Sicanje

File:On Wednesday 16th October 1912 - French photographer Auguste Léon was in Sarajevo, -Bosnia, where he took this autochrome of a tattooed Catholic woman.jpg.]]

Tattooing of young girls and boys in Bosnia and Herzegovina is colloquially called {{lang|sh|sicanje}} or {{lang|sh|bocanje}}, and it was a widespread custom mostly among Catholic Croats in the central regions.{{cite web |last1=Jukić |first1=Monika |title=Tradicionalno tetoviranje Hrvata u Bosni i Hercegovini - bocanje kao način zaštite od Osmanlija |url=https://www.academia.edu/18927069 }} The custom is thought to predate the Slavic migration to the Balkans and even Christianity.The Early Age of Greece; Cambridge University Press, p493-496{{cite web |last1=Антанасьевич |first1=Ирина |title=Татуировки балканских женщин: украшение, исповедание или оберег? |url=https://taday.ru/text/2070522.html }} In the 1st century BC, the Greek historian Strabo wrote of tattooing among inhabitants of this area, namely Illyrians and Thracians,{{Cite web |author=Marija Maračić |author2=Josipa Karača |title=The Tradition of Sicanje in Bosnia and Herzegovina |url=https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/sicanje/ |access-date=24 June 2022 |website=Michael Schwartz Library {{!}} Cleveland State University}}Ćiro Truhelka:Die Tätowirung bei den Katholiken Bosniens und der Hercegovina (published in Wissenschaftliche Mittheilungen Aus Bosnien und der Hercegovina, herausgegeben vom Bosnisch-Hercegovinischen Landesmuseum in Sarajevo, redigiert von Dr. Moriz Hoernes, Vierter Band, Wien 1896) along with other customs.Albania and the Albanians: selected articles and letters 1903-1944, by M. Edith Durham, Harry Hodgkinson, Bejtullah D. Destani Until the 20th century, Albanians – Southern and Northern, Catholics and Muslims, men and women – practised tattooing, a tradition considered to have been handed down from their Illyrian ancestors.{{cite journal|last=Lelaj|first=Olsi|title=Mbi tatuazhin në shoqërinë shqiptare|trans-title=On Tattoo in the Albanian Society|journal=Kultura Popullore|volume=34|issue=71–72|year=2015|issn=2309-5717|publisher=Centre of Albanological Studies|pages=91–118}}{{harvnb|Tirta|2004|pp=68–70}}; {{harvnb|Durham|2004|p=94}} Also Vlach women from Greece, Macedonia and Herzegovina utilized tattoos.{{cite web |title=Oldest Tattoo Shop in Greece by Lars Krutak |url=http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoos_in_Greece.htm |website=The Vanishing Tattoo |access-date=4 November 2020}} Archaeologist Ćiro Truhelka researched these types of tattoos in the late 19th century, becoming one of the first to write about them and to illustrate them.Truhelka, Ciro. Wissenschaftliche Mittheilungen Aus Bosnien und der Hercegovina: "Die Tätowirung bei den Katholiken Bosniens und der Hercegovina." Sarajevo; Bosnian National Museum, 1896.{{cite journal |last1=Lipa |first1=Aida |title=THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN PERIOD IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINACultural Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Creation of the Western Type of Art |journal=Kakanien Revisited |date=26 May 2006 |url=https://www.kakanien-revisited.at/beitr/fallstudie/ALipa1.pdf |access-date=4 November 2020}} In 1894, a Bosnian-based doctor named Leopold Glück published an article in Vienna titled {{lang|de|Die Tätowirung der Haut bei den Katholiken Bosniens und der Herzegowina}} (The Tattooing of Skin Among the Catholics of Bosnia and Herzegovina) detailing the tattoos observed among the locals.{{cite journal |last1=Glück |first1=Leopold |title=Die Tätowirung der Haut bei den Katholiken Bosniens und der Hereegovina. |journal=Wissenschaftliche Mitteilungen aus Bosnien und der Herzegowina |date=1894 |volume=II |pages=455–462 |url=https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Wiss-Mitt-Bosnien-Hercegovina_2_1894_0455-0462.pdf}}

