Balkan Nationalists Bring Back Personality Cults in Tattoos of Ruling Politicians · Global Voices
Tattoos of former political leaders have to become so popular in the Balkans in recent years that it has has launched these leaders into worship-level status.
A previous tattoo tradition, mostly from the 1950s until the late 1980s in former Yugoslav states, was that of emblems and symbols of the Yugoslav People's Army. Conscripts who had to endure one to two years of mandatory military service often came back with almost prison-like tattoos as mementos. These included state symbols, images of weapons, or the face of then Yugoslav leader <PERSON>, while his personality cult was still going strong.
After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, images of other historical figures began to appear in tattoo form, in particular on the bodies of young males with a nationalist flare, such as images of 20th century Croatian fascist leader <PERSON> among Croats and of Chetnik Serb leader <PERSON> among Serbs. New color techniques began being used for new versions of <PERSON> tattoos as well, among those who remained nostalgic.
Tattoos of <PERSON> (earlier and newer versions), <PERSON>, and <PERSON>.
In 2009, Croatian daily Slobodna Dalmacija reported that a man from Banja Luka tattooed the image of contemporary Bosnian-Serb politician <PERSON>. The phenomenon of tattooing the faces of contemporary Balkan leaders seemed only to grown stronger after that.
Bosnian Serb politician <PERSON>'s face as tattoo and model photograph.
Current Macedonian right-wing Prime Minister <PERSON> has been in this seat since 2006. Over the years, some Macedonian social network users have shown their apparent devotion to the leader of Macedonia's ruling VMRO-DPMNE party by posting photos of their tattoos of <PERSON>. 739
One such man had tattooed the Prime Minister's name and surname, along with the letters VMRO and a cross. Another had <PERSON>'s face tattooed with an inscription that reads: “Loyal to the grave”.
Tattoos showing loyalty to Macedonian Prime Minister <PERSON>.
The most recent example of this phenomenon ended on the front page of the Macedonian newspaper Vest. A man from Shtip tattooed the faces of the prime minister's cousin and Secret Service chief <PERSON>, and his son. The tattooed man claimed he's grateful for the help provided by the powerful and wealthy VMRO-DPMNE offical throughout his life.
Front page of Macedonian daily Vest from August 7, 2014, with photo of a man with <PERSON> tattoos.
This revived tradition has been subject to ridicule by humorists in several Balkan countries. Croatian satirical site News Bar published a fake news piece about Croatian right-wing politician <PERSON> who, in this piece, asks a tattoo artist to put the image of the “greatest Croatian statesman of the 20th century” on his chest. Instead of his late party boss and Croatian leader <PERSON>, as expected, he gets a <PERSON> tattoo from the artist.
Macedonian independent political magazine Fokus also posted a a satirical piece recently, poking fun at two trends: the tattoos and the appointment of surprisingly young government ministers with very little prior experience to their name.
Откако неколку големи фанови на ВМРО-ДПМНЕ ги истетовираа ликот на Груевски и на Сашо Мијалков на своите рамења, владејачката партија реши да им излезе во пресрет и на најмалите и тие да ги украсат рацете со некој од вмровските функционери. 260