The next day I went back to where I’d seen the two tattoo studios.

The first one looked like a really professional outfit, with large pictures of their work adorning the walls. All the tattoos on display were really remarkable, executed no doubt by a very gifted set of artists. The people also seemed friendly and were as usual super surprised to hear that I was from India. When I showed them what sort of design I had in mind, they said it was do-able and gave me a quote of 250,000 Colombian pesos along with a 10% off discount coupon.

The second place was much smaller than the first, and had a single artist called Alvaro Calle who’d been in the tattooing business for the last 16 years. The guys here were super excited when I showed them my design; and gave me a lot of suggestions on how it could be improved. I was also invited into their studio to watch while another customer got their tattoo done. The quote at this shop was a bit higher at 300,000 Colombian pesos, but I still decided to get my tattoo made here as I liked these guys.

My design was that of a Buddha, but the head was from one picture and the body was from another. Moreover, in the print out that I had, the head was much larger than the body. So before we could get started, the guys at the tattoo shop spent more than an hour simply resizing the head to match the body. When they were finally happy, Alvaro - the artist - made a rough outline on my back. But it was too high. I wanted it to be such that when I wore a shirt, there would be no indication there was a tattoo underneath. So he rubbed off the outline and drew another one a bit lower. This time it was in the right spot. Before beginning the process, he asked me if I really wanted it. This was going to be on my back for the rest of my life, and now was the final chance to back out. I didn’t, and we got started.

I wanted the head on the left to go on the body on the right

I had heard that getting a tattoo was a very painful process, so I grit my teeth and prepared for the first prick of the needle. But I hardly felt it at all, and for the first half an hour thought that those stories of pain and suffering were only to discourage people from ever trying it. However over the next few hours, as Alvaro dug into the skin of my back to put the ink in there and constantly rubbed it to wipe the blood off, the pain steadily increased. In some portions, it hurt a lot more than in others, and it caused me to flinch every now and then. Also every once in a while, Alvaro would say “cinco minutos” (five minutes), go outside and stand in the middle of the road blinking his eyes. Or else he would take his bicycle and go for a ride around the block. It took almost 7 hours before Alvaro announced that the tattoo is now complete.

I thanked them, paid the money, bought some of the things that were needed to take care of the tattoo and walked back to the hostel. Everyone at the hostel said that it was an excellent piece of art executed by a real maestro. There was no way I could reach the whole tattoo, so Pedro said he would help me rub the moisturizer onto it for the next few days. How long the tattoo will continue to look good will mainly depend on how well I look after it over the next few weeks.

I had crossed a line today. I was now among those who had their pristine natural bodies tainted forever by a man-made drawing. When I thought about it, it was funny that my new tattoo was something that belonged to me, but I would never actually be able to really see it.

The final product