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Display inside the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan, Armenia, showing pictures of young women who had been kidnapped and tattooed before escaping their Muslim captors in the 1920s.

(October 4, 2016)

From the museum’s website: “Some of those individuals who were kidnapped and integrated into Muslim family life, over time forgot about their Armenian ethnicity and even lost the ability to speak their native language. In order to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones many Armenian women forcibly to adopted Islam. They eventually were married off to Muslim men and in keeping with local tribal customs, were marked with specific tattoos. Tattoos were extensively used as amulets in the Middle East and Islamic countries, with the wearers believing that the mark imbued them with magical powers. These tattoos were often in the form of dots or a small “x” and provided protection, strength or fertility. These new markings represented new belonging and a marked change in their life.”
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Contained in galleries
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (2016)
Display inside the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan, Armenia, showing pictures of young women who had been kidnapped and tattooed before escaping their Muslim captors in the 1920s.<br /> <br /> (October 4, 2016)<br /> <br /> From the museum’s website: “Some of those individuals who were kidnapped and integrated into Muslim family life, over time forgot about their Armenian ethnicity and even lost the ability to speak their native language. In order to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones many Armenian women forcibly to adopted Islam. They eventually were married off to Muslim men and in keeping with local tribal customs, were marked with specific tattoos. Tattoos were extensively used as amulets in the Middle East and Islamic countries, with the wearers believing that the mark imbued them with magical powers. These tattoos were often in the form of dots or a small “x” and provided protection, strength or fertility. These new markings represented new belonging and a marked change in their life.”