Iraqi soldier Saad Khudeir on Oct. 24 displays tattoos on his body to cover scars of the burns he was injured in a car bomb, in Baghdad, Iraq. In 2008, Khudeir lost his fiancee and suffered burns on his body when a car bomb went off near his home in Sadr City, a district on the eastern side of the capital. Four years later, he endured burns in nearly 70 percent of his body when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into his convoy in the then restive city of Fallujah.(Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)
Saad Khudeir displays his tattoo on his leg covering scars of the burns he suffered in a car bomb attack, in Baghdad, Iraq. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)
“People stared at me and sometimes I felt they were scared of me at the swimming pool,” Saad Khudeir, 36, told The Associated Press, recalling how he decided to cover up his scars. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)
Zuhair Atwan displays a tattoo of his brother, who was killed in sectarian violence, in a tattoo studio Oct. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq. The Arabic sentence on his arm reads,
A man gets a tattoo on his arm in a tattoo studio in Baghdad, Iraq, on Oct. 23. One tattoo shop owner said he receives an average of 20 people a year who want to cover their scars with tattoos, a nearly 30 percent increase from last year. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)

A man gets a tattoo on his arm in a tattoo studio in Baghdad, Iraq, on Oct. 23. One tattoo shop owner said he receives an average of 20 people a year who want to cover their scars with tattoos, a nearly 30 percent increase from last year. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)