The tattoo on any exposed part of the body, male or female, introduces intrigue in the mind of the average viewer. It can be a design, a name, a symbol, a snake, anything that signifies something about the person wearing it. In fact, a tattoo is not worn. It is a permanent design or mark made on the skin by inserting chemically manufactured colour into the pigment, the second layer, called the dermis, through a very painful process if done organically and not done cosmetically, for a given purpose, removable after its function is over. Ancient Egyptians, indigenous Polynesians, Greeks, Romans, and Siberian nomads all used body markings, mostly, as a mark of identification of the person either from a name, or a design linked to that person and so on.

The word comes from the Polynesian word tatau, meaning "to strike" or "to mark". Amusingly, when I was little, my mother appointed a part-time maid. When she was asked her name, she at once took out her forearm from under her sari pallu and her name, “Lakshmi” was inked on the fore-arm in Devanagari script. In their community, most boys and girls were illiterate as they never went to school. So, their parents had their names inked on their forearms. This was permanent and would remain till they were cremated. This, I was told, was common practice among people belonging to very low castes in the caste hierarchy and also among adivasis and tribals who did not know how to write. Later, with evolution and cultural progress, the women had ornaments painted on their necks, faces, foreheads, arms, forearms to beautify themselves. Over time, this became a cultural practice among these people, specially girls and women.

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So, tattoos in the form of names defined the beginning of the tattoo art in history. Today, it is a fashion statement and can be chemically injected for permanence or simply painted on with durable colours which could be removed when the client wishes to have it removed.

Indian cinema covering Bollywood and cinema from the Southern states are known to use the tattoo for the major characters in many of their films. Tattoos on screen characters have evolved from simple rural identifiers into sophisticated storytelling tools. While both Bollywood and Southern cinema........

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