After mixing charcoal with a few drops of goat’s milk, Basran Jogi, 60, turns with his needle to his guests of the day: two Pakistani children who have come to receive their first traditional tattoo.
In the Hindu villages on the eastern border of Pakistan, near India, tattoo artists have been drawing needle lines of dots, circles and other geometric ornamentations on the faces, arms and hands of girls for centuries.
'First, two straight lines are drawn between the eyebrows,' Ms Jogi explains to a friend who has just grasped a sewing needle.
And now we push the needle between these two lines, slowly, until the blood appears,' she continues.
Pooja, six years old, makes a grimace as the points begin to form circles and triangles of...
