Nikitin Dheer recently bid adieu to what has turned out to be career-defining role for the actor — that of Raavan in Srimad Ramayan. To commemorate his journey, as well as everything the character taught him, in an elaborate post the actor dedicated an elaborate tattoo located on his right thigh to the mythological demon-king. The tattoo in question features a veena and a sword, encircled by the line, ‘eko aham, dwitiyo nasti, na bhuto na bhavishyat’. This roughly translates to ‘there is only one of me, none other like me, neither in the past nor in the future’ and aptly captures the philosophy of Raavan.
While one can tell how emotionally connected Nikitin still is to his on-screen character, there are many who haven’t held back in criticising the actor for firstly, having a tattoo on his being dedicated to Raavan and secondly, for the fact that he has a veena and the Devnagri script on his thigh, with the former often being seen as a signifier of Goddess Saraswati. Nikitin however, has doubled down on his stance, not paying heed to the commentary. Niktin’s tattoo is a great reminder of how often several well-known celebrities, not just in India, but the world over, have turned to Indian mythology and spirituality to capture their emotions and philosophies in ink.
Sanjay Dutt
Sanjay Dutt is an avid fan of tattoos and has as many as 6 on his being. The most standout one however, is the one on his left arm featuring a portrait of Lord Shiva with ‘Om Namah Shivay’ being written beneath it.
Ajay Devgn
The story of how Ajay Devgn got his first tattoo has a strong Sanju connect to it. During an interview back in 2009, Ajay revealed that it was Sanjay who had relentlessly convinced him to go in for his first tattoo, which happened to be a statement image of Lord Shiva on his chest. Ajay had gone into get inked while he was filming for Rohit Shetty’s All The Best, also starring Sanjay.
Mandira Bedi
For about a decade or so, Mandira Bedi had ‘Ik Onkar’ tattooed on her back in the Punjabi script. However, the actor had to go in to get it covered up in 2014 after she decided she had had enough of morally-motivated attacks come her way from “people who are narrow minded and having a problem with something like this”, “I just want to be done with them”, she had shared with HT back in 2018. The tattoo now stands camouflaged by an African saying which means ‘God is great’, flanked by wings representing freedom.
Esha Deol
Esha Deol makes the list on account of having not just one, but two spiritually linked tattoos. The first are lines from the Gayatri Mantra inked on her upper right back. The second is an Om inked on her left shoulder.
Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudgens
Miley Cyrus is a thorough enthusiast when it comes to getting herself inked. One of her earlier tattoos however, was a simple ‘Om’ inscribed on her left wrist.
Interestingly, Vanessa Hudgens too has found herself enraptured in the power of Om. Vanessa’s tattoo however, is interestingly placed in that the whole ‘Om’ only comes together when she holds up her palms in prayer.
Besides this, Charmed star Alyssa Milano has a vertical Om tattooed down the nape of her neck.
Rihanna
Back in 2007, Rihanna had a Sanskrit prayer tattooed going down her right hip bone. The Sanatan Dharma quote was, as per ideation, supposed to translate to ‘forgiveness, honesty, suppression, control’. However, the tattoo had several mistakes and reportedly ended up reading ‘long-suffering, truthfulness, self-restraint, inward calm, fear and fearlesness’. Not just this, the tattoo was also missing other facets of the prayer, namely, ‘pleasure, pain, birth, death’. Needless to say, back in the day, this was quite the controversy.
Kimberly Wyatt
Former Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt has the prayer ‘Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu’ which roughly translates to ‘may everyone in the whole world be happy’. While the style of Kimberly’s tattoo apes the Devanagari script, it is phonetically written in English.
Special mentions: Jessica Alba has ‘Padma’ written in the Devanagari script on her right wrist, which may or may not be a reference to Goddess Lakshmi. Katy Perry has ‘Annugacchati Pravaha’ (meaning ‘go with the flow’) inked on her right bicep which was a matching tattoo with former husband Russell Brand. Singer and Maroon 5 face Adam Levine has ‘Tapas’ in Devanagari inked on his chest while actor Brittany Snow has ‘Abhay’ (meaning ‘fearless’) inked on her ankle.
In the world of sports Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova has the word ‘Jeet’ (meaning ‘victory’), inked on her neck. And while not spiritual, former English footballer David Beckham has his wife’s name, Victoria (Beckham), inked in Hindi across the left forearm.