More than just skin-deep

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In his mid-20s, tattoo artist Reja Eshraghian’s passion is to ink or be inked because to him, tattoos are forms of identity and expression. First time holding a tattoo machine, his hands shook, and he thought the art was not meant for him. Six years down the road, his passion for tattoos grew deeper than ever.

A form of identity and expression

As a tattoo artist, Reja Eshraghian used to think that tattoos were cool.

Reja at work — inking his time away as a tattoo artist.

However, six years later, his perspective towards the body art changed. “Tattoos to me are a form of identity, like it represents where you came from or maybe something that reflects your expression.”

As an avid tattoo enthusiast, Reja enjoys collecting tattoos from his favourite artists or friends. The designs does not matter, what matters were having their marks on his body. “Hence, to me, tattoos can never be cool because it is painful!”

Reja’s first tattoo was inked on his inner bicep. “It says ‘MUSIC’. I designed it myself and to be honest, it was a really bad design as it was quite hard to read,” he laughed.

The 26-year-old’s jouney into tattoo started when he was 20. “Back then, I was still in college, studying graphic design. My second brother, Bani introduced me to it.” According to Reja, his brother has been in the industry more than seven years ago.

Reja then shared his first involvement into the industry, when he stole Bani’s tattoo kit to ink his friends. “It was scary, I’m not going to lie. It felt illegal because I was supposed to be in class, but instead I went out to tattoo and skate with my friends.”

The artist said he initially thought he was born to ink and that tattooing was easy. Only to realise that his hands was shaking. “It took me many years to reach the point of where I am now.”

His first tattoo which he designed himself was the word MUSIC.

When his brother found out about his shenanigans, Reja said that instead of getting angry, Bani decided to show him the proper way to tattoo a person, “So I quit college and the rest was history!”

In the industry, Reja is well-known as Reef — a nickname he used during his days playing in a band. As a tattoo artist, his designs leaned more towards the American traditional (old school) style. “The style used to be known as ‘sailor tattoos’ as only sailors would have the kind of designs and artworks done to their body.”

However, he would not interpret his designs as majorly American. “I did adopt the same techniques and then created my subject matter that is relevant to each client.”

Ever since the movement control order (MCO) was implemented, Reja leaned on to a different kind of art since the tattoo industry was brought to a halt. “I have all these ideas in my head and I need to find a way to get it all out so it does not overload my brain!” he exclaimed. If he cannot put his thoughts into words, Reja would then paint it, “That is how it is!”

Since there was nothing safer for him to do during the pandemic other than painting, Reja’s fingers focus solely on permanently inking his art on paper. He also revealed that actually, he has been painting longer than he has being a tattoo artist. “Most of my paintings before are designed specifically for tattoos, which is known as flash painting.”

On his regular day working on tattoos, he would paint palm-sized designs on sheets of paper that he kept in an album. “Then if my client had no clue on what designs to get, they can choose from my flash.”