Throughout history, tattoos have borne the mark of old belief systems such as paganism, shamanism and Zoroastrianism as well as other cultural practices. Dating back to the Neolithic ages, tattooing has different connotations in different cultures. A symbol of status or religious beliefs and regarded in some cultures as engravings on the human body for therapeutic reasons and the treatment of rheumatism or arthritis, the art of tattooing has evolved in terms of method and reason over thousands of years.
In the lands where Kurds have lived for years, mostly in northern Syria and southeastern Turkey, a type of tattoo called "deq" has become a symbol that expresses the voices and emotions of the women who wear it, rather than its meaning.
Kurdish women who wear these symbols on their faces, hands and feet do not have a single reason for doing so. Some wear them for luck, some for fertility, some for healing, and some as an expression of the pain they have experienced in life.