Tattoo by Wassim Razzouk at Razzouk Tattoo
Jerusalem, 2018
Razzouk Tattoo has been run by the same family since 1300, and still tattoos traditional Coptic Christian designs. I had known about this shop for years before I was even old enough to get tattoos, having read about it online, but I never could have imagined I would get a chance to be tattooed by them. However, during my senior year of college I had a chance to go to Israel and Palestine for 10 days. I took it for the chance to learn about a part of history that I wasn’t familiar with—and maybe to get a tattoo, if I could find time.
Thankfully the professor leading the expedition was understanding, and allowed me to slip away from the group with my friend Alex one evening to get my tattoo.
The stamp with the design I chose, St. George Slaying the Dragon, was over 100 years old. This stamp has seen thousands of bodies before mine, and will see thousands more after. From the moment Wassim—the latest in a long line of Razzouk family artists—pressed the stamp into my skin, I felt incredibly connected with history. I wasn’t just some tourist in a shop thousands of miles from home. I was part of a long line of people tattooed by this one family, beginning 700 years ago.
