"We are all offspring of this man’s teaching and efforts in the Indian tattoo industry. If it wasn’t for this man, (we) probably wouldn’t even have known what tattooing was. I surely wouldn’t have,” acknowledged the founder of Kraayonz tattoo studios Sameer Patange on his Instagram post in his tribute to Dr Jehangir Kohiyar (pictured) who passed away on May 5, 2019. A psychiatrist by
profession, the artistically inclined Kohiyar was considered a pioneer in the art of tattooing in India having mentored celebrated New York-based ink master Anil Gupta and Bombay-based Patange who operates tattoo studios from Bombay, Poona, Bangalore and Goa.
"A great tattoo artist at a time in India when it was taboo,” recalled Kohiyar’s nephew David Hardy on his Facebook tribute to his "favorite uncle.” He was "a friend and confidante to my brother Paul and me. He was kind and generous and humble while being a pioneering psychiatrist, a brilliant bridge player, an unpublished playwright, a lover of the arts.”
According to a report in The New Indian Express of May 15, 2019, Kohiyar had brought the art to the country in the 1960s after he learned to tattoo from Jock Liddell during his medical studies in the UK.
The day when the 81-year-old psychiatrist passed away, his cousin Amy Kharas was scheduled to meet him. "That is my big regret… Instead of going to his home to see him while he was suffering from chicken pox, I had to go to the crematorium,” she narrated to Parsiana on May 28. Kharas recalled that Kohiyar was extremely ethical about his professional work. "He would naturally never talk about his patients…Suddenly we would meet someone and they would tell me ‘Your cousin helped me so much,’” said Kharas, who is three years older than Kohiyar.
Having known him "practically since he was born,” she was aware that her cousin was "always artistically inclined… He wrote short stories as a child…He had a great collection of Western classical music.”
Kohiyar was his godfather, noted fitness equipment manufacturer and exporter Rajesh Rai, adding, "He has transformed many lives... I had just finished college and (was) a small time bodybuilder and a trainer... He showed me the right path... he was the founder of my company… and today I am the largest fitness equipment manufacturer and exporter from India.”