Delhi Etches Grief of COVID's 2nd Wave in Memorial Tattoos

NEW DELHI - As the tattoo needle moves on her wrist creating an image of angel’s wings and the word “Dad,” Rakshita Gupta, a designer of home furnishings, recalls what her father, who died two months ago of COVID-19, means to her and her sister.

“He taught us to be independent, he taught us to be brave, he gave us all the freedom we need, he taught me everything I knew,” Gupta said with a shiver as she sat with her sister in a tattoo studio, Inkinn, in the Indian capital. “At the same time, he was the most pampering parent in the world.”  The Guptas are among thousands of families who lost loved ones during a ferocious second wave of the pandemic that shrouded New Delhi in grief in April and May.  Some family members could not spend the last moments with spouses, brothers, sisters, or parents as they struggled in hospitals. Some watched their loved one succumb to the virus while they scrambled to find a hospital bed and oxygen. Farewells were lonely in overwhelmed funeral grounds.