As darkness carne on, we bid Vishwas farewell. There was another stirring in the córner of the room—maybe two rats having a rat rumble. We emerged into the muggy Bombay twilight. The crowd had finally dispersed, so I asked Patel to take a picture of us in front of Vishwas’ tattoo sign from the sidewalk outside the fence.
Posted on July 18th, 2009 by admin
Tags: indian symbols, indian tattoo, indian tattoo designs, old school tattoo
Vishwas knew, like all good tattooists know, that it’s not the machine—it’s the hand, the eye, and the spirit of the artist that makes a good tattoo. Vishwas was an undisputed master tattoo-wallah of the back streets of Bombay.
Posted on July 17th, 2009 by admin
Tags: indian symbols, indian tattoo, indian tattoo designs, tattoo tribal
Like many other tribal people forced to abandon their homelands in favor of the marginal economic possibilities in the big urban centers, our tattooist has traded a life of possi-ble rural starvation for one of decay in the slum. Her tattoos are crudely scrawled, quickly made marks applied with little care or enthusiasm. But she obviously serves a large need, judging by her busy trade in the afternoon.
Posted on July 16th, 2009 by admin
Tags: indian symbols, indian tattoo, indian tattoo designs, tattoo tribal
Ufe at its grimmest—life is cheap here. That might sound like a cliché if you’re sitting in your living room with your feet up on the coffee table, but it’s just the simple truth. Life is cheap here. Like pocket change. And given that, any other approach to her tattooing would seem strange.
Posted on July 15th, 2009 by admin
Tags: indian symbols, indian tattoo, indian tattoo designs, tattoo tribal
The gutter is her studio, and in the gutter she tattoos a cross-section of Bombay society—sailors, pimps, working people, prostitutes, and any passerby with a few rupees and the urge to make a quick and simple mark on their body. The lack of sterile needles and procedure is very scary to Western eyes, and the implications are even scarier. But this is really another world, Bombay slum
Posted on July 14th, 2009 by admin
Tags: indian symbols, indian tattoo, indian tattoo designs, tattoo tribal