STOCKHOLM. – “Grandma Khanoum was not like others. As a child I remember her as a wicked woman. She despised physical contact. This was a grandma who never hugged or kissed. And she wore gloves, which hid her hands and the tattoos. They hid her secret, this is how Suzanne Khardalian, Stockholm, describes her grandmother, Asbarez reports.

Khardalian is the director and producer of riveting new film “Grandma’s Tattoos” that reveals the veil of thousands of forgotten Armenian women, who survived the Genocide but were forced into prostitution and were tattooed to distinguish them from the locals.

“As a child I thought these were devilish signs that came from a dark world. They stirred fear in me. I had no idea of these tattoos or who had done them and why. But the tattoos on grandma’s hands and face never spoke about it,” explains Khardalian.

“Grandma’s Tattoos” is a journey into the secrets of the family. Eventually, the secret behind Grandma Khanoum’s blue marks are revealed. According to the director, her grandma was abducted and kept in slavery for many years in Turkey. She was also forcibly tattooed as a property. The discovery of the story has shaken the author. Grandma Khanoum’s fate was not an aberration. On the contrary, tens of thousands of Armenian children and teenagers were raped and abducted, and kept in slavery.

In 1919 the Allied forces reclaimed 90,819 Armenians, young girls and children, who during the World War I years, were forced to become prostitutes to survive, or had given birth to children after forced or arranged marriages or rape. Many of these women were tattooed as a sign that they belonged to abductor. European and American missionaries organized help and picked up and saved thousands of refugees who later were scattered all over the world.