Tattoo artist arrested on rape charges

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Police on Sunday arrested a popular tattoo artist in Kochi over accusations of rape, molestation, and sexual assault made by at least six women - all former clients of the artist. He will remain in judicial custody for the next 14 days.

Sujeesh PS's tattoo studio - Inkfected Tattoo Studio - became the target of complaints after a social media post recounted an 18-year-old woman's horrible experience there went viral.

Police say the woman has not yet filed a complaint after claiming she was raped while the tattoo artist tattooed her spine with a needle.

After the viral post went viral, several other women took to online forums to detail their experiences of sexual abuse they had suffered from the same tattoo artist in recent years.

"We will be taking the 164 statements of the complainants starting tomorrow. As of now, we have six FIRs registered against the accused, who was initially on the run. All are non-bailable offenses. And surrendered only after he was cornered by the police from all sides," NDTV quoted Kochi City Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju.

"It's not a one-off complaint. We are getting a lot of complaints. There are so many other tattoo studios. We haven't got complaints against them. All complaints are against this one particular person. Even if the complaints are about incidents from before, we still have means to probe them, including oral evidences and how the complainant would have felt or shared details with her trusted family members or friends, after the ordeal. Because all this is happening within the confines of closed four walls," he added.

He turned himself in late Saturday night and was taken to the Cheranalloor police station for questioning, the police said.