Ancient Sinhalese texts mention that some of Sri Lanka’s kings were tattooed. But religion, war and modernization put a halt to this art on this beautiful island in the Indian Ocean. Today the contempo-rary tattoo scene is in its infancy: besides a few Indian street tattoo artists there are no more than a dozen shops across the country, including those of ‘Ravi’ Wan Nishshanka, Dimmu Fernando and Ro-anna Webster and a few others, a handful of artists determined to make a name for themselves. Texte : Laure Siegel / Photos : Tom Vater
In 2014, a British nurse was arrested, locked up and deported from Sri Lanka for "interfering with the reli-gious feelings of others". She had a Buddha tattoo on her arm. The tattoos worn by foreigners depicting local religious iconography are seriously frowned upon in many countries in South and Southeast Asia. Wan Nishshanka, alias Ravi, 33, runs the only tattoo shop in Kandy, a sacred city which houses the fabu-lous Temple of the Tooth and lies in the center of the emerald island. "When I tattoo religious or official motives, such as the lion or the flag, our national symbols, I do not post photos on social networks. I do not want to go into sterile debates with conservative nationalists who believe they hold the truth. I am a practicing Buddhist and anyone who loves the Buddha should be able to get a tattoo of what he believes in. The Buddha never said it was forbidden, it is just considered as a gangster thing by society. The last time I landed at Colombo airport, they kept me an hour in immigration because of my tattoos."
In 2004, Ravi had to give up his first career as a designer of stickers, when the local mafia destroyed his shop and beat him badly. The young man did a series of odd jobs to feed his brother, of whom he’d been in charge of since his mother had gone to work as a maid in Saudi Arabia. "I was a dog trainer, I played in blues bands, we lived in a small house, a room with two mattresses and a small kitchen."
Ravi built a tattoo machine with a small engine and started poking his friends at home for twenty rupees (0.12 euro), using textile inks. "I always liked tattoos and piercings, but at this point I’d never seen any. At school I drew on the tables all the time, and when I was ten, I pierced my ears with a linden thorn. Usually it's the girls who are being pierced but my mother did not say anything so I kept my ears pierced." In Sri Lanka, and especially in the communities around the tea plantations, newborns are at the center of three ceremonies: giving the first name (Peyer Vaithal), shaving the head (Modai Adithal) and piercing the ears of little girls when they are three months old (Kaathu Kuthu / Thoodu kuthuthal). In 2008, an English tourist helped Ravi buy a Six Tattoo Guns, a Chinese tattoo kit. "I invested 35,000 ru-pees (210 euros), all my savings, but I found myself with the only machine in Kandy. My popularity jumped from one day to the other and I traveled all over the island to tattoo.” Ravi quickly opened his own studio with his brother, Sudesh. "I did not know anything about the job, so I bought the book" Tattooing A to Z "by Huck Spaulding - the Tattoo Bible. »
Ravi surfed the Internet for inspiration and soon admired the works of Dan Smith, Bob Tyrrell or Dmitriy Samohin, but he tried to integrate a traditional Sri Lankan style into his work. One of his last works is a por-trait of Gajasingha, a hybrid creature from Southeast Asian mythology, with a lion's body and an elephant's head. Half of his clients are tourists looking for a travel souvenir - a lion, an elephant, a lotus flower. "I like to tat-too my foreign customers with American Old School or drawings based on our famous wooden sculptures. My local clients mostly want portraits of family members or tattoos from Polynesia or Samoa, a style made popular by rugby and cricketer players. The tribal style works well on our dark skin." Over the last two years, half of his clients have been women: "Lifestyles change, women are more open to the world thanks to international schools and scholarships, they can study abroad and they all have Face-book. »
While speaking, Ravi covers Dimmu Fernando’s chest with an immense representation of the Hindu god Vishnu, protector of the universe. Dimmu has been running a shop in the suburbs of Colombo since 2011. "In 2008, I went into the shop of Suren Fernando, a man who’d made his own gun in the early 2000s and started with meager resources. He hired me on the spot to draw designs and I took over his shop when he migrated to England. I went to art school of Colombo for a few months and I learned to draw skulls proper-ly, but that's it.” Prior to his career as tattoo artist, Dimmu had been working as a tourist guide in a hotel where he’d fallen asleep every morning at the counter because he’d spent the night playing black metal. "For me the job was ideal because I could reconcile my passions, tattooing and music. »
For ten years, Dimmu played bass in the band "Funeral in Heaven", whose songs speak of the history, cul-ture and the civil war that tore Sri Lanka apart, a bloody conflict between government forces and the Tamil Tigers that had been raging for twenty-five years until 2009.
"At first I wanted to be a rich and famous tattooist, but now it's just a way to finance my travels and to help my community. I do not understand guys who do not want to share their knowledge. Tattooing does not belong to anyone, it is a popular art form that should not remain in the hands of a small clique. If someone wants to learn in this country, I will teach him. Becoming a tattoo artist empowers young people, provide them with a way to lead the life they want, allows them to be financially independent and feel valued. " Being a professional tattoo artist in Sri Lanka remains a challenge: "Half the money I earn in the shop is invested in the purchase of equipment. Buying gear on the Internet makes the shipping as expensive as the cost of the material so I try to go to Bangkok for the supplies when I can ».
Dimmu, an enthusiastic surfer, is also an accomplished yogi. In 2010, he abandoned his education in a Catholic boarding school, converted to Hinduism and became a vegetarian. "I am passionate about India, where I find life simple, close to the animals. Every morning, before my yoga lesson, I play with cows, like I did when I was a kid. Historically and culturally we form a single country with India and that’s is a great inspi-ration for me. » Dimmu frequently visits India to perfect his yoga practice, with the ultimate aim to teach yoga in Sri Lankan prisons to reduce prison violence. When he is away, Roanna Webster runs his shop. Roanna, twenty-four, was Dimmu's apprentice for three years before settling in California where she worked at Touch of Ink in Bakersfield. "The market in the US is saturated, I didn’t feel I can bring much to this country. So I came back to Sri Lanka to be close to my family and to be able to contribute to local counterculture. " At 18, Roanna entered an aviation school because she dreamed of being an airline pilot and traveling forev-er. But she stopped after a year and a half. "I could not spend my time studying and traveling from airport to airport, I wanted to live."
Roanna Webster, 24 ans, a été l'apprentie de Dimmu pendant trois ans avant de s'installer en Californie où elle a travaillé chez Touch of Ink à Bakersfield. "Le marché aux États-Unis est saturé. Je n'ai pas l'impres-sion que je puisse apporter grand-chose à ce pays. Je suis revenue au Sri Lanka pour être proche de ma famille et pouvoir contribuer à la contre-culture locale." Musicienne professionnelle, elle joue aussi du violon et du violoncelle dans un orchestre.
Roanna went home, opened a pizzeria and finished her tattoo apprenticeship. India, including the New Delhi Convention, left a strong impression: "My body is a collection of pieces by my artist friends such as Vikas Malani (Body Canvas, Delhi) who covered my back. People stare at me in the street but they are too polite to say anything. As the only female artist Sri Lanka, I really think that I can make a difference, the war is over. The tourists are coming back. The future looks bright. » Ravi : https://www.instagram.com/ravi_tattoo_kandy Dimmu Fernando : https://www.instagram.com/dimmu_fernando_tattoos Roanna Webster : https://www.instagram.com/roweb
