Sicanje orbocanje was atattoo custom practiced mostly amongCatholicCroat teenage girls and boys of the central regions ofBosnia and Herzegovina, as well as theDalmatia region ofCroatia.[1][2]
Tattooing of young girls and boys in Bosnia and Herzegovina is colloquially calledsicanje orbocanje, and it was a widespread custom mostly among Catholic Croats in the central regions.[3] The custom is thought to predate theSlavic migration to theBalkans and even Christianity.[4][5] In the 1st century BC, the Greek historianStrabo wrote of tattooing among inhabitants of this area, namely Illyrians andThracians,[6][7] along with other customs.[8] Until the 20th century, Albanians –Southern andNorthern,Catholics andMuslims, men and women – practised tattooing, a tradition considered to have been handed down from their Illyrian ancestors.[9][10] Also Vlach women fromGreece,Macedonia andHerzegovina utilized tattoos.[11] ArchaeologistĆiro Truhelka researched these types of tattoos in the late 19th century, becoming one of the first to write about them and to illustrate them.[12][13] In 1894, aBosnian-based doctor named Leopold Glück published an article inVienna titledDie 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.[14]
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) withChristian symbols andstećak 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.[15][16] Children were tattooed from as early as the age of six, usually during the period between the feast ofSaint Joseph in March to the feast ofSaint John the Baptist in June.[17]
The tattoo practice, which has been widespread amongAlbanians (seeAlbanian traditional tattooing) and alsoVlach women, native populations of thewestern Balkans, predates theSlavic migrations to the Balkans, and consequentlyChristianity itself, tracing back toIllyrian times, although scholars documented it in the 19th century. TheEastern Orthodox Slavic population abhorred this practice.[18]
The most common symbols tattooed were the cross (križ), bracelet (narukvica), fence (ograda), and branches or twigs (grančica).[19] The cross had numerous variations, with one of the most common ones included small branch-like lines called "grančica" or "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, orpagan symbols used, the most common consisting of circles believed to be connected to the traditional circle ("kolo") dances of the villages.[20] 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.[20][19] 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 inBosnia – especially the very common "twigs" – only after asking Albanians ofThethi–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 theMoon, of course". For Albanians, it was the traditional way to represent light, which emanated from theSun (Dielli) and from the Moon (Hëna), which was often represented as acrescent. 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 ofNature-worship andhearth-worship.[21] Furthermore, the crosses (includingswastikas) have been explained byIndo-Europeanist Karl Treimer as the symbol of theIllyrian fire god,Enji, who was the most prominent god of theAlbanian pantheon in Roman times by interpretingJupiter, when week-day names were formed in theAlbanian language as Thursday (e enjte) was dedicated to him.[22]
The custom of tattooing young girls and boys died out afterWorld War II with the establishment of theFPR Yugoslavia, and tattoos done by the traditional method are now only seen on old women.[23][24] Today, there is a growing trend of modern tattoo artists utilising the traditional designs with contemporary tattooing methods in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.[25]
In 2013, a documentary titledSicanje, bocanje, tetoviranje aired on Croatian television channelHRT 3.[24][26] In 2011,Vice published an article titled "The Croatian Tattooed Grandma Cult" about the phenomena.[27] Furthermore,Vice Serbia released a story and short film titledTetovirane bake (Tattooed Grandmas), where they interview various Bosnian Croat women about their tattoos.[28]