Page - 129 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

The Tattoos of Armenian Genocide Survivors | 129www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 123–143 tattooed, mainly on their hands or wrists. Among women, the chin, neck, chest, ankles, and hands were common places for tattoos.24 The tattoos documented in the photographs are located on the faces, necks, and hands of the Armenian women and are dark in color.25 The tattoos vary in form: in some photographs, they consist of fine dots and delicate lines, while in others they are thick and irregular. The marks are usually arranged symmetrically and are quite small, up to a few centimeters in size. The most important location for tattoos seems to have been the face. All of the women display marks on their chins, which sometimes continue down their throats in a line usually consisting of intermeshing crescents.26 Located towards the lower edge of the chin, the designs are often of cross- es and circles. Several of the women also have designs right below their mouths that resemble an upside-down Y or have their chins divided by a straight line. Another important place is the middle of the forehead. Often, the design here is comparatively large and grabs the viewer’s attention right away. Two women display designs reminiscent of an eye: they consist of a central dot surrounded by a semicircle with three/five short lines branching off. In other cases, the forehead is marked by simple geometrical designs like dots, circles, or crosses. The cheek is another location where several of the women were tattooed. Here, the design often consists of three closely arranged dots.27 The second important location visible on the photographs is the hands. In only two of the photographs are the hands visible, and in both cases they are tattooed. This may be an indicator that the hands were only included in the photograph if they were tattooed, which would, in turn, indicate that only a few of the women had tattooed hands. The hand tattoos seem more extensive than the face tattoos – they are bigger and closer together. One woman’s hand displays an assortment of designs that do not seem to be ar- ranged in any particular order, while the second woman’s hands are marked with symmetrically arranged designs. The backs of her hands are divided by 24 For more details on the recurring motifs see Smeaton 1937, 54–60; Çag ̆layandereli/Göker 2016, 2557; Birkalan-Gedik 2006, 46; Field 1958, 15–18, 24. Field’s and Smeaton’s records attest to an orientalist perspective. But since they studied tattoos in the region relatively shortly after the Genocide, their sketches and descriptions are the best available source for analyzing and comparing the tattoos. 25 Eyewitnesses mostly speak of blue tattoos, e. g., Gayané Adourian. See Svazlian 2011, 446. 26 See figs. 1, 2. This kind of tattooing is called ṣadr, see Field 1958, 15. 27 See figs. 1, 3, 4.