The fifth edition of the three-day Heartwork Tattoo Festival concluded on Sunday with over 150 artists from across the globe participating in it. The venue, Ansal Plaza, was teeming with artistes engrossed in etching tattoos and millenials locked in a dance battle.
The very first stall had Amandeep Singh Bawa of Delhi-based Devil’s Tattooz, working on a full front devilish tattoo. “I’m into the profession for four years now. I have observed that people have become more aware of safe tattoo making practices. Our style of tattoos is based on realism and demons. For small tattoos, our prices start from Rs 2,000 and for bigger ones, we charge Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 per hour depending on the complexity of the design,” he said.
Little ahead was Horiei Shinshu from Japan, doing a Hannya mask tattoo for a Swedish guy based in Delhi. The professional tattoo artist for over 15 years now only deals in traditional Japanese tattoos and their neo-traditional versions. “This mask also protects people from bad energies,” explained Shinshu.
Participating international artists included Pavel Angel, Nastasya Utsinova, Stephen Negur, Jocke and Mike Hultman from the USA; Ru Hwan and team from Korea.
Amit of Inkinn, South Extension, was the only one doing the traditional hand poke tattoos. He said, “In old times, hand poke technique was used to make tattoos. I learnt it from Chhattisgarh-based tribal hand poke tattoo artist Shantibai. People want it because it gives them a feel of getting something original.” While new school artist Elena Tugaeva of Russia did tattoos using vibrant colours, Jamie Mahood from Austin did only portrait tattoos. “I do only one per day because it takes four-five hours to complete.”
Contemporary bands like Chaar Hazaari, Moongphali, Winston Balman and The Prophets of Rock performed on all days. Sunday afternoon was abuzz thanks to a hip-hop dance battle, where people could participate after registering on-the-spot.
Lokesh Verma of Devil’z Tattooz and Sameer Patange of Kraayonz Tattoo Studio along with Arvind Garg of Tattoo Gizmo, a tattoo-equipment company, organised the event. Patange, in the trade for 20 years now, said, the event gets better every year. “India has a lot of talent which remains unexplored due to lack of awareness and a platform to perform. The idea was to bring this talent to the fore.”