Method of Making Pigment.
A method for making the dye for tattooing is as follows. Put a piece of blue cotton cloth (color nil, “indigo”) in a dish with ordinary dihn (mutton fat used for cooking), and set this rag afire. Hold a second plate over it to catch the smoke. When the rag has finished burning, the soot is scraped off the bottom of the upper plate and put in a cup or tea glass (istikan) and mixed with a little water.
“A Tattooer at Mosul,” p.78 in Body-Marking in Southwestern Asia, 1958.
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