With tattooing increasingly becoming the form of body modification to express oneself through art, the tradition of tattooing in India has been a massive part of the agrarian and the forested landscape since time immemorial.
The team of Mumbai Live got in touch with Max, founder of the Inkinn - Tattoo Studio and Academy in Delhi. Max has travelled across the country, celebrating his undying love for tattooing. Speaking about how he got started with tattooing, Max stated, “It has been more than a decade now. Before this, I was a branch manager, however, I realized that this is what I wanted to do,”
Further elucidating on the challenges that are usually faced in the profession, Max stated, “See, the problem is some people are not matured enough for their tattoos. People are more focused on getting memes or some ridiculous figures. Tattooing is a huge industry, there are several things you can do, however, most people are not ready to experiment. Secondly, it is an unorganized sector. Getting a tattoo is not the only thing but getting a tattoo from the right place is the real deal. If something goes wrong with a tattoo, the entire experience gets spoiled. When we had started off, we had to struggle for everything, we had to import the needles, but we tried to educate the customers and explain more about the process. Moreover, the problem is, people who are not skilled enough, not educated enough, by education I do not mean a degree but knowledge of the art form, that can be really problematic,”
Explaining the tattooing process further, he added, “Your tattoo has to be your story. It cannot be a copy of someone else’s but what happens is when the artist does not know the art form properly it can get difficult. See, if I give you a car and you know how to drive you will be able to but you cannot be a formula one driver. Similarly, a tattoo artist has to dig deeper. Moreover, a lot of people are hurting the industry by giving these 15 days crash course on tattooing. Now in 40 days, you will not be able to learn the basics of art, there are so many things to it. Then the tattooing process comes,”
Speaking about his own Academy and the courses that he has initiated, Max stated, “So in our academy, the courses vary on the people and their skill sets. There are programmes where you will be taught the art form and then how to incorporate that into the tattooing process.”
When asked about the outbreak of the coronavirus and how it has affected the tattooing industry, Max concluded by stating, “During the lockdown what we were doing is we were talking to the clients, and seeing if they wanted a customized tattoo. So we used the time in drawing and understanding the customer, probing them to ask questions or state their doubts. See the pandemic has affected the industry but it is a global thing and there is nothing we can do about it. All we can ensure is to utilize the time effectively.”
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