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Baghdad – Before US troops rolled
into Iraq, Robert Eagle, an Iraqi, had seen his fair share of tattoos.
There were lots of traditional Bedouin designs – simple patterns of
lines and dots – and prisoners who scrawled loved ones’ names using ink
and a sewing needle, but nothing more complicated than this.

“These were terrible tattoos,” says Mr. Eagle, who goes by the English translation of his name.


It
wasn’t until US forces arrived and Eagle began working alongside
American and British security contractors inked with dragons, Chinese
characters, and a host of other designs that he realized there existed
a world of unexplored potential. Within months, he’d gotten a colorful
eagle with flaming wings on his arm, the first of several tattoos.

Nearly six years into the Iraq war, the American
presence has literally left its mark on the Iraqi people. Tattoos are
among a number of Western trends that have crept into society here.
Although US and British soldiers are largely responsible for
introducing them to Iraqis, a number of refugees who spent time in more
open Arab countries are helping to spread their popularity, despite
legal and religious issues surrounding them.

“Before the war, no one knew about the cultures
from outside, but now so many people know about Western culture,” says
Kawakeb Salah Hamed, a sociology professor at Baghdad University. “Now,
young people like to do almost anything they see in Western culture.”

Among US service members, tattoos are extremely
popular, and as soldiers patrolled the streets or worked with Iraqi
security forces, many locals took notice of their elaborate and
colorful body art. At the same time, Iraqis who’d been exiled during
the Saddam era and learned the business in Lebanon and Jordan began
returning to open shops that offer Western-style designs.

While the industry is still in early phases of
development, the more advanced tattoos have attracted a wider spectrum
of people than the handmade prison and Bedouin tattoos did. One Baghdad
tattoo artist says he’s inked everyone from doctors and businessmen to
Army officers and unemployed youths.

“In Saddam’s time, people could not make tattoos,” says Ali Naser Mohamed, a security contractor, who has both biceps covered
in ink. He says he knew of at least one person jailed for six months for his Western-style tattoo.

Tigers, dragons, and swords are popular. One artist even offers Metallica designs.

Tariq
al-Hemdani first saw Western tattoos when he sought refuge in Lebanon
in 2005. He’d spent several years as a prisoner during Saddam’s regime
and “saw tattoos made with needles in prison, and I didn’t want one,”
he says. “But when I saw how it was done with a machine in Lebanon,
that made me want a tattoo.”

First he got a flower on his heart in honor of his girlfriend, still in Iraq. When he returned to Iraq in 2007, he got another
tattoo of a snake wrapped around a sword at one of Baghdad’s new tattoo parlors.

Tattoos were never technically illegal in Iraq, but under Saddam they floated in legal limbo. “Nobody has been sent to prison
because of a tattoo,” says Tareq Hareb, head of the cultural law assembly.

Still,
while people with traditional designs were left alone, those with
tattoos of people’s names say they were harassed and even beaten by
authorities who discovered their inked arms. Tattoo shops were not
allowed. The treatment, whether official policy or not, led to a
widespread consensus that tattoos were illegal.

Today, much of that same uncertainty remains. Government employees and soldiers are the only groups that the law forbids from
getting tattooed, but Mr. Hareb says this law is loosely enforced.

Tattoos are technically forbidden by Islam, considered an unnecessary alteration of God’s creation. However, given their place
in traditional Arab culture, many Muslims overlook the rule.

Given these concerns, tattoo artists operate largely in shadows, fearing unwanted attention from the government or Muslim
fundamentalists.

“Business
is good here, but … I’m afraid the police or Islamic extremists will
try to shut me down,” says one artist, speaking anonymously due to
legal concerns. “I’d like to find another job, but I’m too old to
change careers. This isn’t like doing artwork for me anymore because of
the stress. Now I’m just trying to make a living.”

Despite the confusion over the legality of
tattoos, their cultural currency is strengthening. Tattooed Iraqis tend
to conceal their designs in public, but when someone spots a cheetah on
their bicep, now they say that the only harassment they receive is
someone pestering them about where they can get one, too.

“Everybody who sees my tattoos says they’re beautiful. Nobody bothers me about it,” Eagle says.

After seeing his tattoo, Eagle says his wife wants a butterfly drawn on her shoulder. The only thing stopping her is that
Baghdad’s tattoo artists are men, and Eagle says it wouldn’t be appropriate for another man to tattoo his wife.

“Many men think it’s appealing for women to have tattoos,” says Mrs. Hamed, who adds that many of her female students with
traditional tattoos are now embarrassed by their outmoded designs.

source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0303/p04s01-wome.html