All behold the invisible tattoo!

Teenage rebellion just got a lot smarter! The tattoo gods have answered the prayers of all those people whose dreams were thwarted by strict parents and even stricter bosses.

The ‘blacklight’ or ‘UV’ tattoo is an ingenious invention that sits invisible on your body in normal daylight and only reveals itself under an ultraviolet light. The special ink used to etch on the tattoo renders a psychedelic glow to it under black or UV light. Once popular amongst ravers and hardcore party people, it has made its way into Mumbai tattoo studios.

“We have had it for the past five years,” reveals tattoo artist, Attikk Shaikh, “It is more popular in the trance and psychedelic genre. Besides, for a tattoo artist like me, ‘emotional power’ is my bread and butter. Everybody wants to tattoo the names of their boyfriend or girlfriend on their body.”

Tattoo artist Sameer Patange has seen an increase in this trend, “We get a lot of people, especially college students. But the clientele is limited to the upper-middle class people.”

The tattoo is ideal for people who want to be discreet with regard to their tattoos and also for others who want to be flamboyant.

However there are a few negatives, says Sameer, “The blacklight tattoo requires a touch up every six months. It costs about Rs 2,000 more than the normal. A good tattoo artist does not charge a lot for touch-ups though,” he says, “We only charge for the fresh needles used for the touch up.”

Tattoo artists like Kaitan Vaidya are skeptical about the future of the trend, “I haven’t experimented with it because I don’t know a lot about it. Besides, I am not too sure as to what pigments the ink have.”