Christian tattooing in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Christian tattooing in Bosnia and Herzegovina – War times are always turbulent, as today so in past! Long time ago, few hundred years ago, there was a Ottoman invasion on Europe. It was a great war that made impact on Balkans in cultural, mental and every other way! On example Croatian Catholic communities in Bosnia suffered a lot under the Ottoman invasion, with the most of them forced to convert to Islam. It was an typical oppression and so the Girls were raped, children were taken to Ottoman empire as slaves and Turkish Chiefs had the right to sleep with Christian women on their wedding nights before the bride’s husband even got a look in, horrible isn’t it?

In response to such violations, women took to tattooing themselves on their hands, fingers, chests and foreheads with crosses and other ancient ornaments. They did believe such practices would create a spiritual guard that would ward off the Turks, or would at least let people know they were once Catholic before undergoing a forced conversion…and it was successful in many examples, it was a passive resistance to an occupation!

Full article> http://www.slavorum.org/christian-tattooing-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina/