text: Seventy-one-year-old Ram Nivas from the village of Saras Kela describes how he was first tattooed when he was five years old. 'My father tattooed Ram on my forehead four times,' he says. 'When I turned 30, I tattooed my entire face, arms and legs.' He, in turn, tattooed each of his four children four times when they were young. 'But they did not want their entire body to be covered in tattoos as they work in other states of the country. These tattoos are an obvious sign that the person belongs to the community of untouchables [as Dalits were once known] and my children do not want this,' he explains. 'My grandchildren haven't been tattooed at all.' [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera