Inked for love

For Aarti Pahuja Palande, getting a matching tattoo with her husband wasn’t ever on her bucket list. In fact, even after a lot of persuasion from her partner, she was reluctant to get inked. “My husband has been wanting to get a matching tattoo for a very long time, but I had my reservations — it is a long-term investment,” she recalls.

But just as love happens out of the blue, Aarti and her husband, Aniket Palande, got matching tattoos spontaneously. “One day, we were in Goa and chilling, living the Goa life. And that was it — quite a spur of the moment decision, but we went to a tattoo parlour to get some details and voila! We got matching tattoos!” she says, excitedly.

A part and parcel of love is grand romantic gestures. From surprising one with a swanky international holiday to buying expensive presents — lovers seem to have done it all to declare their love to the world. Perhaps the most debatable of these gestures is getting matching tattoos with your significant other or tattooing their name, permanently.

Priyanka Chhajer

These grand gestures, however, become brave ones for others. Priyanka Chhajer got over her fear of needles to reciprocate her husband’s gesture. “On our wedding night, eight years ago, my husband Sandeep surprised me by getting ‘UJ’, short for Umrao Jaan (that he fondly calls me), tattooed,” she recalls. After the initial surprise wore off, Priyanka decided that night itself that she would do something special.

“I wanted to do something special for him, and opted for a tattoo over a regular gift,” she says. A year later, she went and tattooed ‘S’ for his name, Sandeep, on her back. “There are also feathers to the S because I think he gives me wings,” she laughs, well aware that it is mushy, but doesn’t care for sneers.

These brave gestures only spiral out of control close to Valentine’s Day. At Body Canvas Tattoo Studio, brothers and tattoo artists Vikas and Mickey Malani see an increase in couple appointments looking for matching tattoos. “Not just that, we also get several appointments from people who are keen to get a tattoo as a surprise gift for their partners,” says Vikas Malani.

Shedding light on what interests lovers around Valentine’s Day, Vikas says tattoos with an inside joke or a hidden meaning are a hit. “People have now started understanding that tattoos are permanent. Hence, they now look for something that not only that expresses their love but also has an essence of their relationship,” he says, adding that people have moved on from inking just names. “People have started getting more creative and are looking for designs that complete their love stories as well as represent a certain part of themselves,” he says.

Bharat Vaishnav, a city-based tattoo artist, makes his confirmations with the clients before he begins the process of tattooing. “I don’t mean to pry in their relationship, but I want to make sure my clients know what they are getting into. Tattoos are no joke — they are permanent, and I want to ensure my clients know that if things don’t always work out for them (God forbid!) getting rid of that tattoo is difficult,” he says.

But even as some can’t get beyond their doubts for love, others believe it is an eternal, inescapable bond. “It’s not a display of love and affection when couples get matching tattoos. It’s much more than that. Somewhere, you know you’re made for each other and you make each other feel special,” smiles Priyanka.
— With inputs from Nishtha Kanal