Tattoo Carnival at Hornbill Festival makes splash debut

EMN
Kohima, December 7
In response to the great support shown by the community and the travellers, Headhunters’ Ink kick-started with their tattoo carnival today, where four renowned artists from the tattooing world began free inking of Naga art on tattoo enthusiasts at 9 am today. The tattoos are being made free of cost only on first come first serve basis. The initiative has been taken up to preserve, revive and promote the dying indigenous tattoos of the Naga headhunters, and to present it to the world as a globally recognized benchmark of beauty and achievement. The free tattooing carnival will continue tomorrow as well from 9 AM to 4 PM.
The team of 4 professional artists- Mo Naga (Founder, Headhunters’ Ink), Taka Jamir (Founder, Skin Canvas- Dimapur), Lemsentong (Founder, I L Tattoo, Kohima) and fine arts tattooist Nokrenmatang Soyah were overwhelmed by the enormous response they received from tattoo enthusiasts from around the world. During the very first half of the day, the Headhunters’ Ink stall witnessed a large number of footfalls and all the appointments for the day’s free tattooing exercise were booked by 12 noon.
Thrilled at the huge support received from the visitors at Hornbill, Mo Naga says “Since the beginning of this festival we have been tattooing at least three foreigners daily, who showed great excitement and enthusiasm in the Naga tattoo and cultural movement. After hearing the interesting and untold stories about the art and history of Nagaland, they were extremely excited to embrace these Naga tattoos and thereby become cultural ambassadors of Naga art for the world. It is inspiring to see the local people to come forward and proudly represent the beautiful culture that our Nagaland is known for. Their valuable support is imperative for the success of this culture preservation movement.” It is worth mentioning that besides local Naga people, Mo has also tattooed people from different parts of India and abroad during the Hornbill Festival. His client list, so far, consists of people from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Norway and Ireland.
As the hornbill festival reaches its 7th day of celebration, the Naga art revival program initiated by the Headhunters’ ink is on full swing with massive support pouring in from all sections of the local and travelling society. The initiative is getting incredible response from the Naga community who have embraced this program with open arms thus giving a huge boost in this colourful festival. Interestingly, notable amount of encouragement have been received from the religious sectors representing various churches from this region too. Along with this the community of armed forces posted in this region has also appreciated the efforts of the Headhunters’ ink in the preservation and reincarnation of the ethnic Naga designs which was slowly fading away with time had it not been for this campaign.
Besides this, commendable local support and overwhelming response is flooding in from the foreigners who are enthusiastically getting inked in Naga tribal designs to take the beautiful art and the message from the Naga Hills across the globe.