Hyderabad: Street Tattoos Thrive amid Health Risks

 Hyderabad: Near Secunderabad Railway Station, a street tattoo artist operates from a makeshift setup — a rickety table with a dirty surface, a bottle resembling a hand sanitiser filled with water, a used blade, tattoo equipment, needles and two black ink bottles stained and smeared across the table. Several laminated design cards are displayed beside the kit. The area reeks of gutka, swarms with flies and is littered with trash. The informal setup, located on a dusty main road footpath, continues to draw a steady stream of customers — a queue of six waiting for cheap tattoos priced at Rs 100 per inch.

The ink used is of questionable quality, likely containing harmful chemicals. The self-taught artist claims to change needles for each client to avoid diseases such as HIV and AIDS, but continues to use the same ink containers across sessions — a possible source of cross-contamination. Essential hygiene practices are missing: no gloves, no antiseptic cleansing and no stencilling. He directly applies the tattoo machine on the skin of the client skipping essential steps of stenciling and solution application. He shaves the body hair only when he thinks it interferes with the tattooing, leaving it beside the equipment.

Professional tattoo artist Srinu says wearing gloves, shaving and cleaning the skin with an antiseptic solution, using sterilised equipment and changing both needles and ink for each client are essential. He emphasises the use of an autoclave — a device used for medical-grade sterilisation. Clients, he adds, are asked for their medical history, made to sign consent forms and are given clear aftercare instructions — a protocol completely absent in the street tattoo trade.

“The high-quality ink should be designed to stay within the dermis layer of the skin. If it seeps deeper into the skin, then the problem arises, which usually happens in the case of tattoos made by street artists. The tattoo infection is linked to serious health risks like Hepatitis B, skin cancer and bacterial infections,” says Dr Sushmitha, a dermatologist.

Asked about the unhygienic conditions, the tattooist, Sachin, a migrant from Rajasthan running this setup for over a decade, says, “I know it’s unhygienic and can cause infections, but I have no choice. Renting a shutter near the station costs nearly `50,000 — I can’t afford it.” He adds that despite operating from a footpath, he pays a weekly ‘hafta’ to a local because he’s a non-local. His earnings are barely enough to support his family in the city. While one may sympathise with the artist’s financial constraints, the public health risks posed by such unregulated services cannot be ignored.

At present, India has no law or licensing requirement specifically governing the tattoo industry. In February this year, the Karnataka government proposed regulating tattoo parlours across the state and sought the Centre’s intervention to draft a national framework. However, the proposal made no mention of street tattoo artists or their unhygienic setups. Discussions on regulation remain ongoing, but there has been no official response from the Central government so far.