Women in some parts of the country tattooed their hands and other visible parts of the body (such as brow, cheeks, wrist, or below the neck) with Christian symbols and {{lang|hr|stećak}} ornaments. Boys were also tattooed with the same symbols mostly above the elbow on the right arm, chest, forehead, and pointer finger. This can be seen today, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina but among ethnic Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina living abroad.{{cite web |title=Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina |url=http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/et02.html#tattoo |publisher=CROATIA - overview of |access-date=4 November 2020}}{{cite book |last1=Herzl Gaster |first1=Theodor |title=Customs and folkways of Jewish life |date=1 January 1955 |publisher=W. Sloane Associates |page=256}} Children were tattooed from as early as the age of six, usually during the period between the feast of Saint Joseph in March to the feast of Saint John the Baptist in June.{{cite web |last1=Medić Bošnjak |first1=Marija |title=Stari običaj 'križićanje' ili "sicanje" izumire |url=https://www.ljportal.com/stari-obicaj-krizicanje-sicanje-izumire-10727/ |publisher=Večernji list}}

File:Frau aus dem Lasvatale.jpg in central Bosnia.]]

The most common symbols tattooed were the cross ({{Lang|hr|križ}}), bracelet ({{Lang|hr|narukvica}}), fence ({{Lang|hr|ograda}}), and branches or twigs ({{Lang|hr|grančica}}).{{cite web |last1=Rodríguez Rodríguez |first1=Laura |title=A tatuaxe sicanje: Resistencia católica ou paganismo herdado? |url=https://www.mazarelos.gal/a-tatuaxe-sicanje-resistencia-catolica-ou-paganismo-herdado }} The cross had numerous variations, with one of the most common ones included small branch-like lines called "{{Lang|hr|grančica}}" or "{{Lang|hr|jelica}}" (pine tree). Bracelet-like designs were sometimes tattooed around the women's wrists, either with crosses or a fence-like motif. There were many non-Christian, or pagan symbols used, the most common consisting of circles believed to be connected to the traditional circle ("{{Lang|hr|kolo}}") dances of the villages.{{cite web |last1=Ralica |first1=Iva |title=Traditional Croatian Tattoos |url=https://www.croatiaweek.com/traditional-croatian-tattoos/ |access-date=19 December 2021}} The pagan and Christian symbols were mixed together indiscriminately, with the first originating from nature and family in Illyrian times, and the other with later adapted Christian meaning. The most common areas to tattoos were the arms and hands (including fingers), and on the chest and forehead.

Edith Durham, who extensively studied Balkan traditional tattooing with fieldwork research, was able to thoroughly explain the patterns of Catholic tattoos in Bosnia – especially the very common "twigs" – only after asking Albanians of Thethi–Shala for a description of all the little lines that accompanied a semicircle incised on an old gravestone. They answered that those twigs were "the light coming from the Moon, of course". For Albanians, it was the traditional way to represent light, which emanated from the Sun (Dielli) and from the Moon (Hëna), which was often represented as a crescent. So, the patterns of Catholic tattoos in Bosnia, which until then were known as "circles, semicircles, and lines or twigs", eventually were clearly explained as compounds of rayed (emanating light) suns, moons, and crosses, from an expression of Nature-worship and hearth-worship.{{sfn|Durham|1928|pp=102–106}} Furthermore, the crosses (including swastikas) have been explained by Indo-Europeanist Karl Treimer as the symbol of the Illyrian fire god, Enji, who was the most prominent god of the Albanian pantheon in Roman times by interpreting Jupiter, when week-day names were formed in the Albanian language as Thursday ({{lang|sq|e enjte}}) was dedicated to him.{{sfn|Treimer|1971|p=32}}

