Inking her future Art form much more than skin deep for tattooist who has realized her dream
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/05/2024 (815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Osheen Dhiman is not one to pay heed to a “no,” however many times she hears it.
The word doesn’t register for the 29-year-old tattoo artist who learned to draw from her mother Kiran, herself an artist who gave up on her dreams to raise a family.
Photos by Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Tattoo artist Osheen Dhiman, 29, works on a tattoo in her space at Ink Noir on Fort Street. 
Growing up in Ludhiana, Punjab, India, Dhiman’s interest in art blossomed under her mother’s guidance, but pursuing it as a career was never an option.
“I was born in a place where I was told if you are going to be an artist you are going to be poor,” she says.
“The maternal side of my family are very business-minded and they told me ‘no, no, no, no, you can’t make money from painting.’”
Architecture was presented as a better fit and Dhiman duly complied, studying for five years, although she admits she tried to drop out early on.
“I was already like ‘this is not what I want to do, I hate this.’ And then, after my second semester, I went to get my first tattoo and I thought ‘this is it, this is it. I really want to do this.’
“I told my mother I wanted to quit architecture to become a tattoo artist and she said ‘no, no, no you are not going to do this. You do your architecture right now and get your degree,’” she says.
Tattoo artist Osheen Dhiman a moved to Canada three years ago and has been working at Ink Noir for two years now. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press)
She stuck it out and graduated, then started working in an architectural firm where she would make 3D models of buildings during the day before rushing off to her second job as a commercial graffiti artist, taking on multiple commissions from businesses and for residential homes.
Her eyes were firmly on the prize. Dhiman was saving everything she earned to pay for the tattoo apprenticeship she had somehow managed to carve out time for.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press 49.8 The Creators - Tattoo artist Photos of tattoo artist, Osheen Dhiman, as she works on a tattoo in her space at Ink Noir . Dhiman, 29, qualified as an architect in Punjab, India, where she is originally from. Whilst she’d always wanted to be a tattoo artist, parental and cultural pressure forced her to pursue a more traditional career. Undeterred Dhiman took on art jobs on the side, whilst studying architecture, to pay for her apprenticeship with an Indian tattoo artist. Dhiman moved to Canada three years ago and has been working at Ink Noir for two years now. See Story by AV Kitching May 6th, 2024
“I remember not sleeping,” she says. “I was juggling these three roles the whole time. I used to call in sick at the architecture firm sometimes if I had to go out of town to do my graffiti projects, or I would pull all-nighters for commissions which were in the city.”
There was a lot to learn. It took her a year to hone her craft, learning the basics of sketching for six months before she was finally allowed anywhere near a tattoo gun. Practising on artificial skin made from silicone at first, she soon graduated to working on human epidermis after completing her first skin tattoo on her own body.
Four years later and Dhiman is still fascinated by the art form — and the medium.
“The opportunity to work on somebody else’s skin feels so unreal. This design, this art you’ve been working on, someone else is going to carry on their body their entire life. They are walking canvases, they are walking art,” she says.
Osheen Dhiman works on a tattoo in her space at Ink Noir. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press)
Dhiman specializes in Japanese, floral, symmetrical and neo-traditional tattooing styles at Ink Noir on Fort Street. Owners Johnny and Vanessa Yang are like her family she says; they gave her a chance when no one else would.
“I remember I had a very bad day, I experienced a little racism. And I thought, you know, I just have to go to Ink Noir and I have to give them my resumé.”
Supplied Osheen’s mother, Kiran, has a smaller version of a tattoo Osheen has on her chest.
There wasn’t a position for her at the time — all 13 spots in the shop were filled — but she got a call three days later asking her to come in. Space had been made for her.
“I was confident about my work but as a brown person in a white country I was ready for rejection. I always feel like if Johnny and Vanessa wouldn’t have seen the potential beyond this brown colour, I wouldn’t be where I am today. They gave me a chance,” she says.
And what about her mother? How does she feel about her daughter’s career now?
“She’s come a long way,” Dhiman laughs. “I tattooed a chest piece for my mom. She has a smaller version of what I have. I wanted to make a statement — like mother, like daughter.”
Supplied Dhiman’s mother, Kiran, has a smaller version of a tattoo she has on her chest.
The senior Dhiman is so impressed with her daughter’s skill she’s requested an extension of the artwork, something which Dhiman finds especially gratifying.
“I remember when I first got my chest tattoo my mom said ‘I do not like this. I don’t know what kind of person are you becoming.’
“On that day, when I tattooed her I felt so good, because she never wanted me to be a tattoo artist and she never wanted me to have a chest tattoo. That day it felt like she finally gave her ‘yes’ for my passion, for my career, for everything.”
av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
AV Kitching is an arts and life writer at the Free Press. She has been a journalist for more than two decades and has worked across three continents writing about people, travel, food, and fashion. Read more about AV.
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