Washm (tattooing)

وَشْم

In the lexicon washm is a mark, and the word is also used for the first green growth of a plant and for a change of skin colour from a blow or fall. Technically it is piercing the skin with a needle until blood comes, then rubbing on indigo or kohl so that the mark turns blue or green. ¹ A woman who is tattooed at her own request is the mustawshima, and the tattooer is the washima, who marks the face, arm, lips, chest or any part of the body. ¹ The wasm (branding) is a mark made by fire or by a stipulated sign; it differs from tattooing in its tool and its ruling. ² Most jurists hold tattooing forbidden, on sound reports cursing the tattooer and the one tattooed; some later Malikis and Shafi'is count it among the grave sins, and some later Malikis call it disliked. ² Some jurists exempt two cases: when tattooing is the only treatment for an illness, and when a wife tattoos herself to adorn herself for her husband with his permission; a report from A'isha on the second point is cited, its hadith source not found by the book. ²³ The jurists agree that tattooing is impure, because blood is held in the place where the dye was rubbed. ³ They differ on removal: the Hanafis hold that washing suffices and skinning is not required, since the mark is hard to remove, and prayer and leading prayer are valid with it; the Malikis do not require removal by fire when it was done in the forbidden manner, treating it as a pardoned impurity; the Shafi'is require removal unless it risks harm that permits tayammum, and do not require it of a minor or a person forced; the Hanbalis compare it to a wound stitched with impure thread, so removal is not required where removal risks harm, and is required where it does not; a dead person who was bound to remove it is cleaned unless the cleaning would mutilate the body. ³⁴ For the Hanafis, the fee a tattooer takes for forbidden tattooing is unlawful gain and forbidden. ⁴