All colors shown in flash sheets are available, interchangeable, and tested on my skin.
I urge my non-Indian clients to read the first image titled, "Sources and Appropriation with non-Indian Clients."
Some flash sheets are reserved only for South Asian clients.
Custom designs are available for all clients to collaborate on creating a meaningful design in my drawing style.
Flash Sheet A | FOR SOUTH ASIAN CLIENTS ONLY
Flash Sheet A continued | FOR SOUTH ASIAN CLIENTS ONLY
Flash Sheet B | inspired by kōlam designs (FOR SOUTH ASIAN CLIENTS ONLY), my first earrings after getting pierced at age 1, Ardhanari our androgynous wish-granting cow, thulasi plants and the kumkum that bursts from their foreheads, Hum Apke Hain Koun...
Flash Sheet C | Of flying girls. Big-nosed, frizzy-haired. Unsure if they are in control or being controlled. If they exist when they’re alone or if their identity is tethered to other eyes.
Flash Sheet D | மாடு! பல்லி! காகா! பூனை! four of each, running and resting.
Flash Sheet E
Flash Sheet E
Flash Sheet E
Flash Sheet F | inspired by kovil rangoli
Flash Sheet G | inspired by animals walking on a wall hanging from my parents home 🐒 also maybe animal crackers.
Flash Sheet H
Flash Sheet I | Jasmines lined all up and down Ganesha’s trunk. I wonder if he’ll let you pluck one and poke it into you!!!
Flash Sheet J | in the style of traditional Indian Mithila paintings which were made during times of celebration. Celebrate everything and nothing.
Flash Sheet K (color test) | FOR SOUTH ASIAN + MELANATED CLIENTS ONLY. I want to recognize dotwork's inspiration from Trajva, but these are NOT Trajva tattoos. I am from a Brahmin family and do not feel comfortable tattooing Trajva designs unless you have experienced caste discrimination and trust me with a Trajva tattoo.
Flash Sheet K (black ink) | FOR SOUTH ASIAN CLIENTS ONLY
Flash Sheet L | The religious imagery in this sheet are FOR SOUTH ASIAN CLIENTS ONLY I am covered with snakes, resting on a lotus, maybe on the back of a serpent. The hoods of seven cobras shelter me in their angry, lively vibrations. Appa whispered to me at temples that only the most superstitious Hindus pray to the snake god, but we would always pray to them too just in case.
Flash Sheet M | Inspired by Tamil Alphabet Charts that haunted my dreams last night and also hours of my Sundays in Tamil class as a wee little ponnu. It did help! I can read, albeit slowly. I didn’t call home for a week, and then yesterday I did and Amma talked for thirty minutes straight without letting me get a word in. I always wonder why she doesn’t just call me? My parents have been toying with the idea of moving back to India once it’s safer to, and then I did too, and my dreams had these charts plastered on the walls of every room I dreamt I was in, like my subconscious knew I’d feel helpless like a deadweight in India. My OCI status would show in all my grammar mistakes and how I don’t know how to conjugate words to show respect for elders. I got yelled at for that in my dream, but really, my relatives have always just been happy I can speak any Tamil at all.
Flash Sheet N | directly inspired by Warli paintings. While this folk style is still used in contemporary work, Warli paintings originally covered the mud walls of Maharashtran homes. Their white coloring came from a paste mixed with rice, water, and gum painted using a bamboo stick chewed at one end. In these designs, you may see flocks of birds, snails resting on tree trunks, crawling bugs following each other, people dancing, praying, lighting sparklers, gathering. Warli paintings generally depict togetherness, the simplicity of human connection, they way our skin melts into the earth that carries us.
Flash Sheet O | directly inspired by repeated embroidered designs on selvaar kameez garments, so I’d love to create custom designs based on ones in your closets. Because they’re repeated patterns, I think getting a matching one with someone you’d like to be bound to would be really really special. I wanted to create a flash sheet that highlights the nature of dotty handpoked work.
Flash Sheet P | dedicated to machine practice to make more blurs and gradients
Flash Sheet Q | I could lie and say these images were inspired by the coy expressions of narrative and emotion through the hands of bharatnatyam dancers, but really I just like being held by them.
Flash Sheet R | Rajasthani succubus flash FOR SOUTH ASIAN CLIENTS ONLY 🦚 I want to get married to her deep in the desert and give her everything she’s ever wanted. An eternity of desire awaits.
