They Tattoo Their Thighs So Their Bodies Can Be Identified

[ShaneGR]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/12/baghdad.morgue.ap/index.html

With no space to store bodies, some victims of the sectarian slaughter are not being kept for relatives to claim, but photographed, numbered and quickly interred in government cemeteries.

Men fearful of an anonymous burial are tattooing their thighs with names and phone numbers.

In October, a particularly bloody month for Iraqi civilians, about 1,600 bodies were turned in at the Baghdad central morgue, said its director, Dr. Abdul-Razaq al-Obaidi.

The city's network of morgues, built to hold 130 bodies at most, now holds more than 500, he says.

Bodies are sent for burial every three or four days just to make room for the daily intake, sometimes making corpse identification impossible.

[Kali]

1. I know someone who tattooed their soc. security number

on their ankle. Also partially for potential body ID.