Last August 16 at 9 am, the Henna Tattoo Competition for the 64th Fiesta was held in the benches fronting the Thibault Park. All nine departments had their representatives for the said event: two artists and two models. The artists had their designs imprinted with henna ink on their models’ arms in line with theme “Inang Maria, Gabay ka sa paghubog ng mabuting pinuno para sa bayan.”

Under the heat of the sun, the artists impressed the judges and the audience with their designs. “Nice siya. The divisions are really exerting effort in the name of excellence.” One of the onlookers commented on the event.

“Most of them have surprisingly great artistic talents,” Mr. Andrew “Iñigo” Jaldon, a tattoo designer and owner of Indio Ink Tattoo Studio, said in an interview. He was pretty impressed that even if tattoo art was unrelated to the students’ fields they had managed to produce good designs. Furthermore, Mr. Jaldon said that in order to pursue that kind of passion one must support it financially, and especially with time and effort.

The winners were announced later at the Sayawtenista held at the Ateneo de Davao University Grade School and High School covered court in Matina. Models from the different divisions walked the ramp wearing their division shirts and the jeans designed for the Jazz Up Your Jeans competition along with the henna tattoos in their arms. The criteria for judging the henna tattoo designs are as follows: relevance to the theme 30% style and neatness 25%, originality 20%, aesthetic expression 15% and over-all impact 10%. The Accountancy Department finished at second runner-up, the Business and Management Department at first, and the Social Sciences Division bagged the gold award.

More photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.459960187370344.110301.164207110278988&type=3