Kurdish woman with tattoos on her face and hand, Diyarbakir.
Historical context
The Deq, sometimes called Daq, Daqq, Dagg, or Dövün , is a traditional form of tattooing common to several peoples of the Middle East. Practiced by Bedouins, Yazidis and even Turks, it is mainly the Kurds who practice it the most and especially women.
Tattooed hand of a woman in Erzurum
The meaning of Deq varies depending on ethnicity, gender, religion, and region of origin. This is understandable because the people who practice it traditionally respect a tribal organization, each group creating its own symbolism. This trend is reinforced by the fact that these practices have survived in the most isolated regions of the Middle East, fragmented by extreme geographical conditions, from mountainous terrain for the Kurds to the desert expanse where the Bedouins live.
The Deq can be used as a rite of passage, ornament, talisman, ethnic marker, family tree, and is very often associated with therapeutic and magical properties, particularly to cure ailments head, promote fertility, or ward off evil spirits. Some anthropological texts say that the tattoo is more powerful if it is done on a Friday during the reading of a surah, and that it can help attract or repel a man and repel or attract men. However, due to the rapid modernization of the region, this tradition is disappearing and only survives on the skin of the oldest generations.
Fatmê Temel, young tattoo artist who passes on Deq to the new generation.
A rebirth?
In the town of Diyarbaki, called Amed in Kurmanji Kurd, the Deq seems to be reinventing itself in the news. Fatmê, a young Kurdish artist, fights to maintain this age-old tradition. His studio, opened in 2021, welcomed more than 600 clients who came to inscribe part of their lost heritage in their pulpits. She herself decided to proudly display a Kurdish tattoo on her face. Fatmê uses the traditional method which consists of using a mixture of soot and mother's milk obtained from a woman who has just given birth to a girl.
The tools used for the Deq, a needle and a mixture of soot and breast milk.
Deq applied by hand.
Although Deq's tattooing profession is normally passed down through apprenticeship, the young tattoo artist uses the work of anthropologist Yavuklu Ahmet to revive Deq motifs, including certain symbols would be similar to those found at Gobekli Tepe, the oldest place of worship in the world located not far from Dyiarbakir. Despite the stigma that exists today around Deq, she is enjoying some success in the region and her work has been relayed by several media such as the Australian channel SBS or the Qatari media Al-Jazeera.
Fatmê tattoo workshop, Diyarbakir.
Despite a loss of transmission and a negative attitude towards tattoos, Fatmê therefore seems well on its way to reviving in a new form what symbolizes for the Kurds a link with their culture and their ancestors. She herself decided to tattoo her face alone, at the age of 20, determined to proudly display and bring her cultural heritage to life.
Historical sources:
Barth, Fredrik 1953. Principles of Social Organization in Southern Kurdistan, New York: AMS.
Drower, E. S. 1940. The Peacock Angel in the Spring, Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society, 27/4, 391–403
Field, Henry 1958. Body Marking in Southwestern Asia, Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum Press.
Oberling, Pierre, ‘A Note on Tattooing and Branding among the Aghāch Eris of Southwestern Iran’, Ethnos, 27/1–4 (1962), 126–28.
Sinclair, A. T. 1908. Tattoing – Oriental and Gypsy, American Anthropologist, 10, 361–86.
Smeaton, Winifred, ‘Tattooing among the Arabs of Iraq’, American Anthropologist 39, 1937, 1 edition, 53–61
Smeaton, Winfried 1936. Women in Present-Day Iraq, The Open Court, 1936/3, 7