Twenty two year-old Kirtana Krishnan paints guitars. And that's not even the most unusual canvas she works with. A client once asked this "custom painter" - yes, that's what she calls  herself - to sketch on a skull! "A fake one, of course," she says with a straight voice. Skulled labour, indeed!

Under the label Shoeriken (Her Facebook page says: "A shuriken is a small Japanese weapon; a Shoeriken is a shoe painted by a small person), Kirtana started out with providing paint jobs solely for shoes, back when she was a literature student in her final year of college. Then before she knew it, the self-taught artist's stylised figures and Anime-ish sketches found their way on over a hundred pairs. That's when she put her foot down, and moved from pumps to canvases that excited her more - T-shirts, walls, music instruments and anything else your heart desires. Well not anything, now put that poodle away!

bpb loves her master strokes on this guitar and her wall art interpretation of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Getting there: Call Kirtana Krishnan on 9820113025, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or view the Facebook group here, custom art for a guitar starts at Rs 5,000.