In the studio of seventeen-year-old Olha Petruk, patriotic tattoos are the most commonly requested. Some people want Patron the dog all over their chest, others want the lines of the song “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow” on their arm. The military get chevrons or unit names. But the most unexpected thing for the girl was a client’s request to ink her name on the fingers.

Olha lives in Zaporizhzhia, where shelling is commonplace. She combines her studies and work as a tattoo artist, and it is this business that helps her keep her balance. For her, tattooing is not just a way to earn money, but a way to find inner peace in the chaos of war. “It’s a meditative process”, she says. Olha dreams of Kyiv, where she wants to study and live.

She told her story during her participation in the Peaceful Rest for Children of Ukraine programme in Zakarpattia, organised by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.