Celebrity tattoo artist Sameer Patange is the only one in India using vegetable-based ink. He chats with Shrabasti Mallik about how motifs are becoming philosophical metaphors
Sameer Patange was busy inking a client’s forearm, sketching an image of Tara, the female Buddha, when we met him. He has inked celebrities like Hrithik Roshan and Sanjay Dutt in the past. He is down to earth, fun-loving-guy with a passion for art. It was a rare opportunity to catch the tattoo master at work at the Park Hotel. “Talk and work,” as he put it, is apparently how he loves to do his job.
“I was always bent towards art more than academics,” he said, “It was perhaps a good thing that I was sure about choosing art as my career.”
His journey of becoming a tattoo artist is an interesting one. As a teenager he and his friends loved listening to Western rock bands and were heavily influenced by them. “We tried to copy everything that they did. Bon Jovi’s tattoo looked so cool,” he recalled. It was his friend who introduced the word tattoo to him for the first time. “I did not even know what they were called,” he confessed and added, “Once my friend asked me to make a tattoo sketch, which I gladly did. I was dragged to the tattoo studio run by JA Kohiar (who later became his guru).” Meeting Kohiar turned things around for Sameer. “Sir was impressed by my sketches and offered me to work as his apprentice on Saturdays at a stipend of Rs200 per day. He said I would have to assist him in his sketches,” he shared. He trained hard under Kohiar for two years and learnt about the intricacies of tattoo making.
Sameer’s first solo tryst with the needle was a disaster but that did not deter his spirits. “My family was disappointed and I was ‘the son with no future’,” he said. lady luck came his way when one day a customer approached him and asked him to ink her. The failure of his last attempt was still fresh in his mind when he agreed to go ahead. “But what came out was really nice and I also received appreciation from my teacher,” he shared. It has been almost two decades that he has been in the business and he has seen the concept of tattoo and the art of inking undergo drastic changes. He pointed out, “Earlier we used to make old school sketches and related concepts.” Even his clients were limited to sailors and jilted lovers who used to come to get their arms inked. “But now we have clients from all walks of life which is really encouraging,” he said.
Sameer is the first tattoo artist in India to be sponsored by Quantum, a California-based brand who manufactures organic and vegan tattoo ink. Therefore he is the only one in the country to use vegetable and fruit based ink for his tattoos. “Normal tattoo ink might appear vibrant and attractive but it’s risky to work with. They can also cause an allergic reaction and skin can break into rashes,” he said.
With the change in the clientele, the sketches and concepts have changed manifold. The artist is glad that the current tattoo trend is changing from ‘I am getting a tattoo just because it is cool’ to more significant motifs with meanings. He does not go ahead with whatever his clients ask him to do. He feels that it is his duty to guide his clients in a certain way. He explained, “I have a power of visualisation that most of my clients do not have. I always try to customise and manipulate the idea to a more meaningful one. Something that an individual can relate to for the rest of his life.” And he does not repeat his sketches. He said, “I am very competitive. I keep pushing my limits and always try to do something I have never done before.”
For him inking Sushmita Sen and Kangana Ranaut was really special owing to the fact that their tattoos are relevant to their lives. He explained, “Sushmita had the word Temptation inked onto her arm with a sword, which is symbolic of all the temptationsshe has overcome. Kangana’s angel tattoo symbolises that she feels like one and the wings stand for her free spirit.”