tattoo's for identifcation

IRAQ: Grim tattoo subculture emerges amid daily violence
Tattoos are becoming increasingly common in Iraq as people seek ways in which their bodies might be identified if they are killed

BAGHDAD, 19 July 2007 (IRIN) - "My age is the same as the olive tree," reads the blue tattoo on Qaisar Tariq al-Essawi's left shoulder.

Al-Eassawi, 36, got the tattoo so his family and close friends could recognise his remains if he ended up in a morgue.

"I selected this wording because only my family and close friends know about our olive tree which was planted by my father when I was born," al-Essawi, a father of two boys, told IRIN in Baghdad.