Fahad Farook talks about Skin art

By Nadia Izzy

International trainer, certified transformative coach and management consultant Fahad Farook shares his thoughts about the symbolic meaning of tattoos and his love for ink!

1. What made you do this?

I think tattoos are a great symbolism for things we feel strongly about, it’s a way to ‘wear a sentiment’, I already had two tattoos on me, but then I had been playing with the idea of another small one somewhere and I had lots of creative thoughts.  So one day I, I just said to myself, “why don’t I get ALL of this… (The societal expectations of me being a corporate trainer, coach and speaker was something I had to mentally deal with as well)

2. So why comics? Is there an interesting story behind this or do feel that this has a particular significance and do these characters play an important part in your life?

The full sleeve comprises more than just comic characters, it’s full of things that mean something to me in an aspirational sense. When I was a kid cartoons were an escape. I didn’t have a lot of friends and sitting in front of the TV and watching those things took me to a place that I felt involved. All the characters I have, signify some sort of transformation either from a previous weak state or from a previous negative position… And that is essentially me… I went from having social anxiety and not being able to talk to more than 3 people at once to speaking to crowds of 100-6000 people with absolute ease! And every single time before I get on stage in my mind I feel like one of these things on my arm! Crazy but true!

3. The selection you tattooed, can you tell us a bit more about them?

Avatar Aang, Iron Man, Hulk,Freddie Mercury, Thundercats, Voltron, Silverhawks, Batman, Joker, Gotham City, Ninja Turtles, Nike Air Jordan 1 Sneakers,  Van Gogh’s starry night, an astronaut  (To be completed -Muhamed Ali. Also Nikola Tesla if I have space)

4. Where did you get this done?

I only had one artist in mind for this, even though he was the most expensive, I didn’t really consider anyone else. Dimmu Fernando is an artist that alternates between SL and Italy and when I had the idea to do it he was in Italy, so it was a few months of sharing ideas and co creating the sleeve virtually until he came to SL, it’s been overall more than 30 Hours of work/pain on the tattoo and there’s more to go!

5. What do you think about Sri Lankans and tattoos, since you’re a leading corporate trainer and coach working with quite a number of renowned corporates?

I think people are far more progressive than we give them credit for. It’s true that there are some people who to measure capability or competence based on someone’s physical alterations and perhaps there are some people who consider tattoos to be rowdy. But I must say all of my clients have had nothing but good things to say! I think in some instances the fear of something exists only because we put it there. That being said I am fully aware that not everybody is open minded.

To find out more, we got in touch with Dimmu Fernando as well to share his thoughts and ideas and here’s what he had to say!

1. What were your thoughts when Fahad said he wants to do this tattoo?

I think i was travelling in Europe and doing tattoos when he first broke the news to me saying he wants to do a full color comic sleeve, it was pretty exciting because it’s something rare, especially a full colour sleeve in Sri Lanka. I was actually looking forward to heading back home to start on this sleeve and I also knew it was going to be challenging and this actually encouraged me to do this.

2. What were the specific challenges you had in getting the tattoo done?

Well, it’s always challenging tattooing color on tan or brown skin but it’s not impossible. They say that people with darker tones cannot get colour tattoos but that’s just a myth. It’s all about having an understanding of how color works when it comes to darker skin tones. Experience plays a big role here too. So you really need to know what you’re doing or the color can turn dull if you don’t pick your colours wisely for each character. The other challenge was, since these are all cartoon characters you REALLY have to know exactly which colours to use and how to use them because if you don’t you can easily loose the accuracy of the character and could even lead to not being able to identify the characters at a glance. In a nutshell, this involved quite a bit of brainstorming for me the day before each session.

3. In your years of experience, how do you feel about doing something that has so many elements to it?

I think this entire piece was fun for me ( I doubt I can say the same about Fahad – in terms of pain but trust me, it was worth it!). Another good thing was that Fahad also gave me the artistic freedom to do my thing and I must appreciate it where in Sri Lanka you are micro managed and that freedom is somewhat restricted. Also what made it great was that, we both loved the characters we did on the sleeve, growing up. So, we shared a mutual passion for all of the elements that was in it. Thundercats and silver hawks were two of my favourite cartoons as a child and I’ve always wanted to do a lion O” tattoo and I thought it would look sick with the colours.  All in all, I felt great combining all these elements and bringing them on the skin that would last a lifetime.

4. If you had to rank this tattoo in terms of challenge where would it be?

15 out of 10 haha . I’d say it was really challenging and I love things that challenge me artistically. Ever heard that quote on beetle juice by Tim burton? “My revenge will be artistic not personal”. This is how I feel when I’m faced with an artistic challenge! It pushes me out of my comfort zone as an artist who’s been in the very beginning of the Sri Lankan tattoo industry to still try educate myself on how to overcome a certain challenge. And it really humbles me to know that there’s always a lot to learn and we are constantly learning till we die. Challenges are a part of the process!