October 7 brought unspeakable darkness to Israel, leaving countless men, women, and children grappling with grief, fear, and ongoing trauma, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In the search for light amid that darkness, Art Over Hate, a 501(3) nonprofit, has mobilized an international community of artists working alongside trauma professionals to deliver unique arts-based programming designed to support healing on the ground.
The non-profit’s mission is “to mitigate the suffering of those affected by war and terrorism through trauma-informed arts-based healing initiatives.” Through that work, Art Over Hate argues for something both ancient and urgently modern: art can be a form of care, and creativity can open doors when conventional approaches fall short.
Gal Gilboa-Dalal receives a tattoo from Alex Trufant. His brother, Guy, was taken hostage on October 7, 2023. Gal got a tattoo of their favorite song, and when Guy was let go from captivity this year, he loved his brother’s tattoo so much that he asked Healing Ink to give him a matching one when the organization returns to Israel (courtesy of Craig Dershowitz).
Tattooing to heal
One of Art Over Hate’s projects, Healing Ink, uses the art of tattooing as a healing modality, offering tattoos that cover the scars of survivors of mass violence, first and second responders, and the families of victims.
The initiative is rooted in a simple but powerful idea: for some people living with trauma, tattooing can help them reclaim ownership of their bodies and their stories. Healing Ink acknowledges that healing is not one-size-fits-all and that different communities and people respond to different approaches.
Still, the project has found that for many participants, tattooing is an underexplored, powerful resource, offering relief in deeply personal ways, whether through transforming a visible scar, creating a memorial, inviting conversation with supportive peers, or replacing a painful association with something chosen, intentional, and beautiful. At its core, Healing Ink’s work suggests that healing can be collective, imperfect, and profoundly human.
Scale, impact, and expansion
Art Over Hate CEO Craig Dershowitz told Unpacked that Healing Ink is “the realization of so many dreams,” including “the ability to provide trauma relief for those who are otherwise treatment resistant,” and “a chance to elevate the art of tattoo to its rightful place as an art form and a healing strategy.” He said the program, which serves terror survivors, IDF soldiers injured in combat, and families of victims, is currently being reviewed by Tel Aviv, Ariel, and Bar-Ilan Universities, which he said are seeing its “life-changing” impact for people “not finding healing elsewhere.” Dershowitz added that Art Over Hate currently works in Israel once a year and runs one event in the United States annually, and that since October 7, it has tripled the number of recipients it supports, with a goal of expanding programming in Israel and adding a European component.
“Each artist comes from recommendations from previous artists, so that we know their hearts are in the right place and they are chosen for their talent and tenderness,” Dershowitz said, adding that the organization has partnered with many high-profile tattoo artists, so they can raise more awareness on the project.
A survivor of the Nova festival prepares for his leg tattoo (courtesy of Craig Dershowitz)
Stories from the chair
Dershowitz explained that after tattooing hundreds of people, it’s difficult to point to a single “most impactful” story, because the project is built around the reality that trauma is both widespread and profoundly personal. Participants included Nova festival survivors, bereaved parents and siblings, released hostages, widows, orphans, combat soldiers, and others impacted by the attack and its aftermath.
“Having tattooed more than 500 worthy individuals with their own unique traumas and resilient healing, it is impossible for Healing Ink to select just one or even one hundred particularly impactful stories. Each recipient has survived and flourished after horrific circumstances or are heroes who have rescued individuals under the most grueling circumstances,” he said.
One story Dershowitz said stays with him is an Israeli participant who had been left completely blind after being struck by rocket shrapnel in a Gaza envelope community. Healing Ink has worked with many courageous people harmed in Hamas attacks, but this case was different: he couldn’t see the tattoo at all. Still, simply knowing it was there brought him comfort, and when the artist carefully traced the design on his skin so he could feel it, Dershowitz said the moment was devastatingly emotional.
Beyond his firsthand observations and the program’s growing body of outcomes, Dershowitz also shared academic research with Unpacked from the Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, which is studying Healing Ink’s impact as a trauma-informed, community-based intervention.
