The tattoo man comes calling

Bollywood hunk Sunjay Dutt sports one. So does actress Raveena. We’re talking about tattoos. Meet Swami Jeevan Roshan who loves tattooing.

Here’s a man who has left his country and his career to settle down in India and chase a dream. “I just follow my heart and do what I love to do,” he says. And what does he love doing? Tattooing and playing the guitar.

Meet Swami Jeevan Roshan. He’s German all right -- you cannot miss the heavy accent. His ponytail peeps out of the hat which he refuses to remove...“the hat makes me look like Eric Clapton and I love Eric Clapton!” He has elaborate tattoos on his arms and a tattoo of a ‘trishul’ on his neck.
But what strikes you is his unusual name.

“The name happened in the 1980s when Osho was a rage in the West. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to visit an Osho meditation centre in Berlin. Swami Jeevan Roshan was the name given to me by Bhagwan. I don’t want to use any other name,” he explains.

Roshan first came to India in 1981. “My friends always told me that they went to India for a holiday and I was intrigued. On their next trip, I came along with them. I reached the airport in Delhi and wanted to run back. I thought I had made a big mistake. But having come here, I travelled around. On my way to Mumbai, I stopped by Goa. I looked around and said, ‘I’m home.’ After that, I came to India every year. In 1992, I settled down in Goa.” Roshan says he had 150 dollars in his pocket when he took this big decision. He telephoned his mother in Berlin who later sent him a tattoo machine and thus started his love affair with tattoos and people.

“I do not work for money,” he says. When he started offering tattoo services on Goa’s Calangute beach, he was overwhelmed by the response.

“All kinds of people would stop by -- teenagers, businessmen on a holiday and housewives. First-timers would always ask if getting a tattoo done would hurt. I told them it would only tickle!” Over the last 12 years, he says he has made 3,000 tattoos. The most common requests he gets are for designs like ‘Om’, lotus and various deities.

“A tattoo heals in 3 days because I do not go too deep into the skin.
“There is one side-effect, however. You will get addicted to tattoos and want more of them,” he chuckles.

The guitar is Roshan’s other love. He is booked five days a week and plays in different parts of Goa. He is a good chef too and ran the popular restaurant, ‘Dinkys’, in Calangute for six years.

Roshan is currently in the City and will be available between June 14-20, 12 noon onwards at Fusion, Casa Piccola, Cunningham Road.

He can be contacted on 98230-47690.


SUMA TEKUR