How Ukrainians Use Tattoos as Emotional Healing in Wartime: A Journey Through Grief and Resilience

Kyiv:

66-year-old Natalia Lipei reveals a colorful tattoo when she pulls up her sleeve - a winged sword symbolizing the air-assault unit where her son Viktor served before his death fighting Russian forces in 2022.

"It felt like when I got it, my child would always be there," she explains, bringing her forearm closer. "He wouldn't be in heaven, where he is now, but near me."

Many Ukrainians like Lipei have embraced tattoos as a healing mechanism for war's emotional trauma, memorializing fallen loved ones or lost homes through meaningful images, words, or symbols.

The conflict has continued for nearly four years, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and devastating extensive areas. With Russia advancing on the battlefield and launching missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, no end appears in sight.

For Elona Leleko, 31, whose southern Ukrainian village remains under Russian occupation, the coordinates of her home tattooed on her arm serve as a powerful connection to her former life.

"I don't know when I'll return there, or if I'll make it there at all... But I know that part of my home is here," says Leleko, now residing in Kyiv, as she touches her right elbow while fighting tears.

She reveals that before getting the tattoo, she experienced nightmares which have since ceased.

Europe's largest conflict since World War Two has forced countless Ukrainians to confront complex traumas with few easy solutions.

Taisa Kryvoviaz, 35, a Kyiv-area resident whose boyfriend died fighting in eastern Ukraine last year, found comfort by tattooing meaningful phrases: "Under the wings of an angel" in Ukrainian beneath her heart, and "I am strong" in English on her wrist.

Both phrases represent the support she felt from the fallen company commander, who had asked her not to cry if he were killed.

"I was seeing a psychologist, and frankly, I didn't get even one percent of the relief I did when I made a tattoo," Kryvoviaz shares.

"I really felt things get easier on my soul."