Adding legitimacy to less traditional forms of healing
An academic research team with expertise in trauma, grief, and symbolic healing accompanies the project. The team includes Prof. Michal Mahat-Shamir of Ariel University (who specializes in complex grief and narrative reconstruction following traumatic loss), Dr. Adi Barak of Bar-Ilan University (who studies trauma and bereavement in political and ideological contexts, with a focus on symbolic coping practices), and Dr. Ayelet Oreg of Bar-Ilan University (who focuses on ritual, embodiment, and nonverbal meaning-making).
The study asks: How does tattooing contribute to meaning-making after traumatic loss? And in what ways can an embodied, image-based practice support emotional expression and stabilization when words feel insufficient?
A survivor of the 2012 Aurora theater shooting gets a tattoo on his leg. The other he lost to the attack (courtesy of Craig Dershowitz).
The researchers approach tattooing as a nonverbal practice for integrating traumatic experience. By marking the skin with images of personal significance, survivors may externalize inner pain and inscribe new layers of identity, continuity, and resilience. In that framing, the tattoo becomes more than aesthetic; it becomes testimony: a visible symbol of survival and a tool for rebuilding a fractured narrative.
The team reports it is currently analyzing a qualitative dataset that includes nearly 150 written and visual testimonies, along with in-depth interviews conducted before and after the tattooing process. Preliminary findings suggest participants consistently describe the experience as emotionally meaningful and psychologically transformative. Many cite the collaboration with artists, the translation of emotion into imagery, and the communal ritual of “bodily inscription” as sources of comfort, validation, and renewed coherence.
The study ultimately positions Healing Ink not only as personal expression, but as a psychosocial intervention: a therapeutic, embodied practice that may support emotional processing, resilience, agency, and belonging. It also notes that further work depends on sustained financial support to expand Healing Ink’s reach.
Why Healing Ink was born
Dershowitz was born and raised in a diverse Brooklyn neighborhood, an upbringing he says shaped the way he later approached Israel advocacy and coalition-building.
“I experienced a challenging but also interesting childhood, which, when synthesized with my adult experiences, allowed me to see things from a perspective that was lacking in the pro-Israel space,” Dershowitz said. “The pro-Israel space was dominated by groupthink, old leadership, and adherence to failed ideas. It did not know how to speak to non-Jewish communities without turning them into outsiders or creating a transactional relationship. I came in as an outsider, able to speak to these communities and translate for the Jewish world.”
A 911 Operator who handled multiple calls during the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs gets a tattoo of a flower on her shoulder to help add beauty to the place she normally keeps her work phone (courtesy of Craig Dershowitz)
Dershowitz also shared the personal story that helped spark the idea behind Healing Ink.
“My father passed away when I was 16 in a tragic way,” he said. “He and I had a challenging relationship, as many teenagers and their fathers do. He died when he and I were on very bad terms, and it wasn’t until I grew older, matured, and understood my family dynamics better that I could fully make sense of my feelings and the nuances of the man. I was saddled with guilt for many years after those realizations, until finally coming to terms with the fact that my father and I both did the best with the tools we had available to us at the time. Over time, I developed a love for him that I wish I could have expressed in person when he was still alive.
“In that moment, I realized I wanted a tattoo to commemorate him and the lessons he taught me. After all, he was no longer here for me to speak to, so the tattoo became a physical manifestation of an emotional realization, and an opportunity to externalize a conversation that had been far too internal for far too long. I knew I was speaking to a ghost, but the tattoo seemed like another form of prayer, supplication, and expression. As people, we find so many ways to communicate. Tattoos are another, and they are powerful because they are created in our blood and in permanence.”
At the time, Dershowitz said, he already had tattoos, but most were not visible, and he sensed there would be resistance to any initiative that brought tattooing into the open within Jewish and Israel community spaces.
“I had many tattoos at the time, but most were hidden,” he said. “I also had some idea about tattoos as healing, but the Jewish and Israeli community was not willing to accept any program that would make tattooing visible, either.
“While getting my tattoo for my father, a celebrity chef walked into the studio. He was a personal hero of mine because he was the first openly, heavily tattooed person on a TV show I had ever seen. He was an award-winning chef, a TV personality, and also a Mexican who was tattooed full-body, including neck and hands. It couldn’t have been a more perfect sign. The meaning of my father’s tattoo, and the power of healing tattoos, must be shared with the world, and that eventually there would be room for that healing ink to be understood by others. Healing Ink began that day.”