Flash Sheet S | மாடு flash The cow, in India, embodies Mother Earth. I feel such an intense connection to the animal, the most superficial reasons behind that being my name also means Mother Earth and that I’m a Taurus. I’m also lazy, slow, protective, and I think I’m also divine sometimes. Last week, a dream I’ve had of feeling the weight of a cow’s head resting on my thigh, relinquishing its power with me, it was fulfilled. I also kissed a cow named Janani on her big nose. The uncle who gave me my name also gave the name to her. But my love for cows is not without complication. A cow chewed up my favorite skirt when I was 13. A cow stepped on my dad’s foot and left him immobile last year. I once leaned my head forward to touch foreheads lovingly with a cow before feeling it’s head ram into mine, knocking me down. And less than a decade ago, India banned the slaughtering and consumption of cow meat throughout the country. I remember feeling a fleeting pang of care for the cows that now wouldn’t be killed, until hearing of Mohammed Akhlaq’s death. He was beaten to death by a mob in his home in Bishara. “The mob that killed him believed that Akhlaq and his family, who are Muslim, had eaten meat from a cow, an animal considered sacred by the 80% of the Indian population who follow the Hindu faith. Akhlaq and his son were dragged from their beds and beaten with bricks. The father died; the son is fighting for his life in hospital.” Modi let his death and many others pass without a glance. He sometimes entertained the families with conducting an autopsy on the bodies, finding that no beef had been consumed. Arundathi Roy has said it’s safer to be a cow than Muslim in India. As of today, only Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram have no laws prohibiting cow slaughter, continuing the argument between Hindu nationalists, vegetarians, and India’s non Hindu population. Cows roam the streets still, handprints covering their humps, believed to hold in a pure energy. I wonder what they think.
Flash Sheet T | This event has passed, but I would love to still tattoo these designs!
Flash Sheet T | This event has passed, but I would love to still tattoo these designs!
Flash Sheet U (by Utsavi) | FOR SOUTH ASIAN CLIENTS ONLY
Flash Sheet U (by Janani) | FOR SOUTH ASIAN CLIENTS ONLY collaboration with Utsavi @border.line.tattoos Kalighat painting is an art form born from colonialism and tourism’s inclination to water down the potency of Indian narrative, taking what is aesthetically pleasing as a souvenir, and leaving artisans to fight for their own survival when they were no longer interested. These can be tattooed by either me or Utsavi in my Chicago studio or her Mumbai studio!
Flash Sheet V | inspired by Phulkari embroidery, a garden of thread stitched into the wrong side of a cloth until you can’t see it anymore. It’s gifted to you as a symbol of happiness, prosperity, love, and affection. Do you feel happy? Prosperous? Lovely? Affected?
Flash Sheet W | Patna-inspired florals representing regrowth and blooming. This fundraiser has closed, but feel free to choose a design from this flash sheet + tips will go towards CTJC!
Flash Sheet X | This flash sheet is inspired by so much that it feels overwhelming to concisely share my thoughts! Here’s what I hope this communicates to you: — my amma buying flowers outside a temple to hand to her குலதெய்வம் as an offering. Imagine she asks the vendor to cut a few inches off the end to pin into her hair, and you smell it as she walks past you. Maybe she hopes her god smells it too and knows she’s there. — my niece sitting at the table, getting her hair oiled, combed, plaited, and swooped into a loop, tied together with a ribbon that matches her uniform before she leaves for school. It hurts, and she’s protesting silently by pulling her head away from her mom, but that only makes it hurt more. — a bharatnatyam braid attached to your small ponytail with dozens of hairpins that poke into your skull if you relax your head too much. You tuck it into your ஒட்டியாணம் and safety pin it to your blouse, so it doesn’t swing while you dance. — the heat of the sun and the dust from the street sticking to your oiled hair, which might feel dirty in the moment, but so satisfying when you see that the water runs brown as you clean your hair that night. — a young Nani being taken to a priest to get their hair shaved off along with the sins of their past life. Amma says I turned rowdy and loud afterwards, so she thinks they shaved off my goodness. I want my hair so long it tickles my thighs, but I’m not a woman.
Flash Sheet Y | Taurean flash for all those yearning for the warm strong touch of a cow
Flash Sheet Z
Flash Sheet Z | Designs for both holding on and for letting go, customizable to eyes that you want to get tattooed, and available for all clients. A few March dates left in the link in my bio. The last time I was in Chennai, I felt hyperaware of the eye imagery we walked past, on the fronts of lorries, in songs stuck in my head, and on wheatpasted kanneer anjali (“tearful tribute”) posters layered onto every surface. Appa explained to me that public obituaries made certain that the community knows of death, so people are careful not to linger on a yearning for this person, so their soul doesn’t live on in people’s minds holding the deceased to stuck in our shared state of consciousness. My family lately is always celebrating while it is grieving, holding onto memories while it is easing its grip on expectations.
Ajantha Flash Sheet | inspired by cave paintings in Aurangabad, Maharashtra
Lorry Flash Sheet | Inspired by paintings on lorries driving around Chennai
Durga Flash Sheet | Inspired by the objects traditionally held in Goddess Durga's hands - the conch shell, trident, noose (turned flower), and discus.