New Delhi, June 23: Hindi film actor and politician Sanjay Dutt has just got his parents’ names inked on his body. But going by the trend, he may need to catch up. Many Indians are getting portraits of loved ones instead of just names inked on their body.
“Portraits of your loved ones or deities are very much in this season. This is their way of showing how much they care for them,” says tattoo artist Lokesh Verma.
“People prefer portraits of their spouses, girlfriends and kids. In fact, I recently did a portrait of a guy’s girlfriend on his arm. One customer asked for a portrait of Heath Ledger’s character – The Joker – from The Dark Knight,” he said.
The minimum price for the portraits ranges from Rs12,000 to Rs18,000.
“It takes close to six hours for a portrait to be done. Portraits are mostly done on a small-size varying from 5×5 inches to 5×6 inches because a lot of detailing goes into it, like hair colour, eyes, lips, etc,” Varma said.
Ajit Singh, director of Cheenos tattoo parlour, feels the same. “There’s a particular thing involved in tattoos and it is called shading which is done with the grey wash ink – a mixutre of black ink and distilled water. Portraits are the most time-consuming and the hardest because there are wrinkles on the skin and not a single wrinkle can be missed from shading.
Shane Dawson of Cheenos said: “Today, it’s more about emotional attachment. Normally when people go for their second tattoo, they want something that will relate to their first tattoo.”
-IANS