Delhi’s tattoo fanatics look for divine intervention to get inked

Delhi goes different when it comes to fashion. This time, during the tattoo festival, Delhiites chose gods over other options.

Forget Latin scripts and tattoos that make references to pop culture — Delhi’s crowd now want divine intervention when it comes to getting inked. At the recent Heartwork Tattoo Festival, people got avatars of Indian gods and goddesses with a more neo-fantasy style on their bodies.

Lord Shiva’s Trishul with a name tattooed on an arm.

“Being a major consumer of fashion, Delhi has a high society culture that has different expectations of tattooing. They tend to prefer flashier pieces rather than smaller, subtler designs,” says Mickey Malani, a Bombay-based tattoo artist who was in the Capital during the festival.

He adds, “But they aren’t afraid to experiment, whether it’s an original design or the latest trend. What’s in demand right now are neo-fantasy mythology tattoos that depict Indian deities in a new avatar. These deities include Shiva, Ganesha, Ram, Hanuman, Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati.”

A girl with a tattoo of Ganesha on her back.

Mohit Yadav who got a picture of Ganesha tattooed, says, “It has nothing to do with religion. I want something different—colorful and bigger, where an artist can go creative and have his freedom to make what I wanted.”