Tattoos help to locate patients with mental problems
Hasan Bozal, owner of Tattoo Studio (IHA Photo)


A tattoo parlor in the western Turkish city of Manisa offers free tattoos with the name, phone number and address for sufferers of Alzheimer's disease and mentally handicapped people. Engraved on the wrist, tattoos help to locate the patients if they go missing, a case especially frequent among Alzheimer's patients.Hasan Bozal, who runs Tattoo Studio, said they inscribe first and last names and phone numbers of family members and their addresses on the wrist as part of a social responsibility project. "It started when two women came here and asked if we could inscribe such a tattoo for a relative of theirs. Then, we decided to offer it for free to other people. It is common among people with mental ailments to get lost. But now, they can be located if anyone sighting them calls the numbers we inscribed," he said.