“I am from the fine arts background. I did B.F.A ( Commercial Arts). It was a 4 years degree, which I was not interested in advertising and print media at all. I chose animation, and worked as an animator for 3 years. Soon after I got married and moved to South Africa and took a one year break from my career.”
“When I came back, I decided to get back to work after a year’s break in South Africa. But by the time I was back, all the design and animation softwares got upgraded, so I had to start from the ground level again. I started doing 3D wall paintings, it was a craze at that time and I started painting in Bangalore itself. For the next 3-4 years I painted schools, restaurants, and a few people’s homes sometimes. But 3D wall painting was not a regular work for me, I wanted to do something that I could do out of passion.”
Tattoo Journey
“Soon after I moved into tattoo designing, and got myself into tattoo training at Angel Tattoo Studio in Hyderabad. I started my tattoo career in 2016, started my training in Hyderabad and simultaneously I was working there. I was trained by Amin Sultan Hajiani, he is amongst a few pop tattoo artists in India. Because I was training in Hyderabad and my husband was living back in Bangalore, it got difficult for me so I moved back to Bangalore after my training and started a home studio. I ran my home studio for 6 months and after that tied up with a parlour guy, but it didn’t work, so after 6 months, I started my own studio outside in a rented place. It’s been almost 5 years now that I’m into the tattoo industry and 2.5 years of running my own studio and now it’s going good.”
“Working gave me practical learning, how to shade and fill colors. I was taught about complete tattoo business, how to communicate to clients, how to understand the requirements, how to design and follow strict hygiene policy. But, many people tend to get allergic to ink, clients can get mad at you, so it’s also important to learn how to tackle such situations.”
Inspiration
“Like I said, I was working in an animation studio and all the people working there are artists. And artists always dress up in a different manner, their dressing style is different, their hairstyle is different, they have tattoos on their body. First tattoo which I saw that inspired me in some way to get a tattoo was done by my mentor and surprisingly my first tattoo was done by my mentor Amin himself. Because I was an artist I knew I would learn tattooing easily and that’s exactly what happened. My Mentor said I knew designing well and only had to learn machine techniques. I learnt tattoo machine handling techniques in a span of one month as advised by my mentor.”
Opportunities
I started with tattooing myself and slowly gained experience. I received word of mouth publicity for my work, I was thrilled. I moved back to Bangalore. I had no one in Bangalore, we only shifted because of my husband’s job here. But my cousins started promoting my work and clients started visiting my home. Slowly clients got regular and increased in number so home wasn’t the right place anymore for appointments. Hence we started looking for places for my tattoo studio. My tattoo career took off and I started having a good monthly income.” “I have lots of tattoos on me as well, I don’t even remember how many. I have my pets portraits, I have a mandala tattoo, a lotus tattoo, a paintbrush tattoo, a camera tattoo and a few other memories tattooed on me. I would not recommend a name tattoo because lots of name tattoos end with a cover up. And an infinity lifeline tattoo, I think it’s too basic, but if clients want it any way, it’s my job.”
“Art is my passion and it motivates me. For some people it’s a bucket list. Some people literally wait their whole lives to get a tattoo. In India, especially for girls, when they say they want to get a tattoo, it’s a straight no at their homes. So when someone comes and gets a tattoo, the happiness and excitement on their face is worth every second, it gives me so much joy and I feel happy about my job.”
Challenges
“Like any other job, tattooing too comes with its own challenges, first being that as an artist, we can’t force our creativity on the client. As a tattoo artist, I believe that all designs should be different, but there are times when many people come with the same designs they see on instagram or on someone else’s body. As artists our job is to make the design as unique as possible but clients are not open to customisation, and we’re made to copy another tattoo artist’s work, so that’s one of the most challenging things for me.”
Tattoos and Humans
“The best part of being a tattoo artist is that people will remember me throughout their lives.
Generally when someone gets a tattoo for the first time, there’s a higher chance they’ll visit again. And the fact that they come to me 3-4 times, encourages me a lot and makes me confident about my work.
“I don’t like sitting idle, so when I’m not tattooing, I’m sketching or painting. I like to spend time with my dog, sometimes I sketch, if not either of it then I decorate my home. My tattoo studio is designed by me as I love doing interiors. Every inch of my studio wall is painted by me, it’s a different satisfaction. But I love my job as a tattoo artist and can’t be more proud about being one.”
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