Kochi: Seven women filed complaints against celebrity tattoo artist Sujeesh PS alleging sexual assault on Friday.
The outpouring of complaints came in wake of a viral Reddit post by one of Sujeesh's woman clients who was assaulted recently.
In her #MeToo post, the 18-year-old narrated the ordeal she faced last week at Inkfected tattoo parlour in Palarivattom.
According to the victim, she had gone to get a symbolic tattoo of a vagina with wings on her lower back.
This was not her first time. She had been to the parlour several times, but it was the first time she faced such a bad experience.
On learning about the tattoo she wanted, Sujeesh started speaking with sexual overtones, the victim said.
She alleged that the tattoo artist asked her inappropriate questions such as whether she had sex earlier, whether she is a virgin, whether she is having periods, and so on.
Later, Sujeesh raped her, she alleged. She said no complaint was lodged then because she felt there will be no justice as there were no witnesses or proof on her side.
She urged others who had faced similar ordeal to share their bad experiences and to publicize her post to the maximum.
In a chain reaction, many of those who had been subjected to similar sexual harassment one or two years ago came up with accusations against the tattoo artist below her social media post.
Even some minor girls came forward to speak about the sexual harassment they faced at the tattoo shop.
"Two years ago at the age of 21, I went there to get a tattoo. The tattoo was fixed somewhere around the backbone. It was so painful at the beginning of tattooing. He asked me to remove the brassier. No other cloth was provided to cover my body. Later on, he touched my breasts. After two years now, I have realised that I was subjected to sexual harassment by the artist," a woman wrote.
Even after all this, the victim has refrained from making an official complaint.
Earlier, Kochi City Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju had announced the police would register a case as soon it received a complaint from any of the survivors.
Sujeesh is absconding after the social media post by the woman went viral.