My Tattoos, My Stories - And Why I Still Love Them

Reflecting on nearly two decades of body art, an author explores the memories, pain, and addiction behind getting tattoos

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I got my first tattoo sometime in 2006 or 2007. I don’t remember the exact year, which probably tells you how carefully planned the whole thing was.

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Like many decisions I’ve made in life, this one was rather spontaneous. Tattoos weren’t nearly as common in India then as they are today, and tattoo studios certainly weren’t everywhere. I landed up with Sameer Patange in Mumbai, who worked out of Hakim Aalim’s salon in Bandra West at the time. Sameer was among the relatively few established tattoo artists around then and would later become a well-known celebrity tattoo artist.

There was only one small problem. I didn’t actually know what tattoo I wanted. Sameer patiently helped me choose. For reasons I can’t completely remember now, I had a fascination with Native American culture and its relationship with nature – the sun, moon, mountains, rain, eagles and wolves. The eagle particularly appealed to me as a powerful spiritual messenger connecting humanity with the Creator.

An eagle’s head on my right upper arm, close to the shoulder.

Boys Don’t Cry. Apparently.

I remember being far more anxious about the expected pain than about getting something permanently inked onto my body.

And yes, those first 7 or 8 minutes hurt.

Then something strange happened. I gradually settled into the pain and adopted that highly sophisticated male coping mechanism known as boys don’t cry. Sameer took around four hours to finish the tattoo. There was quite a bit of detail – the eyes,........

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