Tattoo artist hostage freed by Hamas shares defiant new ink in moving Instagram post

A tattoo artist who was freed after being held hostage by Hamas has had a new tattoo in defiance against the 7 October attacks in Israel.

21-year-old Mia Schem is an Israeli-French tattoo artist who was kidnapped from a desert rave by Hamas at the site where 364 young people were killed.

After more than 50 days in captivity, Schem was freed on 30 November as part of a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas that saw Israeli hostages and Palestinian captives freed.

Since her release, Schem has marked her harrowing ordeal with a defiant new tattoo that reads, “We will dance again” with the date “7.10.23” written below it.

In a moving Instagram post, she shared a picture of the tattoo, inked on her left forearm, along with her thoughts and feelings behind it.

Translated from Hebrew, Schem shared: “I will never forget 7.10.23. The pain and fear, the difficult scenes, the friends who will not return and those we must return. But we will win. We will dance!”

Before her release, Schem was seen in a video receiving treatment for an injury on her arm that required a three-hour surgery by a veterinarian.

In the video, she said: “They are taking care of me, giving me medicine, everything is fine. I only ask that they bring me home as soon as possible to my parents, to my siblings. Get me out of here as soon as possible. Please.”

After her release her aunt, Vivian Hadar, explained: “She’s thin, she’s weak. A veterinarian operated on her arm. She did physical therapy for herself. She knew she needed to give herself hand massages.”

She added that her niece is still “very sore” but “we are glad that she is with us”. The family are said to be “looking forward” and are trying to move on from the deeply traumatic experience.

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