![]() ![]() The tattoos were largely of the stick-and-poke variety and done during the winter months to prevent infections. Shah emphasized that these traditional tattoos relied on indigenous herbs and healing methods, especially for aftercare, in the absence of modern medicine. “The ink is often made by collecting soot from burning vegetable oil, and mixed with breast milk, cow urine or milk for their anti-inflammatory properties.” “Many of these tattoos were made using a thorn or even a sharp bone as a needle,” he said. “I want to use this platform to accurately represent the diverse communities of India.”įrom the Kuthia Kondh tribe of Odisha to the Mer tribe of Gujarat or the Todhas of South India, the project has helped Shah discover how each inked symbol carries meaning that sometimes also portrays one’s role in society. “A Britisher documented the tattoos of the Apatani tribe in the Northeast as a way to make women less desirable, which was incorrect,” he explained. The project has also been an important tool in combating misinformation around traditional tattoos. The project is also heavily inspired by other artists who’ve come before Shah, such as Mo Naga, a Manipur-based artist on a mission to create a “tattoo village” that helps preserve traditional tattoos from tribes from Northeast India, and Emmanuel Guddu, a photographer documenting similar traditions across Pakistan. The idea is to create an online archive to preserve traditions as well as to inspire younger generations who might want to adopt the traditions of their ancestors. Shah gathered information through such conversations with various communities as well as by scouring through historical archives and documentary footage. “So, I began stopping and asking them about it, if they were comfortable talking to me, to understand the meaning behind the tattoos and symbols on their bodies.” “I noticed that many old women you would see at the market or train stations also sported tattoos similar to my great grandma's,” he said. “The problem was that there was very little information available about these tattoos and what they meant, since it was more of a spoken tradition passed down from generation to generation, rather than a historically documented one,” said Shah, who went looking for tattooing traditions across the country, only to realise how they were not well-documented or archived.Īnd that’s how he came up with the India Ink Archive, a crowdsourced collection of stories that digitally archives and details indigenous tattoo designs from across India. India, too, has had a rich tradition of getting inked, with people using these permanent markings to signify their status, flash their family name, as a sign of belonging to a particular community, a marker for the afterlife, or just because it looked pretty. ![]()
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