File:Tatouages des catholiques de Bosnie-Herzégovine.jpg

The custom of tattooing young girls and boys died out after World War II with the establishment of the FPR Yugoslavia, and tattoos done by the traditional method are now only seen on old women.{{cite news |title=Sa staricama odlazi i tradicija tetoviranja krsta u BiH |url=https://rs.n1info.com/lifestyle/a218223-tetoviranje-krsta-bih/ |publisher=N1 Info |date=30 December 2016}}{{cite web |last1=Duilo |first1=Dražen |title=Sicanje, bocanje: što se skriva iza tetovaža na rukama baka diljem Bosne i Hercegovine |url=https://slobodnadalmacija.hr/mozaik/zivot/sicanje-bocanje-sto-se-skriva-iza-tetovaza-na-rukama-baka-diljem-bosne-i-hercegovine-322869 }} Today, there is a growing trend of modern tattoo artists utilising the traditional designs with contemporary tattooing methods in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.{{cite web |title=Traditional Croatian Tattoos: Meet the tattoo artist keeping tradition alive |url=https://www.croatiaweek.com/traditional-croatian-tattoos-meet-the-tattoo-artist-keeping-tradition-alive/ |website=Croatia Week |date=3 March 2021}}

In 2013, a documentary titled {{lang|hr|Sicanje, bocanje, tetoviranje}} aired on Croatian television channel HRT 3.{{cite web |title=Sicanje, bocanje, tetoviranje (2013) |url=https://tvprofil.com/film/3434626/sicanje-bocanje-tetoviranje }} In 2011, Vice published an article titled "The Croatian Tattooed Grandma Cult" about the phenomena.{{cite web |last1=Hoban |first1=Alex |title=The Croatian Tattooed Grandma Cult |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/wdpq5m/atlas-hoods-the-croatian-tattoo-grandma-cult |website=Vice |access-date=1 January 2022}} Furthermore, Vice Serbia released a story and short film titled {{lang|sr|Tetovirane bake}} (Tattooed Grandmas), where they interview various Bosnian Croat women about their tattoos.{{cite web |last1=Petrovic |first1=Katarina |title=Tetovirane bake |url=https://www.vice.com/sr/article/wnde9n/tetovirane-bake }}

• Religious perspectives on tattooing

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Durham|first=Edith|title=Albania and the Albanians: Selected Articles and Letters, 1903–1944|editor=Bejtullah D. Destani|publisher=I.B.Tauris|year=2004|isbn=1850439397}}
• {{cite book|last1=Durham|first1=Edith|author-link=Edith Durham|title=Some tribal origins, laws and customs of the Balkans|year=1928|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSSBAAAAMAAJ}}

• {{cite book|last=Norman|first=Camilla|chapter=Illyrian Vestiges in Daunian Costume: tattoos, string aprons and a helmet|title=Realtà medioadriatiche a confronto: contatti e scambi tra le due sponde. Atti del convegno Termoli 22-23 luglio 2016|editor=Gianfranco De Benedittis|publisher=Università degli Studi del Molise|place=Campobasso|year=2018|pages=57–71}}

• {{cite book|last=Tirta|first=Mark|title=Mitologjia ndër shqiptarë|language=sq|editor=Petrit Bezhani|publisher=Mësonjëtorja|year=2004|place=Tirana|isbn=99927-938-9-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Treimer|first=Karl|editor=Henrik Barić |title=Arhiv za Arbanasku starinu, jezik i etnologiju|volume=I|chapter=Zur Rückerschliessung der illyrischen Götterwelt und ihre Bedeutung für die südslawische Philologie|pages=27–33|publisher=R. Trofenik|year=1971|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dTIBAAAAMAAJ}}

• [https://www.artinfo.ba/index.php/kultura/18030-tradicionalno-tetoviranje-iscezli-obicaj-katolika-u-bosni Tradicionalno tetoviranje: Iščezli običaj katolika u Bosni]
• [https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/sicanje/ Cleveland State University Engaged Scholardship: SICANJE]

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Category:Culture of Albania

Category:Culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Category:Culture of Croatia

Category:History of the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Category:Tattooing and religion

Category:Catholic Church in the Ottoman Empire

Category:Ottoman period in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Category:Religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina during Ottoman period

Category:Tattooing traditions