BENGALURU: City couple Darshan Lalka and Foram Darshan Lalka are recording the first time they met, with tattoos on their forearms. Tattoos about memories and personal experiences are trending, say city designers, adding that designs taken off the internet are passé.
Darshan met Foram at Starbucks in JP Nagar for the first time. Their tattoo shows a ship sailing towards the first place they met within a compass, marking the longitude and latitude of the place. "Outside the compass, we have maps of Mumbai and Bengaluru as Foram is from Mumbai and I am from Bengaluru. We have two birds flying towards each location. The ship has initials of our names," says Darshan. This will be a reminder of their love story and the first day they met, he says adding, "Also, when we have a fight, I can just look at the tattoo and remember how much we love each other."
Sai from Inkprink Tattoo Studio worked on their tattoo. He says, "Customised designs are the new 'in' thing. People get tattoos related to emotions or memories, such as a trip to the Andaman and Nicobar islands. So we add elements such as beaches, trees or maps in the design. One of my clients wanted a tattoo of Shiva, but nothing from the internet. So I took his picture and customised it to Shiva's face."
No more internet inspiration
Mykel Kumar, tattooist and artist at The Pumpkin Patch, says that out of 20 customers, about 12 to 15 get these kinds of tattoos. "It's a good mix of students and working professionals. The work takes about a week. I make the designs in two to four days, which can also run into a week and a half. I give two to three ideas to the clients and they choose one. After that, it takes only about four to five hours to do the tattoo, depending on the design," he says.He has designed a tattoo for one of his clients who loves diving and space. The tattoo shows him diving towards a turtle in space. The artists are now developing their unique style of work, he adds. For example, artist Yogesh works with Indian traditional art style. "I do illustrative sketches and most people who come to me get birds, floral designs and their favourite animals inked onto their body," he says.
Soundwave tattoos of child's first cry
Suresh Machu, founder and head tattoo artist of Suresh Machu Tattoo Studio, creates sound wave tattoos. Claiming that he is the first artist in the city to do so, his clients have gotten tattoos of soundwaves of their child's first cry and laugh. He explains, "They recorded the sounds on sound reader apps that show soundwaves. I replicate these waves so accurately that when they scan the tattoo, they will find the waves to be exact replicas."One of his clients, Periyasamy, got a tattoo of the soundwave of his girlfriend saying 'I love you'. Periyasamy says, "It was a surprise for her on Valentine's Day. I got the tattoo done on February 13, on the right side of my chest."
Joseph Sebastian from Heavens Tattoo Studio says 3D tattoos and dotted work are also in trend now. He uses stone effects for the tattoos. "You need to use different needles for each part of the tattoo, one for shading and the other for lining. People also get mandalas and forearm bands using dotted work – where the entire design is completed with just dots," he says. 30-year-old Allen Prem has a 3D tattoo of Jesus on the cross with pieces of the cross and nails falling off. "I got another 3D tattoo on my Chinese zodiac sign," he says.
Dermal piercing requests on rise
Mykel says he also sees more enquiries for dermal piercings, but he does not do it as he doesn't specialise in that. Vijaikarthik, founder of Bangalore Tattoo Studio, agrees that the trend of dermal piercing is slowly picking up. He says it is usually the college students in the age group of 18 to 25 who get it done. "They do it on their chins, necks or above their lips. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to do it, and they usually prefer nickel or steel jewellery. With dermal piercing, the jewellery sits on the surface and is secured with an anchor that is embedded in the dermal layer, giving the appearance of having small beads on the surface of the skin," says Vijaikarthik.A few artists also choose not to do dermal piercing due to its complications. Suresh Machu says he used to do dermal piercings until six months ago, when he found out the risks associated with it at a seminar in London.
What doctor says
Dermatologist Dr Vijaya Gowri Bandaru from Sakra world Hospital says tattoos are fashion trends that she would not recommend. "There could be complications after getting a tattoo such as infections or puss or even an allergic reaction due to the presence of heavy metals such as mercury and lead in the tattoo ink. It can also lead to scarring. There are rare chances of it leading to cancer as well."