Capital to get educated about the art of getting inked

In an attempt to take the fashion of 'getting inked' to a higher level and to educate people about this artwork, the third Heartwork Tattoo Festival is being held in the capital's Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium from December 1 to 3 with the participation of around 105 artists which include 25 international artists from countries like UK, USA, Germany, Australia, Finland, Korea, Greece, Italy among others.

This year's headliner tattoo artists are Jeff Gouge and Stefano Alcantara from the USA, Steve Butcher from New Zealand, Randy Engelhard from Germany and Roberto Gasperi from Italy.

The event is being organized by the Czars of The Indian Tattoo Industry who formed a group called Creative Skin Graphic Pvt Ltd. to revolutionize tattoo art all over India as they realized that getting inked has become the trend of the day.

The festival will also hold live workshops by the legends of the International tattoo industry. Apart from that, there will also be on-the-spot tattoo making competitions across the three days of the festival, with multiple categories to compete in. Every day, the best tattoo designs will be eligible for trophies and prizes by the sponsors along with an emerging new talent competition.

In the words of Sameer Patange, "Heartwork tattoo festival was formed with one simple goal and that was to raise the standards and bar of Indian 'tattooing' in the global tattoo industry, with no intentions of being the biggest or the best convention. At the same time, giving the Indian artist the right exposure. An artist needs to not only progress and prosper in his work but also to get educated and become a better artist and bring out the best in himself."

On this Lokesh Verma added, "We started this festival three years ago with the aim of educating Indian people about tattoos and to clear the myths revolving around this industry. People had a lot of misconceptions about tattoos which we have been able to clear up and there has been a tremendous growth in the number of people getting inked so I guess we are on the right track."

The three-day festival will have various live performances on all days with Sejal Morris, Sangeeta Bhattacharya, Sumit Roy performing on the first day, Stand Up comedian – Jivashu Ahluwalia and Dj Berri entertaining the crowd on the second day, and Soul Inclination closing the festival with a tribute to Chester (Linkin Park) on the evening of December 3.