“My advice to anyone wanting to be a tattoo artist is work hard, draw a lot and constantly keep on improving your art.”
One of the very first people to introduce tattooing in India, Lokesh Verma is today India’s award-winning, internationally experienced veteran tattoo artist pursuing his love for art through his highly coveted studio – Devilz Tattoo. Established in 2003, Devilz Tattoo stands as the biggest tattoo chain in Delhi/Gurgaon/Noida NCR. To name a few, celebrities such as Remo D’Souza, Ishant Sharma, Tapsee Pannu, Swara Bhaskar, and Shikhar Dhawan sport his work of art.
But like all things, this feat didn’t come easy to the artist. Beginning at the mere age of 19 with an MBA, Lokesh had worked hard and heavy to learn enough and pursue his dreams.
Here’s PEAKLIFE in conversation, exploring more on his artistry…
1. Starting off, how did your journey as a tattoo artist begin?
A. I was always fascinated by tattoos and the art of tattooing, so one day I thought deeply about it, brought a tattoo kit by my saved up money, and did a tattoo on myself. When my friends got to know they started asking if I could do one on them, and slowly but surely the curiosity turned into a passion, and people started giving me money for my art. That’s how my artistic journey as a tattoo artist began.
2.) How tough was it to take the initiative and begin your own tattoo studio?
A. Well, it was very tough to take initiative as tattoos were considered taboo and people were very judgmental about people who had tattoos, but my passion for art kept me doing and slowly as I got better and better by each tattoo, people’s ideas about tattoos from something negative changed to see it as any other medium of art. We used to do five tattoos in one month when I started and now we do approximately three hundred! I think people are very accepting of tattoos and many people don’t associate a negative image about them but still, I am trying every day to make a change of people’s mindset about tattoos.
3.) When customers walk in with a specific idea, what is your approach towards them? How do you manage to best create what they’re looking for?
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A. As everyone is different, even if two people’s idea is same or identical because of the mental image they have in mind about how the tattoo should look the end result may differ from person to person. So my method is to sit with the person and have a healthy productive consultation with them and create a design that they would we happy with and once the client is happy with the design and everything we move forward to getting them inked.
4.) As an artist, what or who is your biggest inspiration?
A. When I was starting, Paul Booth and Bob Tyrrell were two of the biggest artists and still are an inspiration to many and I started to lean forward to that style but sadly there were no takers of the style with Paul Booth which is dark surrealism, so naturally, I started doing more of black and grey realism after looking at black and grey work of Bob Tyrrell.
5.) What are some myths you’d like people to stop believing about tattoos?
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A. There are many myths about tattooing that need to be cleared out but the biggest question we get asked about is the ink. Will the ink harm us in any way or is it natural ink or not? So no, the ink wouldn’t harm you in any way since we use vegan and organic ink as well as quantum tattoo inks from the USA which are FDA approved. Also, people ask if they can donate blood after getting inked, and yes they definitely can, but only after 6-12 months depending on the blood bank they are going for. I also regularly donate blood so that is another myth.
6.) Lastly, any advice for those venturing in the same sphere as you?
A. My advice to anyone wanting to be a tattoo artist is to work hard, draw a lot, and constantly keep on improving your art. It’s easy to learn nowadays because people have already gotten better in this art so they can teach you if you choose the right mentor and all the things that they had to learn on their own and spent five years learning that things can be taught to you within the first few months so you don’t make the same mistake that they did. I think that is the right way to learn nowadays – to apprentice under someone experienced.
Image Credits: Instagram.com
