Tattoos

An interesting aspect of Jordanian society, especially Bedouin society, are the tattoos. Half the men here, at least out of the ones I've met, have a black tattoo on their hands or forearms. Most of them get them in Amman but some have gone to a Bedouin tattoo artist who does it with a hot needle and some ink. Either they are an Arabic letter or word or usually some sort of indistinguishable symbol. Every time I ask what they mean, they just smile and say its personal. It's very interesting because in Islam, tattoos are a no go, like most major faiths (don't destroy the body God gave you, etc., etc.). It's just another hypocrisy in this society that jumps out of you. I think, similar to Kenya, the tribal aspect of society, many of the times, overrules the religious aspects. In Kenya, it was with premarital sex/multiple "significant" others and here, there's a contradiction in regards to tattoos, war, respect of women (from my point-of-view), etc. We don't deal with a lot of tribalism in the states so when you encounter it here (which is all the time, your last name defines what tribe you belong to), it catches you off guard and it teaches you a lot more about the society which you will never read in a book or discover from a tour bus. I love it.