Comments on: No Tattoos in Islam http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/ Experiences and observations of a former American diplomat now married to a Saudi and living in KSA... Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:48:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: American Bedu http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13899 Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:46:43 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13899 Thanks for the research and suggestion. I agree – it would indeed be a very hot topic!

]]> By: Chiara http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13887 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:01:57 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13887 Indeed! I couldn’t even find any doing it in the Arab world in French (the other main language of colonization), not even in Casablanca–a centre for Plastic Surgery tourism, with luxury packages and highly qualified surgeons. They advertise hymen repair/restoration/reduction but nothing so shocking as reconstructive tattooing.
:-) On the other hand I now know where to go to get a total body job (suctions, implants, lifts everywhere), total face job (same), and “intimate” surgical revision of the private parts (labia minora, labia majora, temporary or permanent “imperceptible” creation/recreation of a hymen) by:

a man
http://www.chirurgieesthetiqueaumaroc.com/
or a woman
http://www.maroc-esthetique-chirurgie.com
or both
http://www.chirurgie-esthetique-maroc.com/

Hymen repair/ Islamic ethics should be a hot topic! :-)
A surgeon in Canada does them as a treatment for suicidally depressed, unmarried, deflowered and abandonned, Muslim women immigrants, with great success surgically and psychiatrically (or so he claims). :-)

]]> By: American Bedu http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13886 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:07:00 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13886 and, those who do this particular practice are doing it outside of the Arab world too.

]]> By: Chiara http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13882 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:45:53 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13882 Ah ha! For anyone who wants to know (my enquiring mind did!):

Dr. El-Ali happily tattooing areolas and nipples in Birmingham, England, and providing excellent results and reports:

Tattooing of the nipple-areola complex: review of outcome in 40 patients
K. El-Ali, M. Dalal and C.C. Kat
West Midlands Regional Unit for Burns, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, UK
Received 8 October 2004; accepted 24 January 2006. Available online 12 June 2006.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7XNJ-4K5HWWX-4&_user=994540&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050024&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=994540&md5=3588019e1eb2ba95068683e8f7cd4f8e#implicit0

Other surgeons with Arab but less Islamic sounding names are also doing so (seems like mainly in England) but this was the best report I found.

Dr. Jian Farhadi (Iranian?, Shia?) of Basel is also an advocate:

Reconstruction of the nipple-areola complex: an update
Jian Farhadi, , Giedra K. Maksvytyte, Dirk J. Schaefer, Gerhard Pierer and Oliver Scheufler
Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, University Hospital Basel, Spitalstrasse 21, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland
Received 12 January 2005; accepted 25 August 2005. Available online 23 November 2005.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7XNJ-4HR654H-7&_user=994540&_coverDate=01%2F31%2F2006&_alid=850462101&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=mlkt&_cdi=29700&_sort=v&_st=17&_docanchor=&_ct=58&_acct=C000050024&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=994540&md5=f5722342b0b816d41a40a2a141f5e7ef

On the other hand, the Islamic bioethics scholars remain deafeningly silent! :-)

]]> By: American Bedu http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13879 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:12:26 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13879 You’re welcome Chiara!

]]> By: Chiara http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13877 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:04:59 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13877 Thanks for confirming my impression of the high standards and currency of Saudi specialist practise. I did a brief search of islamic ethics and tattoos and cannot find anything. Sometimes Muslims, even knowledgeable ones are unaware of Islamic medical ethics recommendations, eg. in vitro fertilization is acceptable if the sperm is the legal husband’s; abortion is acceptable in a variety of circumstances and dependant on sect, etc.
Looks like a good topic for an Islamic medical ethics scholar–or to put on my topics list! Since that would take time, without wishing to be indiscreet and in no way needing an answer, I hope you are not in need of a tattoo, or can find a non-Saudi islamic ruling in favor, or a willingness elsewhere to perform “reconstructive tattooing”.

]]> By: American Bedu http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13853 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:49:51 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13853 Chiara – naturally if possible, doctors will try to salvage the nipple and aerola if having performed a mastectomy so it can be “reattached” during reconstruction surgery. However in some cases as I understand it is not an option if the cancer had been too evasive and there remained any risk that cancer could recur due to cells from within the nipple and aerola.

Glad you enjoyed the post. And yes…back in my “wild” days I did indeed sport a kitty on the shoulder for a few days! (LOL)

]]> By: Chiara http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13843 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:34:37 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13843 PS so nonplussed I mistyped “shoulder going”!

]]> By: Chiara http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-13842 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:31:38 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-13842 Got here belatedly from the off topic question on the Salukis thread but now I am glad I got to read this interesting post and comments. Some brief thoughts:

I understand there are times when mastectomy requires removal of the nipple because of cancer involvement, but I thought most often these days the surgery is done in such a way as to preserve the nipple and areolar area because they are hard to reconstruct, and psychologically the reconstruction is so important. Is that the case, when medically feasible in Saudi?

When removed, the nipple and areola can be reconstructed as mentionned, and this is best done a relatively short time after full settling of the reconstructed breast. No mention of medical or aesthetic time limit onthe reconstructive tattooing, however. Just a thought.

Many older Arab Muslim women in Morocco have facial tattoos, on forehead, and chin, in abstract patterns. So many haram grannies! Not to mention all the haram eyebrows in the Muslim world!

Re: gender and medical procedures (in my mind and by Canadian insurance guidelines reconstructive tattooing like reconstructive surgery is a medical procedure)–one of my male psychiatry professors used to say that the treatment of choice for pedophiles and rapists would be orchidectomy if men didn’t dominate the surgical profession. (that’s castration by testicle removal, in surgicalese–now you have to have their cooperation to have them take castrating hormones).

All that said, I am speechless at the thought of an unmarried, pseudo-tattooed, bare except for a kitty cat, smiling no less, female shouldergoing about in Pakistan!!!! :-)

Glad your care and recovery seem to be so excellent, American Bedu!

]]> By: American Bedu http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/22/no-tattoos-in-islam/#comment-9579 Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:19:36 +0000 http://delhi4cats.wordpress.com/?p=2048#comment-9579 Thanks for your candid comment, Andrea!

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