Tattoos have a way of preserving memory and are extensions one’s own body. And tattoo artists have the chance of creating these memories on their clients. Duncan Viegas who is the owner of Inkfidel Tattoo Studio as well as a tattoo artist himself. Inkfidel does custom tattoos primarily, which means each tattoo design is tailored to the client’s ideas and no design is repeated. Duncan personally works on a variety of styles, but a few favorites would be – Geometric, Watercolour, illustrative, dot work and new school. On asking the quirkiest design he has worked on so far he says “It is this sleeve tattoo that I recently worked on. It has got the most random things put together that somehow seem to go well. It’s got flying pigs, an alien spaceship, gnomes and elves on a seesaw, some of them leaping over mushrooms, a host of cartoon characters like Mayor Adam West, Butters, Foghorn Leghorn, etc. It’s like a super weird dream put down as a tattoo.”

The products and equipment are sourced from reputed tattoo suppliers and authorized distributors in India that stock some of the best materials currently available in the industry globally. Other than Duncan, Kanny B from Kolkata also works at Inkfidel Tattoo Studio. Duncan keeps himself updated by following various artists (not just tattoo artists) and designers who work inspire him. But he only tattoos what he knows will look good over time, it’s important to keep in mind what will and will not work for different skin tones.

Digvijit Chauhan a.k.a Diggy who is the owner of Diggy’s tattoo studio, on the other hand, talks about tattoos today aren’t unique or challenging as you can find them up on Google, freehand design on a sketchbook and then upload it/import it to photoshop and do finer details or edit the same on photoshop. And further, convert it to a design. The ideas or the images that the clients come up with are already available on the internet, what’s left is to tweak it and include all the elements required for the design that the client has thought of. He sources his tattoo materials from different tattoo suppliers in goa, to name a few: Tattoo Empire, Bishop Tattoo Supply. He has one artist each of his branches i.e. two of them. He keeps himself updated with the new tattoo designs by surfing the same on Google, mainly for old school variety and quantity.

For Manasi, the owner of Mandalism tattoo studio and an artist herself talks about how she once got a request to tattoo fake hair on the individual’s balding spot – this was when she just started. Manasi specializes in sacred geometry and mandalas; she only works on her custom designs to which people come to her for. Designing sacred geometry and mandalas includes a lot of dot wok and can take up to hours sitting in one position to finish it, however, Manasi looks it as meditation. Being a mass media graduate, and getting into tattooing, which initially was just a hobby. “When I was working in media, I never stuck around with one job, I kept changing year after year. But with tattooing, it gives me immense happiness.”

She sources her materials from King’s tattoo supply. She plans to have an all-women crew in her tattoo studio, she doesn’t have anyone working under her but when she gets some special requests, such as portraits, the guest artist who is also­ her friend do that work – the kind of design that isn’t of her style. “It gets hectic during the season and this year I will probably have someone.”She takes her inspiration from other tattoo artists and designs and always customized her design and presented it to her clients to which she has repeated customers every year!