There has been a surge in the number of Israelis having tattoos in response to October 7, according to an expert in the field.

Dr Marloes Schoonheim, who researched the subject, found that there had been an increase across all age-groups in Israel, but significantly among people in their 20s and 30s.

“The number of people having tattoos since October 7 is huge,” she told the JC. Although she said it was too early to give an exact figure of the increase, she said that many customers were opting for tattoos which were “nationalistic”, including those with an Israeli map, Magen Davids and Hebrew text.

An example of a tattoo in response to October 7

Schoonheim, who had flown in from Amsterdam to speak at the Limmud conference in Birmingham, told the audience about Ofir Engel, 18,who had been abducted by Hamas from Kibbitz Be’eri. After his release, he had a tattoo etched onto his arm, with the Hebrew words: "Even in misfortune, a touch of luck can make all the difference”.

Tattoo which Ofir Engel,18, had done after he was released from captivity (Jerusalem Post)

A former academic who now works with NGOs, Schoonheim said that it wasn’t just survivors who had been marking their skin, but the trend had also been seen in the general population.

She told the JC: “When people have tattoos, they are often marking moments which are important to them, and October 7 was so life-changing. These tattoos express the hurt over what has happened and also the pride in being Israeli.”

An example of a tattoo since October 7

She said that before October 7, Israelis she met who were living in Holland thought that it was “strange” when someone had a tattoo connected to their Jewish identity or Israel. “But now they are thinking of having them done themselves because they are seeing that Israel is not something that can be taken for granted anymore.”

An example of a tattoo in Israel since October 7

In 2018, 25 per cent of Israelis were found to have at least one tattoo, compared to 40 per cent in the UK. But, said Schoonheim, there were tattoo parlours throughout Israel and an annual convention which attracted visitors from all over the world.

In 2022, the global tattoo industry generated $1.9 billion and by 2030, it is expected to reach $4 billon.

Halachically, the art of tattooing has been problematic, with some commentators saying that marking one’s skin is idolatrous, with others claiming that it is only problematic if people tattoo their own skin - not if someone else does it.

Schoonheim said that her interest in Jews having tattoos first started some years ago when she walked into a tattoo parlour in Tel Aviv and saw a man with a Torah scroll on his back. “My first reaction was that surely it can’t be allowed and also: ‘Why would someone want to do that?’”

She said she was struck by the polarisation of opinion surrounding tattoos, particularly the desire among grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to have their grandparent’s prisoner number tattooed onto their own body. “Some children of survivors have said that if their children did that they would be so hurt. On the other hand, I read an interview with a grandmother and grandson, where they are both showing their tattoo of the grandmother’s prisoner number, and the grandmother says she is very proud of her grandson.”

With her own tattoo taken from the writings of Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, Schoonheim, 47, said that her research had found that Jewish people often decided to have a religious or Israeli-themed tattoo “as something which was very, very personal to them as opposed to an expression of Jewish identity for the outside world to see”.

In fact, she found that many of the respondents tried to hide their tattoos “since they were very concerned about what their family and community would think”.