot.
“It makes me feel like I got something that I chose to put on myself, unlike my injury, which I didn’t choose to get,” said Ben Baker Morag, who was injured while serving as a soldier with the Israeli army.
“This gives me a very good feeling,” he said of his tattoo, a lion on his left shoulder.
Israelis have in recent decades contended with a Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, wars against Islamist guerrillas in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and occasional fire from Syria and an insurgency in the Egyptian Sinai.
Others being tattooed at the event chose designs of a medieval knight in armor, the Beatles lyric “all you need is love,” and three monster heads eating each other.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
