Olin Inking: Carving his way into Dhaka’s tattoo scene
Olin was finishing up on a client when in his tattoo studio. The one-room space appeared more cosy than a commercial venue, it was set up as if it was built for catching up with friends. The walls were adorned with green-gold wallpaper and several of Olin's artist inspirations.
Olin was putting finishing touches on the tattoo. He joked around with his client, manoeuvring a social conversation while simultaneously tattooing an intricate piece with ease. Late 2000s music played in the background.
"My studio is more of a personal environment. Clients come in, we chat about their tattoo idea, they share their personal stories attached to the idea and then we come to a design decision. It's all off the books here," Olin explained, adding, "What happens at Olin's, stays at Olin's."
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
At a certain time, such a space never seemed a possibility for Olin. It was not just that it is such an unheard-of concept in Bangladeshi culture, but he also simply never believed anyone would trust him enough with their skin.
"I was always an artist so I used to draw on notebooks and eventually started doodling on myself and my friend's arms. I even doodled on their bags, guitars, you name it. We would go to school in the heat in full sleeves. Then afterwards get out on Bailey Road and just show off our arms. I would walk around with 5-6 markers of different colours – just drawing. No matter where I went, I would always leave some trace behind," Olin reminisced.
When one of his uncles saw his passion, he bought him some tattooing equipment from abroad to encourage it. Teaching himself from YouTube videos and books he found online, Olin, who was only 15 at the time, began practising on fake skin. But though he was teaching himself this skill, he still wasn't sure if this was going to be his actual career.
A breakthrough in his mindset came when his uncle's friend managed to convince him to do a tattoo on his arm. It had only been seven months since he started to teach himself but he agreed to do the design – a small lettering.
"When I was done, I looked at it and thought 'that's not bad.' With a bit more practice, the designing began to come naturally to me. And then I never looked back."
Olin's first tattoo studio was in the drawing-room of his house, which was also his makeshift music studio. When he started the studio in 2008, it was more on a smaller scale with a similarly small, close-knit customer base.
"I had a studio rule – you have to be 18 to get a tattoo but I was 16!" Olin laughed.
Coining the Bangla tattoo and the ensuing boom
Olin's customer base and studio these days are a far cry from how it started out. Getting to this stage in 2022 all the way from 2008 was not an easy matter. The tattoo designs customers wanted in the early days were more generic or Euro-centric.
"I wanted to adapt our tattoos according to our Bangali identity. Something that people will look at and know instantly that it's the Bangladeshi style," said Olin.
As a student of Charukala and an avid lover of Bangla literature, Olin began to brainstorm ideas for a tattoo that would be inherently Bangalee. "A lot of our folk art is similar to other South Asian countries because we have a sort of shared culture. I need to draw upon something that is completely us.
And then I thought, we're the only country that gave our lives for our mother tongue. There are some words that don't have any translation. There are some emotions these words in our art and literature evoke that only we can understand. I wanted to capture that in a tattoo and have something we as a Bangali can relate to," said Olin.
But even with this burgeoning new style in his arsenal, Olin struggled to get customers to opt for this instead of the usual designs. It wasn't until 2016 that things finally changed.
"A client came in and wanted a tattoo in Bangla. That was exactly the opportunity I was waiting for. I made an abstract design of a woman's face with lines from a Kazi Nazrul Islam poem. When she saw the design, she fell in love with it and got it done immediately."
Olin posted the tattoo on his social media, as per usual. And it immediately went viral. The attention understandably scared him. He was sure that it would be negative, only when he read the comments, he found overwhelming love.
"A commenter dubbed the style 'bangla tattoo.' It was simple and original. And that's what it's been called ever since," he said proudly.
The love for bangla tattoos took off afterwards. Clients were more interested and the studio began to grow exponentially. Over the years he has gotten the chance to practice both his bangla style and his typical minimalist style. In his work, he prefers to design in small patches since it works better with our skin type.
"I like tattoos that have drama. This kind of drama was taught to me by reading Humayun Ahmed," Olin explained. He then pointed at a Van Gogh painting on his wall and said, "Artists like Van Gogh are also my inspiration. I take heavy inspiration from Lalon, Hason Raja, and a lot of our folklore."
Olin, however, does not have any tattoos himself. A question everyone asks him, he claimed.
"For every design I make, though I like it, an hour later I start thinking of ways I could have made it better or further improved it. It's not that I need to achieve a perfect design but I have to connect with it; it has to be timeless. But I have not really had that feeling yet," Olin explained.
His plans for the future
This importance that he places on storytelling and forming an emotional connection with his work is why Olin likes to know his customers on a more personal level. It was also one of the allures of being a tattoo artist.
One of the plans for the future includes holding an exhibition where he features his tattoos and the backstories behind them. As a people, we hold many traumas that are never properly treated and he hopes to alleviate this by showcasing these stories.
"I want someone to read the stories and see the tattoo art and maybe they will realise others are going through the same things as they are. This is how we can share an emotional connection with tattoos," said Olin.
He is planning for a series and hoping that perhaps it can help destigmatise tattoos in our society. "Tattoo is an art. It's just on a different canvas. If people can just digest that, that will be grand," he laughed.
