Iraq: Grim tattoo subculture emerges amid daily violence

[Barrett808]

Source: IRIN

BAGHDAD, 19 July 2007 (IRIN) - "My age is the same as the olive tree," reads the blue tattoo on Qaisar Tariq al-Essawi's left shoulder.

Al-Eassawi, 36, got the tattoo so his family and close friends could recognise his remains if he ended up in a morgue.

"I selected this wording because only my family and close friends know about our olive tree which was planted by my father when I was born," al-Essawi, a father of two boys, told IRIN in Baghdad.

One response to sudden and violent death which has become commonplace in Iraq's turmoil, is the emergence of a new subculture - the etching of tattoo identities on people who fear becoming an unclaimed body in a packed morgue.

It is more than just another grim footnote in a nation brimming with sad stories. It points to how deeply war and sectarian bloodshed have transformed the way Iraqis live today and confront the constant possibility of death.

Read more: http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/8bae4001e99c3fc5f9c4a9d7b268b6cc.htm?=amp&_lite_=1

[Limelight]

1. How much have we screwed the pooch...

When Iraqi citizens have to get what amounts to dog tags to be sure they won't wind up in some mass grave or non descript pine box or whatever other method they use to discard all the parts and pieces of all the people who obviously got killed cuz they dared not to love all the grand freedom brought them by Bush Co.?

[saigon68]

6. "Freedom is on the March" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

becoming an unclaimed body in a packed morgue.

[lynnertic]

2. here's #5, off to the Greatest page.

[Barrett808]

3. Excellent. n/t

[maxsolomon]

4. see how capitalism thrives in freedom?

no one could have started such a business under saddam's iron fist.

:sarcasm:, 'natch

[originalpckelly]

5. Excuse me? Shouldn't this headline read: Heckuva Leader Encourages New Iraqi Art Industry?

(That's George Bush's dictator name, sort of like a Native American name...)

[Nihil]

7. I thought his name was much shorter than "Heckuva Leader", more like ...

... "cunt".

The abbreviation "POTUS" doesn't need the "TU" ...