Kerala police on Friday registered four cases against a local tattoo studio owner Sujeesh PS, days after an 18-year-old girl’s account alleging sexual assault on a Reddit thread, sparked a flurry of #MeToo allegations across social media. Kochi police commissioner Nagaraju Chakilam said in a report that four women had came forward to register formal complaints after sufficient persuasion, and police had begun a search for the accused.
The Reddit post shared about three days ago triggered a floodgate of sexual assault, including rape, allegations against a popular tattooist in Kochi, Kerala. Sujeesh PS, the owner of Inkfected tattoo studio located at Palarivattom, has been accused by multiple women of molestation.
According to Via Kochi, an Instagram page involved in tracking this case, the 18-year-old woman who had originally posted on Reddit, had decided to not file a case. Sharing her traumatic experience from over a week ago while getting inked on her lower back, she alleged that Sujeesh asked her inappropriate questions like “Is the tattoo because you like sex?” “Are you a virgin?” “How many times have you done it?” “Is the guy outside your boyfriend? Do you know about bdsm?”
He then proceeded to sexually assault and rape the 18-year-old while holding the tattoo needle on her back, the post alleged.
“I just thought it was all my fault, which I guess is normal,” she said in the post. She was also allegedly told by the accused that she did not have to pay for the tattoo. News18 reached out to her, who recounted her first experience at the tattoo, which she said had been professional when she had visited with her mother.
“I’ve been to other tattoo studios, as well, but knowing that I’d be alone, I chose to go here thinking, ‘he knows my mom, he wouldn’t have the audacity to try something,’ but I guess my judgement was wrong,” she said.
Overwhelmed by the public attention the post has received, which ‘was not her intention’, she said she had put the post out just so that other women wouldn’t have to experience what she went through. “I could deal with my trauma but I wouldn’t be able to deal with the guilt of knowing that I’d given the predator the confidence to try something on others as well,” she said.
Since Sujeesh is an influential artist with over 50,000 followers (his follower count has only increased after the allegations came to light) and celebrity clients, the woman says she understands why people didn’t speak out against him before. Actors like Rima Kallingal and Parvathy have shared Instagram posts in solidarity with the survivors. Close to a 100 women have come forward so far to share similar trauma at the hands of the accused, she adds.
She is also unsure about the details of the police case(s) being filed and told News18 that she will make an “informed decision” after consulting lawyers and parents. “I’m young and still processing everything. If I decide to go public about this, it will change everything completely,” she said.
She further expressed gratitude to all the women who have spoken up about their own stories giving others the courage to do so, too. She has added a google form link in her bio for other women to come forward and share experiences of sexual abuse at this tattoo studio or any other.
In one of the stories shared by an alleged survivor, the accused has allegedly molested a minor, too. Another Instagram user has alleged of a ‘harrowing experience’ from two years back while getting tattooed on her ribs.
“As this guy started tattooing me, I began to feel uncomfortable. I was asked to remove my bra and wasn’t given any piece of cloth to cover my body,” the then 20-year-old wrote in her post. As a first timer, she was unsure of whether it was okay to stay naked throughout the process without any intimation. Sujeesh then proceeded to grope her, she alleged. “Two years later, I feel and understand that I was sexually violated and molested by Sujeesh. As I read more testimonies, I realise that this is a pattern he has used on so many women,” she said.
Another woman, Varsha, who had shared the original Reddit post on her Instagram page, has been sharing messages received from other girls who have faced similar abuse by the alleged accused. Along with Via Kochi, which also shared the 18-year-old’s Reddit story, she has been tracking the survivors who have come forward to move legally against the tattoo artist. The woman too had received tattoo from him a year back.
She said that even though he had initially tried to convince her that only the person getting tattooed was allowed inside the cubicle, she insisted on taking her two friends as the whole process was being vlogged for YouTube. “Since there were cameras pointing at him the entire time and two other people with me, he didn’t misbehave. But I did get a bad vibe from him, and from the way he talks and touches,” she told News18.
“The lack of support for the survivors, even from their own families and friends, fear of society, relatives’ reactions, uncertainty of the future – all contribute to the victims not speaking up. Our country’s judicial process doesn’t make it any easier as well,” she told News18.
Several women have shared videos detailing their ordeal, and say ‘Sujeesh has followed a pattern in his abusive methods’. Most of the accounts detail being asked inappropriately invasive questions to being forced to be ‘tattooed alone’ in his studio, forcible placement of their hands on his genitalia, groping and being offered discounts.
A wedding photographer from Kochi, who had gotten a tattoo on her ribs and chest from Sujeesh’s studio in early 2018, also claimed she had gone through a ‘horrific experience’ in an Instagram post after the viral Reddit post. She alleged that Sujeesh touched her inappropriately multiple times, kept prodding about her personal life and ‘casually placed her hands on his groin area despite her removing it more than once’.
She said the accused even told her to lower her top so that the “ink won’t spill on it.” “All the while, the tattoo needle was pressed up against her, Sujeesh acted as if all this was normal which left me confused and numb,” she said.
“It took me a while to process what had happened. People expect us to react instantly, but your whole body shuts down. Then comes the guilt of not taking action, with which you struggle pretty much your whole life,” she wrote in her post. She told News18 that she was offered a Rs 500 discount on her tattoo. Regarding the filing of an FIR, she says, “We want the case to stay strong, but minor victims are scared to come forward.”
“Why didn’t you speak up earlier, you could have gone to a female tattooist, why did you get a tattoo in the first place, why didn’t you react instantly,” are some of the questions she says she had to battle. “This is the main reason why women don’t come forward to report sexual assault,” she told News18.
The accused has not responded to any of the allegations so far. Multiple attempts by News18 to reach out to Inkfected and Sujeesh via social media and phone failed. The accused is reportedly absconding for the past two days and the tattoo studio has been shut.
The flurry of posts have sparked a resurgence of the #MeToo wave on social media with many now coming out against a Kerala-based celebrity make-up artist and stylist, whose Instagram account seems to have been deactivated following the allegations. A female Bridal make-up artist took to her Instagram stories to share messages of several women who’ve spoken up against sexual harassment faced from him, following the Sujeesh uproar.
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