A girl gets a tattoo on her arm at the institute in Siliguri on Wednesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, June 15: The first batch of 10 students has completed a course in the art of the “ink” from the only tattoo training institute in Siliguri that became functional in March.

The training centre at Hyderpara, 2km from here, was set up by Yogesh Chettri, who learnt the art in Kathmandu in 2004.

“It was a challenge when I opted to take up tattooing as a career in 2004 because the society then was conservative and looked with suspicion at anybody who sported a tattoo. But the urge to do something different made me take it up as a profession,” said Chettri.

Chettri had started a tattoo studio in Kalimpong and Jaigaon around five years back when he worked as a free lance tattoo artist.

“There was trouble in running the studios initially because the locals were not aware of tattooing. Most of my customers comprised people from Bhutan and tourists. But gradually the local market picked up, and more people started visiting my stores,” said the 27-year-old.

The studios, however, were shut down after Chettri thought he would concentrate on a tattoo parlour and a training institute in Siliguri.

The artist said he always wanted to set up a training centre in his hometown. “My aim was to start a tattoo academy in Siliguri but apprehensions were always there as to whether or not I would be able to keep it going. A year back I started with a studio here just to gauge the response of the people and it was quite good. Over the year I have had a lot of customers asking for different designs ranging from portraits, objects and even religious symbols. Some youngsters even expressed a desire to learn the art and this gave me the confidence to start the academy,” he added. Chettri’s studio is on Sevoke Road.

The artist completed an advance course in tattoo making at South Yorkshire in UK last year.

Chettri is happy with the response Yogi’s Tattoo Training Academy has received.

“I have trained 10 candidates so far and they comprised mostly of youngsters and some middle-aged persons. While some wanted to learn the art out of fascination, others wanted to pursue a career in tattoo making. With luxury saloons and spas opening in Siliguri, budding artists have a scope of working as free lancers. Tattoo making is a lucrative career these days with a single design yielding a fee in the range of Rs 1,000-Rs 5,000,” he said.

The students are charged Rs 40,000 for the month-long course. They get a certificate from the centre.

“The academy has instruments like tattoo gun, needle and holder required for the training. Although the course duration is of one month, we can extend it if a candidate takes time to learn the intricate designs,” Chettri said.

According to him, the most important qualities to become a tattooist is to have passion for it and a lot of patience. “Being good at sketching helps but it is not a pre-requisite,” he said.