Die verletzten ukrainischen Soldaten beginnen mit dem Tätowieren als Therapieform

**From The Telegraph:**

Oleksander Samus would have happily kept working as a cartoonist were it not for the Russian bomb that exploded under his house, almost killing his teenage son.

“That was the breaking point,” he says. “Can you imagine how it made me feel?”

Against his wife’s wishes he joined the Ukrainian infantry, first learning how to use a machine gun before becoming a sniper and serving in the battle for Bakhmut.

In the trenches around that city, which finally fell to the Kremlin’s forces after a gruelling siege, his comrades discovered his skills as an artist and had him draw pictures of their loved ones. At the same time, he developed a newfound appreciation for the tattoos that they wore.

“Older generations like my parents taught me that tattoos are something bad – only for prisoners and criminals,” Mr Samus says.

The experience of war changed his perspective, and he decided that he not only wanted a tattoo of his own, but wanted to learn the trade himself.

Many Ukrainians have undergone the same shift – since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, tattooing has become a vital means of expressing Ukrainian identity and celebrating its culture. But it is also emerging – for good or bad – as an unlikely source of therapy for those wounded in the fighting.

In December 2023, while fighting in unfamiliar terrain in Donetsk, Mr Samus stepped on a landmine which blew off his right leg.

Nine surgeries later, he was fitted with a prosthetic. It took him nearly seven months to learn how to walk again.

“The rehabilitation went better than I expected,” he recalls. “But there was still the question of what I would do after.”

After nearly four years of war, Ukraine’s government lacks both the manpower and resources to support many wounded veterans as they transition back to civilian life.

Mr Samus was keen to get going as a tattoo artist, but lacked a license and equipment. He was also mindful of the health risks that come with tattooing.

“You need a clean environment [to tattoo] – it’s a big responsibility.”

**Read more here:** [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/injured-ukrainian-soldiers-taking-up-tattooing-as-therapy/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/injured-ukrainian-soldiers-taking-up-tattooing-as-therapy/)