Bhopal: Keeping alive the festive spirit and to take the message of women empowerment, a few devotes in the city have got tattoos with an image of goddess Durga and a famous Shloka from the Durga Saptashati inked on their body. They say that the tattoo is a warning to those who cast an evil eye on women.
A beautician Sneha Upadhyay has got made the tattoo of goddess Durga along with the Shloka ‘Yaa Devi Sarva-Bhuteshu Maatr-Rupein Samsthitaa, Namas-Tasyai Namas-Tasyai Namas-Tasyai Namo Namah…’on her back for peace and energy.
Sneha who is mother of two young daughters says she is very upset due to the growing sexual crimes against women. She feels that she should be strong enough like goddess Durga to battle her tormentors. She wants that the women should be so powerful that no one dares to cast a lecherous look on them. “Let the tormentors of women be warned that the Goddess- the slayer of the evil men – is looking at them, even if no one else is,” she said.
She says most of the time it happens with females that if they are going on the road, men start commenting, whistling and singing songs from the back. “We can’t keep an eye on them. So I have made the tattoo on my back so that goddess Durga protects us from the back,” she says adding that her intention is to get peace and energy.
She is disappointed that Garba is being not organised during Navratri due to the corona pandemic. “So we got made the tattoo and shares its photograph on social media to keep alive the festive spirit,” Sneha says.
Similarly, Niraj Yadav, who runs Jovial Makeup Studio, Kolar Road, says that the rape cases are growing in the country. People worship nine forms of the Goddess during Navratri. Every woman is like a goddess Durga including one of the forms of the goddess is Shailputri who is daughter of the Himalaya. “I got made the tattoo of the Goddess Durga on my back to feel strong like the Himalaya,” she says.
She has been participating in Garba events in the city with her daughter for 12 years. “I decided to make a tattoo, based on goddess Durga, as my way of asserting that women are not weak, whom the men can treat the way they want to,” she says.
There is huge demand for tattoos, themed on the goddess during Navratri, mostly from girls and women. They prefer to get tattooed on their backs and hands. We have made tattoos on around 35 clients from Bhopal and around the city till now. We have around 700 designs of tattoos on the theme. Once the design is selected, we make the tattoo using needles and dynamic ink. The time required and the charges depend on the size and placement.
-Vedi Mahor, Harry Black Tattoo Shop, New Market
