Reading artist wins tattoo show award with mystery design

33 minutes ago Neranjana Elapatha in Reading Abhishek Shakya Bibek Raut went into the competition blind and got his thigh tattooed Would you blindly get a tattoo without seeing the design first? That is what Bibek Raut did at the Big London Tattoo Show, where he did not see his new piece of body art until the needle broke the skin. His trust paid off - the thigh tattoo won Best of Friday, one of two awards collected by Abhishek Shakya at the event held over the beginning of September. Raut said he agreed because he had "full faith" in the artist, who works at Reading Mystic Tattoo Lounge, where he has been a happy customer since 2018. Shakya took 11 hours to complete the tattoo during the live competition, where he also won second place in the Ornamental category. Raut said he was delighted with the design, adding: "As people say, you know 'when you die you take tattoos with you'. And I've got the winning tattoo." Abhishek Shakya (left) won Best of Friday and second place in the Ornamental category, while Zamyang Yeshi won second place in the Asian-inspired category Shakya said lot of trust is involved in the process, including choosing who to tattoo, so he chose a long-time client he met in Nepal. "My client was very good, he sat a long day, super-tough, and then finally we did it," he said. Raut said: "I didn't see any tattoo designs, nothing. He just said 'I'll make a tattoo that will suit you'. "So he just made it for me. And I said all right then let's do it. So the final design was only shown to me during the tattoo convention." He said spending more than 10 hours in the chair was painful, but "it was all worth it". Abhishek Shakya (left) and Zamyang Yeshi won three awards between them at the Big London Tattoo Show Shakya first started working 14 years ago, initially on his friends and family in Kathmandu in Nepal, because being a tattoo artist was not viewed as a viable career. "Back then we didn't have access to all the facilities, we didn't have proper videos to learn, proper equipment," he said. "But slowly it changed when the first Nepal convention was introduced we got to see a lot of different artists." He specialises in Asian traditional and black/grey realism works, and incorporates Nepalese traditional arts in his designs. Shakya said he hoped the awards would help his career and the studio, as well as inspire future artists in Nepal. Bibek Raut Bibek Raut did not see his tattoo design until the day of the convention His colleague Zamyan Yeshi, another senior tattoo artist, won second place in the Asian-inspired category. His design, featuring a tiger and Japanese-style waves flowing down the shoulder, was designed based on the client's personality and body shape. "It has like a movement. I felt it looks good on him, so I decided to go well with that," he said. "I think you have to see the client and how he looks. He's a very athletic bodybuilder kind of guy." Zamyang Yeshi Zamyang Yeshi finished the design across two days Related Links