“We will dance again” reads the tattoo now inked on the left forearm of Mia Schem, a French Israeli tattoo artist who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival on October 7 and was among those released in November. She is one of the growing number of Israelis and Jews around the world getting tattoos, traditionally considered taboo in Judaism, as a form of commemoration of the atrocities. Most, like Schem, arranged their tattoos privately, but hundreds of others have taken advantage of a new initiative that is offering free inking. 

Artists4Israel, a nonprofit that sponsors global art campaigns to counter anti-Israel hate, first created the Healing Ink project in 2016 to provide free tattoos to survivors of terror, injured Israel Defense Forces soldiers and families of terror victims. In response to the Hamas attacks, the group launched Healing Ink 10.7, which involves a series of ongoing group tattooing events in Israel and the United States, as “an immediate answer to the needs of the moment,” said Craig Dershowitz, CEO of Artists4Israel.

“Tattoos are a way of reclaiming their body and moving the healing process forward,” he said of the thinking of some of the Israelis who are getting tattoos. “For most, the idea of taking agency over their body and actions is a way of finding power and strength in the midst of a terrible situation.”

According to Dershowitz, popular tattoo choices include images that had already been inked on murdered loves ones, memorial designs that incorporate names and dates, and “lots of broken hearts.” One concept has been the words “we will dance again”—similar to Schem’s tattoo—with the date 1072023 written like the serial numbers that prisoners received at Auschwitz, he said.

Sarah Tuttle-Singer, the new media editor at The Times of Israel, said that after the attacks, she visited a Jerusalem tattoo parlor to get a dragonfly inked on her right shoulder to “represent resilience and transformation. Despite their delicate beauty, they have grit.”

The dragonfly design is the work of German Israeli influencer and tattoo artist Shani Louk, who was kidnapped at the Nova festival and whose death was confirmed by Israel on October 30. Since news of her murder, the Louk family has encouraged people to download her designs and use them for their own tattoos, as a way of honoring her, Tuttle-Singer said.

“Like the dragonfly, we found the strength to adapt, to rise above and to seek the light, always,” she said about the strength of Israelis. “That’s what we do.”

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy