Kathmandu

The tragic day, April 25, 2015, that has scared all of us was the second day of our International Nepal Tattoo Convention 2015. We were fortunate that none of our artists or visitors got physically injured but we all will never forget that moment for the rest of our lives.

The international tattoo artists and the tattoo community stayed back and worked in every possible way to help Nepal in whatever way they could. Tattoo community from all around the world since then has been generating funds and supporting different groups that have been actively and efficiently helping to rebuild the community.

Tattooists and Toilets (TNT) was formed to help build compost toilets on the second day after the earthquake. RISE NEPAL another group of young caring hearts from Nepal has been working with tattoo community from all around the world in various sectors to help rebuild schools, and health posts. Even Nepal government praised tattoo community for its effort and love for Nepal.

This year when my team was preparing for the convention, there was mixed reaction from everyone — some said they were too scared to come to Nepal because of the continuous aftershocks while the political unrest was another main reason. It was a pain to hear those words because in 2015 we were ready to give the world one of the best tattoo conventions ever and everything got destroyed in seconds, in 30 seconds to be precise.

We were determined to have a gathering this year because if there were people who were scared to come

to Nepal, on the other hand there were many more who were eager to come to Nepal.

“We have to come to Nepal this year to support Nepal Tattoo Convention and to support Nepal”, was what many interested artists told us. Touched, emotional, loved, respected, madness, happiness, and blessed is what I felt.

We thought we will have half of what we had last year but we have more participants than last year! We are doing it bigger and even better because I believe that is the only way.

We have gathered the world to come to Nepal, the world has gathered to support Nepal, they are coming to show us their love and tell others that Nepal is aright. Let’s welcome them in the true Nepali way. Come say ‘Namaste’ to these wonderful souls in the celebration of art and life at the 6th International Nepal Tattoo Convention to be held from April 1 to 3 at Hotel Yak and Yeti, Durbar Marg.

(The author is co-director of the Convention, and Director of Nepal Tattoo Pvt Ltd)