This Tattoo Shop in Jerusalem is One of the Oldest in the World
By: Dominique Ferrari
Tags: Jerusalem, Tattoo, Podcast, History, Religion

JERUSALEM: A CITY THAT LEAVES A MARK

Buried deep in the twisting alleyways in the Old City of Jerusalem, near Jaffa Gate, is a tiny shop with a sign that reads, “Razzouk Tattoo: Tattoo with Heritage Since 1300.” Inside, Wassim Razzouk and his two sons — Nizzar and Anton — grace patrons with simple but beautiful religious tattoos. Their shop is the last outpost of pilgrimage tattoos in the world.

I’ve always been fascinated with tattoos. I have none myself (yet), but I am drawn to them in a very deep way. Now, I’m not an artist and I’ll confess that many great works of art are lost on me. I have tried and failed many times to cultivate a love and knowledge of great art when I see it, with mixed results. But tattoos are the one exception. I can stare at a tattoo (not in a weird way… at least I think?) the way some people can stare at the Mona Lisa. And I think it’s because, though I’m not an artist, I am a storyteller. And to me, every tattoo is really a story. They’re more than a “permanent mark of temporary insanity” (as some in the older generations of my family used to tell me). They are a time capsule of a moment — a memory, a trip, a person, a feeling — felt so strongly that the wearer agrees to have them encapsulated in an image and branded onto their bodies. Forever. Well, it’s either that or Marvin the Martian was having a moment in the 90s. Or both. Anyway.

Lt. Comdr. Charles Fenno Jacobs (1904–1975) for the U.S. Navy

My fascination with tattoos began with my grandfather. He had one, singular tattoo on his forearm — a Navy anchor. He was in World War 2 in the Pacific, stationed on the USS Bunker Hill. Like many veterans, his war experience wasn’t something he shared much about to most people until the end of his life. But growing up, his tattoo had been the entry point for me to unlock a piece of that chapter of his life. I wanted to know where he got it (“on the ship”). By who (“one of the other guys”). And whether it hurt (“a little”). But his reticence to share soon began to soften and eventually we were talking about what life was like on the ship, what they did for fun, what they ate… and eventually The Hard Stuff. By then, his tattoo had warped and bled with age. But that only made it more fascinating for me. He’d gotten it as a young man who wasn’t sure he’d ever get the chance to be an old man. So the fact that this tattoo was blurred and faded added an entire layer to its story and deepened its meaning in my eyes.

So yeah, I’m a person obsessed with (though somehow devoid of) tattoos. So when the hosts of Passport came back and shared a bit about Razzouk Tattoo, I had to know more.

Now, my first reaction when I heard that there was a 700-year-old tattoo shop in Old Jerusalem was, “I thought Jewish people weren’t supposed to get tattoos.” So that’s the first thing to get straight about Razzouk Tattoo — the tattoos they’re giving are Coptic Christian tattoos (more on that later). And Wassim and his sons are generation 27 and 28, respectively, of Razzouk family tattoo artists to bestow them.

As the story goes, Wassim’s ancestors — who were Coptic Christians — visited Israel in the 18th century and liked it so much they decided to stay. They brought with them hundreds of years of Razzouk family tattooing heritage — along with 150 beautiful, hand-carved wooden blocks. Upon moving to Israel, they began tattooing pilgrims by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during Easter and the Razzouk family reputation in Jerusalem was born and has been handed down, father to son, ever since.

Many of those beautiful wooden blocks, which serve as the stencil for Razzouk tattoos, are still in use today at the shop. The blocks typically depict simple line drawings of things like Jerusalem crosses, Crusaders, Christian flags, religious pilgrims on horseback, Latin sayings, and the like. But of course, just like my grandfather’s Navy anchor — the power these tattoos have doesn’t come from fancy subject matter or intricate inkwork. It’s about the story they tell. People go to the Razzouk family today for the same reason they have for hundreds of years — because a Razzouk tattoo is a sacred mark of a person’s time in Jerusalem. And there’s something magical about knowing that the artwork you’re about to have permanently inscribed on your body is the same artwork that someone hundreds of years ago did as well. I wanted to know more about these tattoos and the history is fascinating.