Did someone invite Charlie Chaplin to tea?

If you'd like to show off tattoos the way Deepika Padukone does, but you are just not that big on pain, here's an alternative. Now, in a matter of minutes, you can have flames, neon pixies, chalk-board Chaplins or just about any design you dream up, plastered on your wall

Did someone invite Charlie Chaplin to tea?

'Know your rights' a Buddhist good-luck incantation, the Roman Numeral 'XIII', the Arabic word for 'determination', an ornate Bengal tiger, and geographical co-ordinates that indicate the birthplaces of her children... these are just some of tattoos that Hollywood star Angelina Jolie sports.

Choose from Charlie Chaplinu00a0or the cuckoo clock for a kiddie room

Juhu resident Shaily Lalvani is a self-proclaimed tattoo-addict too. But averse to pain, the 32 year-old engineer-turned-wall stylist prefers to tattoo walls.

"I took a year-long break from work in 2006, when I was expecting a baby, and once Sovaan was born, I began thinking up interesting ways to decorate his nursery.

In the course of my hunt for novel d ufffdcor ideas, I came across wall-decals but realised they weren't available locally," shares Lalvani, outlining the story behind her firm.

Shelly's Walls was officially launched in November last year. Consequently, Lalvani ordered some decals from international sites, and when these arrived, inherently curious, the engineer couldn't resist the urge to study the material and technique.

"After a year-and-a-half of extensive research, I decided to import the machinery and materials from Germany, and manufacturing my own decals here," says Lalvani, who can now afford to re-invent her five-year-old's room every six months.

"It's as simple as putting on a sticker-tattoo," she says, pointing out that since the adhesive comes with a three-year-guarantee and the glue doesn't leave an impression, the base-paint isn't damaged when the sticker is peeled off. In a matter of minutes, a room can go from housing Winnie the Pooh to accommodating a rock-band.

Designs can be custom-made, so there's no cap on creativity, but those that feature in the catalogue are delivered faster. Unique designs would take longer than the usual three-day order notice, says Lalvani.

Playback singer Sukhvinder Singh was one of Lalvani's first customers, and quite an enthusiastic one, she says. "He ordered a large tree with birds for the living room of his home-cum-studio, and an Om and the Sikh Khanda symbol (a circle around a double-edged sword at the centre and two swords on either side)."

Everyone wants something that will set their room or home apart, and decals are a simple and non-expensive way to achieve it. "Besides, they can be used on any flat surface glass, laminate and plaster."

Mumbai's iconic Oriental restaurant China Garden's regular diners might be interested in this detail: the Buddhas watching over their meal and the dragon and phoenix on the pillars are Lalvani's creations.

With 60 colours to choose from, glow-in-the-dark, chalkboard or plain variants and a database of 35 design-categories, each with 200 to 300 options (including rock bands, vintage cars, black grand piano, oriental lettering), these wall-tattoos also make for interesting gift ideas, especially since they are reasonably priced at R 400 per square foot.

The more complicated designs, like Sukhvinder's tree, that incorporate upto four colours, may cost up to R 750 per square foot. That said, orders can be as small as you like and can go up to a 10 metres.