Here is my latest finished piece: Durga Descends – Hindu Goddess. Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop – 2014.

The Goddess Durga – “the invincible” is one of the most popular deities of the Hindu pantheon. The demon Mahishasura – the water buffalo demon, performed yoga and penances for eons until Brahma the Creator was compelled to give him a boon. The crafty demon wanted to be invincible to any man. With his wish granted he immediately went to work conquering every corner of the universe. The Gods gathered and needed to come up with a course of action. Mahishasura had overlooked the power of women. The Trinity – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva combined their powers and shined a blinding light upon Shiva’s wife Parvati. The other gods followed and emerging from the light was Durga with her skin shining like gold.

Shiva gave her his trident and sword. Vishnu gave her his discuss. Vayu – the god of the sky & winds gave her a conch shell to rally her troops. The sun-god Surya gave her his bow. The moon-god Chandra and Agni the fire-god both presented her with axes. Yama the god of death presented her with a mace. Indra the king of the gods gave her his thunderbolt. And each god that did not give her a weapon gave her their power. Armed with the arsenal and powers of the gods she rode forth into battle. Needless to say she defeated the buffalo demon and freed the universe.

In addition to making prints this is going to be my next tattoo. I tried to work in the style of tattoo flash. Most popular images of Durga show her with 8 or 10 arms – I went with 8 to try to reduce clutter. Another major decision I made was to turn her mount into a Liger (or Tigon if you prefer). In Bengal where my family is from, Durga is depicted riding an Indian Lion, but in other parts of the country she is shown riding a tiger. (I find this totally ironic as the Indian tiger is known formally as the Royal Bengal Tiger and yet we Bengalis decided it was a lion!) From my point of view this was an easy decision to make! We’re dealing with gods here – and specifically the most powerful goddess ever! Why wouldn’t her mount be a powerful mixture of both majestic cats?! So there you have it. I’ll post pictures of the tattoo after it’s healed up.

Stay tuned!