“Life has more imagination than we carry in our dreams. ” as Christopher Columbus said. I have often observed that “India has more imagination than we carry in our dreams” also worked very well. Do you know the “Stencil 3.0”? No ? So follow me to the edge of the Ganges, a stone's throw from Dasaswamedh ghât, the main entrance of the city of Benares on the Ganges, where many credulous and uncredulous devotees and pilgrims land after a long journey on the chaotic, dusty and congested roads of Mother India. Once at Dasaswamedh ghât, a few meters from the divine river, the moksha (liberation from the cycle of reincarnations) is only a sip away, a sip of doubtful but sacred water from the Ganges. The ideal is to die with the body immersed in river water, with some of the holy water in the mouth. What a challenge! It might take days for grandpa and grandma. Life is (sometimes) a bitch… and then ...
If there were to remain only one city dedicated to Shiva in India and the world it would inevitably be Benares (also called Varanasi or Kashi). The breath of life breathed by the god Shiva animates this millenary city where, beyond the apparent chaos, everything and everyone go like clockwork, each in its own place. Shall we perceive it.... For a Westerner, and for ages, Benares would rather be summed up in the writings of André Chevrillon who, in his 1891 book entitled “In India”, wrote: “The first idea when you arrive in Benares, is that craziness is normal there. » LOL
First street parallel to the Ganges, two minutes away from Dasaswamedh ghât, sometimes is a street tattoo artist waiting for customers or inking some, sometimes two, sometimes none. It should still be noted, not that easy, in the popular bustle that reigns in the teeming streets and alleys of the old Shaivite city. But my eagle-eyed sight does not let itself be fooled so easily and it was with great pleasure that I spotted one guy. A few people crouching on the side of the road with no sidewalk or visible gutter, a few human oscillations that passed under my radars.
On the side of the somewhat rutted road, a street tattoo artist was chatting in the company of three people. As usual I gate-crashed, kindly, casually. The craftsman was a guy from the surrounding countryside taking advantage of the (Indian) tourist windfall to earn some rupees from the situation. Two or three advices given by his cousin having tattooed once in his dreams, was enough to put this kind-hearted guy at ease. The catalog of his graphic offer was summed up in a few sheets of designs pumped up on the internet, and which seemed out of artistic reach for this guy. But the only existing limits are those that we inflict on ourselves… and the guy from the Benares countryside, not having knowledge of this precept, unconsciously and innocently drew from it a force of action. No limit brother. And then after all what is tattooing if not our current thinking and beliefs on the subject. More than once in India, I had to ask a person what their tattoo represented, which at first glance looked absolutely like nothing, some kind of abstract art. Whether it is Shiva tattoos, Hanuman tattoos or any unrecognizable gods, the tattooed person still seemed to be happy. When a tattoo artist tells you that he tattooed on you a Shiva (or others), whatever may be the final visual result, the person who got tattooed will only see the god and nothing else. Concept far from our aesthetic and "stylish" modern concerns. The power of Indian imagination is limitless.
The tattoo artist had placed his small portable equipment on the ground: machines, inks, oil, pens, batteries, cling film and a few sheets of flashes. It was early March 2020. India had already started to restrict the arrival of foreigners on its territory. No one wore a mask yet, and street tattoo artists were still handing hygiene over to the gods, as they still do I guess. The machine, the gun, the Russian roulette masala sauce.
Firstly a young girl was quickly tattooed on her wrist. Then it was the turn of a young man who came to make a declaration of filial love to his mother, « mother » that is said « Maa » in Hindi. Relax, he came without designs or particular idea. Among the flashs, he finally found one design that suited the situation. A pretty "Maa" with a thorough aesthetic. And it is there, at this precise moment that I discovered the “Stencil 3.0”. Without further ado, here is the recipe: 1) Choose a pattern, drawn or photographed. 2) Take a picture of it with your smartphone (or if your smartphone is connected you can choose it directly on the web)
3) Define where to tattoo it 4) On the smartphone screen, using a fine point marker go over the contours of the design to be tattooed
5) Apply a fatty substance to the place where the tattoo is to be done
6) Transfer the pattern drawn on the screen of the smartphone to the skin
7) Thanks to the rear view of the smartphone, the customer can check the correct positioning of the pattern
8) And then it is « let's go with the ink ».
Notice all those little black dots on the tattoo artist's left hand. This is the result of machine tuning on himself. Cool that "Stencil 3.0", right? Stephane Guillerme www.godispop.com www.gavriniz.com
