KATHMANDU: Attracting a record-breaking number of visitors, the 6th International Nepal Tattoo Convention ended on April 3 at Hotel Yak and Yeti, Durbar Marg. In the earlier years, the three-day fair attracted about 2,000 to 3,000 visitors. But this year the organisers catered to around 6,000 visitors — an indication of tattoo’s rising popularity.

As the Convention of 2015 was cut short by the earthquake, Bijay Shrestha, Director of the Convention “was afraid that people might not visit the Convention this year”.

But the turn out of the visitors has surprised him — “I am happy as we got record breaking number of visitors this year,” Shrestha expressed on the last day of the Convention. And he promised, “We will give our best to continue the Convention — next year it will be bigger and better.”

The Convention hosted 160 tattoo artists from across the globe, who worked on diverse range of styles. On the last day, while some tattoo artists did the finishing touch on their last works, others participated in interesting seminars by fellow artists.

Orge Kalodimas from Greece was one of the tattoo artists who presented a seminar on ‘Geometry Chaos’. Among the tattoo artists attending it was Kshitiz Shrestha.

“Orge talked about various things that were new to me,” Kshitiz shared adding, “I learnt to make mandala in 10 minutes using software from this seminar. Otherwise, it normally takes around one-and-a-half hour for me to draw a mandala.”

Another seminar was put forth by Quentin Inglis from Kalima Emporium, UK, on body piercing. A regular of this Convention, he was here when the earthquake struck in 2015. Post quake, he stayed back, helped build toilets for quake-affected people, returned home, and was here again for the Convention.

“This year’s convention is brilliant and so much special — as we had to discontinue it last year due to the earthquake. So, it was important for me to come back this year and I hope to come next year too,” stated Inglis, who calls it the “super friendly convention” among all the tattoo conventions he has attended.

Other than tattoos, the third day saw the live musical performance by Kanta dAb dAb — the band performed instrumentals from their first album — Kanta dAb dAb. Vajra Kala Kunja from Bhaktapur showcased traditional dance performances.

The event by Nepal Tattoo Pvt Ltd was organised by Mohan’s Tattoo Inn and mu’az Entertainment and promoted by Nepal Tourism Board. The Himalayan Times was the official print media partner.