Tattoo: The Living Art

Tattoos can well be defined as live art reflecting an individual’s unique personality, psyche and character. Getting a tattoo is no more a fad but a common practice today. Tattoos are worn by the rich and famous as well as the poor and unknown. People with tattoos have one thing in common – their desire to enhance their self-image through the use of colorful skin designs. Ready to take a plunge?


Ancient, forgotten tribes have from eons immemorial used coloured ink to depict primitive human characteristics like tribal status, personal achievements, personality traits, gods, demons and the forces of nature in the form of decorative body art, known to the modern civilisation as ‘tattoos’. In the primitive ages, certain colours might have represented success in love or war; various animal symbols could have suggested a desirable personality trait. But the art of tattooing in modern times is a cult – far more dynamic in character, much more varied in its depictions.

Specialised tattoo artists inject coloured dye below the skin’s surface using a hollow needle. Tiny dots of colour are injected along a pre-selected design. When the ‘mildly’ painful task is over, a colourful pattern emerges to illustrate a picture, a verbal phrase, a symbol or even an object. A tattoo can be made on any part of the human body, depending on whether one wants it for public display or personal viewing only. The size may range from a tiny dot to gigantic designs that spread across the length of the torso, a limb or even the entire back. Tattoos are an addiction and it is a common practice by those who already have one to return back for more.

Why do you want a tattoo?

Different people get different tattoos for very different reasons. The motive may be interesting, bizarre, personal, obscure or even funny. Head-bangers and DJs get tattoos to impersonate popular rock-stars like Eminem and increase their ‘cool-quotient’. People in love get names of their partners tattooed on their arms, wrists, neck, back, chest, et al, just too please their partners or prove their commitment in the relationship. A few others get tattoos to show their affiliation to a group – Marxists, capitalists, nihilists, romantics, raiders, pirates or even alcoholics! Some get it to identify themselves with a certain sub-culture famous for tattoos while others wear them to flaunt their independence, individuality, style and uniqueness. As ironical as it may sound, some people get themselves tattooed to remind themselves of fond memories of a special period in their life and some to remind themselves of the hurt inflicted upon them by someone who didn’t care! Quite frankly, all of the above are valid reasons for getting tattoos.

“Portraits of your loved ones or gods are very much in this season. This is people’s way of showing how much they care for them,” says tattoo artist Lokesh Verma from Devil’z Tattooz.“People prefer portraits of their spouses, girlfriends and kids. In fact, I recently did a portrait of a guy’s girlfriend on his arm. One of my other famous portraits has been Heath Ledger’s character of ‘The Joker’ from ‘The Dark Knight’. People also like to have gods like Shiva, Rama, Krishna and Sai Baba,” says Verma.

Ajit Singh, director of another reputed tattoo parlour feels the same. “There’s a particular thing involved in tattoos and it is called shading which is done with the grey wash ink - a mixutre of black ink and distilled water. Portraits are the most time-consuming and the hardest because there are wrinkles on the skin and not a single wrinkle can be missed from shading. Images have a lot of intricacies and they have to be of a favourable size - a minimum of about five inches. You can’t have very small portraits or the image will lose its intricacy,” explains Singh.

Media professional Vishal Gupta, 21, who has the portrait of Leprechaun, a male fairy from Irish folklore, as he believed it was his lucky mascot says, “Ever since I was a child, I found that he was very lucky for me and hence when I decided to get a tattoo, I knew what I wanted”.

The risks involved

A tattoo is a permanent body art, and this means ‘permanent’ with a capita ‘P’. A tattoo is designed to last. However, it may need a touch-up after sometime to brighten the colors, which usually fade or become lack-lustre over time.

The primary concern with getting skin tattoos is the possibility of health risks. For instance, if the needle used during the process has been used by others infected with certain blood-borne diseases, you may become exposed to the same bacteria and develop conditions as severe as hepatitis or even HIV. Blood poisoning or skin infection is also possible if the needle happens to become contaminated by airborne or localized germs. Ensure that the tattoo artist's hands and equipment are sterile, and that the proper technique is used for designing the tattoo on your body.

Some other problems you may face with your tattoos are as follows:

Getting a tattoo may impact your personal or professional life too. For example, some employers do not want their workers to exhibit tattoos in the presence of clients. And one may have to cover up one’s tattoo or stay away from clients at the workplace.

Curiosity kills the cat! A tattoo is a very personal thing but since it is mostly out for public display, people may not look at it in the right sense or even ask personal questions driven by their curiosity. You may be required too cover yourself up properly in a negative environment.

If, after getting a permanent tattoo, you wish to have it removed, you will need to visit the tattoo specialist and have the dye removed from your skin. This can be a difficult and painful process, as well as costing more money.

Removing a permanent tattoo is neither cheap nor easy. You may look at quite a bomb of an amount to be shelled out while considering a laser surgery to have the tattoo off your body. A non-laser technique will leave you with an ugly scar. Bad news is, health insurance companies do not fund tattoo removals.

Celebrities and their love-affair with tattoos

From rock stars, to movie stars, from pop stars to athletes and even the socialites, almost everyone is a proud owner of a tattoo design and body art. Shedding off their stigmatic perception of tattoos, they have been flaunting more and more tattoos to sport their style, status, fashion and freedom.

Soccer star David Beckham is known as much for his fashion sense and tattoos as he is for hsoccer playing abilities so much so that his entire body looks like a gigantic tattoo museum! Right from the name of his first son, Brooklyn, to that of his second son Romeo and moving on to the third named Cruz, Beckham’s body sure is a masterpiece of body-art. Besides these, he has a ‘guardian angel’ on his shoulder blades, a winged cross on the back of his neck, his wife Victoria’s name written in Hindi on his left arm, and the Roman numeral VII and the Latin phrase “Perfectio In Spiritu” inscribed on his right arm!

Following Beckham’s footsteps are Academy-winning actress Angelina Jolie who has various tattoos in mixed languages, styles and forms on her arms, stomach and back, gathered during her tours around the world.

Epic boxer Mike Tyson recently expanded his tattoo collection (which includes Chairman Mao and his name Mike) to include a tribal-style facial tattoo which is inspired from the Maori tribes and their fighting spirit.

Our very own Bollywood siren Mandira Bedi was in a thick controversy when she walked the ramp with the religious Sikh symbol ‘Ek Omkar’ tattooed on her bare back. Besides this, a Buddhist symbol tattooed on her naval has also grabbed a lot of eyeballs.

Action hero Sanjay Dutt has his parents’ name inked on his body. Chhote Nawaab Saif Ali Khan was much in news when he got girlfriend Kareena’s name inked on his arm. Esha Deol has the ‘Gayatri Mantra’ tattooed on her back. Among other ‘much talked about’ bollywood celebrities, Suniel Shetty, John Abraham, Rakhi Sawant and her boyfriend Abhishek, Salman Khan, Sushmita Sen and many others are now getting into the groove and trend of the hot body art with tattoos!

Like any other expression of art, tattooing requires a lot of aesthetic sense, patience and artistic skills. It is advisable to weigh the risks and benefits of getting a tattoo before making a head-on decision that is likely to be permanent. Tattoos can be beautiful and exhilarating and can totally transform your world. Make sure that you want it and make sure that you do it right.

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