Cultural Semiotics of Tattoo Designs of Bakhtiari Women Living in Khuzestan

Indigenous and ethnic arts are an admirable part of the cultural heritage. Tattooing, meanwhile, has been as an old custom and a common practice around the world for a long time. This practice has been common among Bakhtiari tribes. The tattoo of Bakhtiari women living in Khuzestan is a manifestation of the culture of the tribes that express their beliefs and attitudes in the form of pictures on their bodies. This study evaluates the tattoo designs of Bakhtiari women living in Khuzestan using ethnography and cultural semiotics. The present study is an attempt to evaluate cultural concepts of tattoo motifs of Khuzestan Bakhtarian women represented through anthropological and cultural semeiotic approaches and to investigate the meaning of such tattoos, their meanings as well as the influence of culture, beliefs and convictions of these people emphasizing the views of Yuri Lotman (1984). The research method is descriptive-analytical and in addition to library resources, information was collected through interviews and field observations. The results of the research show that Bakhtiari women tattoos are used for various reasons such as decoration, healing, magical properties, and countering supernatural forces as well as protecting pregnant women against "Al". The Bakhtiari artist creates his works inspired by nature and the world, including cosmic, abstract geometric, animal, plant, ornaments, objects and sometimes human motifs. Some motifs such as the sun, star, rood, crux, Jinn believing … are symbolic and have a long presence in the ancient culture of the Bakhtiari tribe.