• Dr Parvesh

ABSTRACT: In the contemporary world, tattoo culture has evolved into a form of body art, representing a powerful source of self-expression. Tattoos commemorate life events and possess rich conventions of a particular region. The tattoos present personal opinion and narratives through their color, symbols and designs. However marking ink on one's body has a long history and reasons, extending merely aestheticism. Throughout human evolution tattoos had profound ethical, philosophical, sociological and historical implications. Their diverse roles across cultural, social, and personal domains reveal a spectrum of meanings, reflecting deeply ingrained values and beliefs. In the present world tattoos are being used to represent personal ideology that can be spiritual or religious too. Tattoos are as ancient as the civilization. According to encyclopedia, The oldest known tattooed human is Ötzi the Iceman, whose body was found in the Otztal Alps in 1991. The 5,200-year-old man had 57 tattoos on his body, including some near acupuncture points. Tattoos usually represent personal opinions; depicting one’s mind, preferences, choices and assumptions. But during World War II, especially in concentration camps of Auschwitz, tattoos served as stark symbol of stigma, enduring traumatic memories. Here imposed tattooing was practiced specifically for a brutal purpose that is for registering a prisoner in the camp. Its sole purpose was to strip one’s identity to create a unique identification number for every prisoner whosoever entered there. Every other identity of the prisoners was obliterated. They would become merely a number instead of their name, profession, academic or personal identification. They were no more treated as human being, but a number in the concentration camps. The survivors of Holocaust endured lifelong trauma by the tattoo marked on their left forearms and couldn’t overcome the thought of being tortured there. This physical branding served them incurable wounds on their broken souls which could never heal in the future. This paper will present the traumatic affect of tattoos in the lives of Holocaust survivors and their mental stature in further lives.

tattoos, Holocaust, concentration camps, Jews

"Resilience: Engraved in Indelible tattoos and Forbidden Marks", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 5, page no.b141-b145, May-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2505116.pdf

"Resilience: Engraved in Indelible tattoos and Forbidden Marks", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 5, page no. ppb141-b145, May-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2505116.pdf