Jewellers Street is one of the most popular haunts for the young and the old alike. Here is tradition with a unique contemporary twist as the past is revisited with body tattoos, ear piercings, gold and silver plating and engraving coming into vogue.
In the past few years demand for tattoos and piercing has skyrocketed in Bangalore probably because of the proliferation of the internet and an increase in the understanding and appreciation for the art of tattooing. Today, people with tattoos, body piercings, and brands are found everywhere. Be it the multiplexes or the shopping malls, while walking down the streets or while watching television, it is hard find someone without a tattoo.
Vishwanath, owner of the US and UK tattooing and ear-piercing shop says “tattoos are believed to exude pain and pleasure at the same time. The pain experienced while getting waxed or threading done at a parlour is much more than while getting a tattoo. I learnt the art of tattooing in the US and have been practising it for the past 40 years. Seven year old children to 70 year old adults, with college students forming the majority walk into my shop”.
“Medicine and tattooing goes hand in hand. We use sterilised needles and five different types of equipment to administer tattoos. I have not got a tattoo done for myself as I am diabetic and diabetic patients cannot get a tattoo done,” he added.
Body piercing
Multiple piercings has become popular in the city be it the the ears, lips, nostrils, eyebrows, belly buttons, tongues, or the cheeks. B Raju Aacharya, owner of a Gold-silver repair and ear-piercing shop says, “I learnt the art of ear-piercing from my father. Earlier only women used to walk into my shop but nowadays even men enter my shop to get their ears and chin pierced. There were times where I used to polish gold and silver articles. But now, with the increasing number of customers I concentrate only on piercing”.
B N Venkatachalpathy and sons is one of the oldest engraving shops in the city. They basically engrave on metals using V-shaped chisel or gun-bow. Half of their work is geometric wherein they do the markings. They uses more than 55 different fonts to engrave. They have maintained the same standard down the line but however the price varies. Owner Babu says, “sometimes we get unusual things like ‘Light my fire’ to engrave. We get a lot of sports clients. I took nearly 2 months to learn this art. Engraving is not an easy task and to know how difficult it is to engrave try doing it”!
Gold and silver electro-plating shops are also found in plenty on the Jewel street wherein Gold, Silver, Copper and Brass items are polished and removed from dirt, grease, oxides and other solutions. Acids like sulphuric acid, nitric acid and potassium cyanide are used to remove stains. Nearly 10 to 15 customers walk into these shop daily. Electro-plating shops have been in this street for more than 10 decades.
East and west aside twains meeting in India is always an obscure question. Maybe jewellers street partly answers that.
