Description

Girgis’ open-air stand, just outside the church gates, has been his studio for almost two decades. For that long, he has been among the small ranks of Coptic tattooists, marking his subjects with symbols that identify Egypt’s Christian minority. The Copts have long felt themselves a repressed minority they are thought to make up about 10 percent of the country’s population, and their tattoos can serve as a means of communal identity in a country that has a history of sectarian friction.