A London tattoo artist who has posted pictures of himself celebrating Jewish festivals on his Instagram alongside his artwork has received numerous hate messages and death threats since October 7.
Adam Silas, who has been a professional tattoo artist for six years and works in a studio in Soho, recently received a message from a client cancelling an appointment – because he is Jewish.
“It has come to my attention that you are Jewish. Is this true?” asked the former client in the message. “If so, I’m afraid I will have to cancel our appointment as I can’t in good conscience be tattooed by you at the moment, given the current political climate. I’m sure you understand. I wouldn’t be so bold as to ask for my deposit back but I would humbly ask that you donate it to a humanitarian cause. Hopefully there will be a permanent ceasefire soon so we can reschedule.”
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It is so far the only cancellation he has received because of his background. “That was what was so shocking about it because everything up to that point had just been horrible antisemitic messages since October 7,” said Silas. “It's very disheartening. Every time I get a message it really affects me and that feeling stays with you. I can't overstate how much it's affected me mentally.”
One post he wrote, “Check in with your Jewish friends. We’re not doing well” – referring to the rise in antisemitism – was responded to with “You will all burn in hell soon” along with a laughing emoji and Palestinian flags.
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He said that, as is often the case, the poster had no followers, so had probably created the account to troll his page before deleting their comment soon after.
When Silas wished his followers Happy Chanukah, one person responded: “insha’Allah your house burns down with you inside it.” Another said: “We get it. You’re a Jew. Stop clogging up my feed with this s****.”
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Silas said that while he has posted pictures of Chanukah candles and his family Seder table, he avoids posting anything overtly political on his business account.
“I'm open about my Jewish identity. It's very separate to anything political, as it should be. But unfortunately, people make links when they want to. My Instagram is my work profile, it's my portfolio and it's where I do business. So I feel like I can put my Jewish identity up there, but I know I don't want to see anyone's political opinions on their work Instagram.”
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Silas said the tattoo industry is going through a quiet spell, a fact that he posted on his account to which one hater replied: ‘It’s good to know that your bookings are slow. It means that the boycott is working.’
“Are we boycotting just Jewish people?” Silas said. “Is that what's happening? Every time that Israel is in the news, it's a vessel for antisemitism.”
Among his varied designs, Silas has created some Jewish-themed tattoos for his clients including Magen Davids and Hebrew script. “My clients always say they're grateful that they could find a Jewish artist to do it,” he said.
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He has also created humorous cartoons that Jewish people who don’t want to get a tattoo can turn into prints. However, his one featuring the caption “less Hamas more hummus” lost him several followers and received negative comments.
“It’s mad how many people could be offended by the suggestion that hummus is superior to Hamas,” he said. “My tattoos are very cartoony, very happy, very silly. I like drawing stuff because it makes me smile. So for someone to see that and decide, ‘I'm going to abuse this person’, it just boggles the mind – I can't get inside that mindset. All I'm trying to do is spread a bit of joy and my clients are very appreciative of what I do.”
