Tattoo the pain

Many bereaved families choose to commemorate their loved ones through tattoos.

Questions about the tattoo open the door to a conversation about the fallen son - and to memory.

"That way they will not forget him," explains Nava, Niran Cohen's mother, and Edna, Erez Sagi's mother, says in pain: "It's hard to raise a dead child, instead of buying him a car I get a tattoo."

Yael Friedson

04/05/2022

Wednesday, 04 May 2022, 13:11

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At first glance, Nava Cohen looks like a cool grandmother, with long hair and tattoos on her wrist.

However, a few seconds in which the eye catches the name Niran Cohen and the two dates and the emblem of the 75th Battalion, are enough to understand that the tattoos commemorate her son, who fell in Operation Eitan Cliff.

"I was not tattooed. I had a small dolphin tattoo I did at age 40 on my back," Nava says.

"When I turned 48 and got our blow when my son was killed, after a few months I decided to tattoo my son on my body, and tattooed his name with his date of birth and fall and then continued with more tattoos that all symbolize Niran," his mother added.

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"A few months after he fell I decided to get a tattoo."

The tattoo with the date of birth and fall of Niran Cohen (Photo: Courtesy of the family)

In the case of the Sagi family, already at the end of Shiva on the son Erez, who also fell on a solid cliff, the whole family decided to tattoo a cedar tree in their memory in his memory.

"I tattooed the word cedar with a crown, because he was the king of the family," explains Edna Sagi, Erez's mother.

"Then I added more tattoos."

Cohen and Sagi are not alone.

Along with the traditional ways of commemorating the fallen, such as marches, events and bringing a Torah scroll into a synagogue, many bereaved families choose to commemorate their loved ones through tattoos.

"A lot of parents from Eitan Cliff are tattooed, a lot of parents of Golanchiks with wood, others with a tattoo related to white. This is a walking commemoration," Nava explains.

"People see the tattoo and sensitively ask you what the story is. Everyone who asks gets an answer and everyone says 'wow, what tattoos', get excited. It's a tattoo with meaning, it's not a flower or a heart, it's my son's meaning."

Tattoo the pain.

A tattoo in memory of Erez Sagi against the background of his photos (Photo: Reuven Castro)

"As long as I'm alive - they will remember him"

Niran was born on Hanukkah in 1993, hence its name - a candle that spreads light, and a candle that symbolizes joy.

He is the second child of Nava and Ofer, brother of Moore, Almog and Kobi.

"I had an amazing child. Every mother would say that her child is amazing, there is nothing more precious than children. He was a calm, comfortable, peaceful, sociable child - and on the other hand very shy and introverted. He always knew his place and the other, such a humble child," says Nava.

"Only after he was killed did I find out how much he secretly gave, because he was so humble he did not tell. To the soldiers, he would work week-to-week and work in air conditioners, I found out from his boss that he would send him to private installations and if he saw there was nothing to eat but needed Fix the air conditioner, so he would install them for free. "

Towards the end of high school Niran met his girlfriend Aster, and the two were a couple until his death.

In August 2012, Niran enlisted in the IDF, serving as a cook in the 75th Battalion of the 7th Brigade of the Armored Corps. During Operation Eitan, a mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in the assembly area, killing Niran and three other fighters

. A menorah with three candles, since Niran was born in the third Hanukkah candle, a star for every child when Niran's star had angel wings added, and Niran used to say to her, "Mom, everything will be fine." Niran's sisters also tattooed symbols associated with him. Niran's love for the kitchen, and another sister cable with headphones because Niran was killed while listening to music with headphones in his ears.

"Every tattoo belongs to Niran, so it takes on a different meaning," Niran's mother next to his photos (Photo: courtesy of the family)

"Every tattoo belongs to Niran, so it gets a different meaning," his mother says.

"Whenever people ask 'does not it hurt you?', I tell them it's not even a drop of pain. My inner pain is losing the child, everything they do to me in the body will not hurt me, you overcome any pain in the body. That's how they will remember Niran. "And they will not forget him. As long as I am alive they will remember him."

"Mom, everything will be fine", Edna's tattoos in memory of her son (Photo: courtesy of the family)

"Every Like is Traces That Leave Erez With Us": A WhatsApp Message Tattoo That Has Go Viral

The tattoo by Edna Sagi went viral a few years ago after the tattoo artist uploaded a picture with the story.

Sagi asked to tattoo the latest WhatsApp message that Erez sent her for her birthday, with the date he "was last seen" on WhatsApp.

"I wrote him a message at seven in the morning, 'Good morning, my child.' "Sick of you."

Erez is the eldest of his parents Edna and Ilan, a brother to Noam and Shai.

He studied at the Reali military boarding school in Haifa, and planned a military career.

"He's an amazing kid, really sometimes I would look at him and say, 'What, is this mine? Could it be?'" His mother says with nostalgia.

"He was born a leader by birth, he swept people and us after him. A boy everyone loved to love, a fun kid who loved life. Sometimes I look at his room and see a horse-riding helmet, a whole life. Where did you rush to? Everything was enough. He knew he was enlisting. For six years, then he made a pre-military trip to Thailand. "

"Love you the most in the world", tattoo of the latest WhatsApp message (Photo: Reuven Castro)

The tattoos are part of Edna's way of dealing with her son's death.

"My desire is to talk about Erez and leave him here. When a human being is alive he leaves traces everywhere, and he is not here to do that," she explains.

"I want them to ask, I want him to leave traces everywhere, that's why I'm here. It's like a kind of commemoration, but I was never asked. The others are asked all the time, a conversation is opened about Erez, the tattoo did its thing."

Sagi was surprised by the reactions to the WhatsApp tattoo.

"It embarrassed me that it went viral," she says, "on the other hand I was happy. It's cedar, I do not know how many likes there were, but every single like it's cedar. These are traces that leave it with us."

"I want them to ask", tattoos in memory of Erez Sagi in the background of his photos (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Over the years, more tattoos were added, such as a pulse that died with the date Erez fell, or a sentence he suggested to his cousin Yaniv for a tattoo together: "In their deaths they commanded us life," in English.

"Yaniv wrote to him - 'No, it foretells evil,' and Erez told him, 'That's why I want to be a warrior.' So this is a tattoo I did in his place, for him."

"I became like a bulletin board, a memorial board," she adds cynically.

"It's perfectly clear to me, part of a case grows in me, it's the strong desire to keep it in our daily lives, not to run away from us, to stay with us, how much I would like it back."

"Oops, it's hard to raise a dead child," Edna sighs.

"Every mother has the desire to pamper her child, probably when raising a dead child it manifests itself like this. Sometimes there is no other way to give him gifts, to unload my love for him, there is no one to receive it. Instead of buying him a car I do a tattoo."

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