Vahid Ghant

Vahid was lovingly welcomed to this earthly home by his parents, Pamela Drake and Virgil Ghant, extended family members and friends in St. Paul, Minnesota on 20 June 1970.  His brother, Alizadeh Ghant, was born two years later.  Raised in St. Paul, he attended Baha’i children’s classes, primary, junior and high school there and later attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Early in life he acquired a deep love of the natural world, spending extended time on his grandparents’ farms in Wisconsin in his first two decades and developing close bonds with grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

In his mid-20’s, providence guided him from St. Paul, Minnesota to Northern New Mexico where he was taken in by the abundance of beauty of the people and the land, coupled with the feeling of freedom there; however, he was not able to remain for long and returned to Minnesota.  Later, he spent several years living in the great mountains and front range of Colorado and many years in West Texas Hill Country and South Texas.  His last years were lived in the lands of Northern New Mexico where he found peace, tranquility, freedom and true, unconditional love shared between his wife and furry baby girls, Yumi and Luana. 

Vahid had a passionate love of animals!  He was deeply connected to the many dogs he adopted over the years, most of whom were rescue dogs who returned his love unconditionally.  Walks, runs and fetch-the-ball workouts with the dogs were an essential part of shared activities each day.

Those who crossed Vahid’s path would never hesitate to say about him, “that man marches to his own drummer”.  Vahid contended with a number of illnesses throughout his lifetime, refusing to allow them to define his options in life.  He was a fiercely unique individual: unconventional and spontaneous, with a heart on fire.  He eschewed redundancy, guarded his solitude, constantly joked with everyone and always cherished his friends and family.

Vahid saw all of humanity as his family, no one was a stranger; he reflected this in his modest, selfless commitment to mentoring others struggling with life’s challenges.  Vahid was a member of the Baha’i Faith, a world religion with a foundational belief in the oneness of humanity, religion and God.  He didn’t often talk about his religious beliefs, rather he did his best to put them into daily practice acting through love with spirit and grace.    

As a youngster Vahid loved riding his dirt bike, skateboarding and roller-blading.  Later in life, he rode his Kawasaki bike around Texas, Colorado and New Mexico; he loved classic cars and learned mechanical skills to work on them. He enjoyed lifting weights as a young man and continued doing so throughout his life, becoming a serious body-builder.  In middle school, He played Dungeons and Dragons with his core group of friends.  Halloween was his favorite holiday and he often created his own costumes.  He was an avid reader and movie connoisseur.  His endless thirst for knowledge from a very young age never left him.  Music was another one of his passions; he had a broad, eclectic taste in music and deepened his musical exposure and appreciation over his lifetime. 

Then there is Vahid’s art: a most fundamental aspect of his being.  He began drawing as soon as he could hold crayon to paper and never stopped.  Abundant and ceaseless, with amazing detail, his art was his way of expressing the multitude of concepts and images that flooded his imagination.  His spirit flowed through his art, giving him a way of creating and claiming his unique place in this world.  He became interested in the history and practice of tattooing in his mid-twenties.  In his thirties he began tattooing professionally in West Texas, practiced briefly in Colorado and later opened his own studio in South Texas.  Most recently he tattooed at studios in Aurora, Colorado and Las Vegas and Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He had a large following of clients from across the country.  Each of his tattoo clients wears a piece of his artistic spirit and legacy. 

Vahid Ghant Waikīkī was a good man who left us much too soon with the saving grace that he lived life to its fullest in the years he was given.  Vahid passed away on 23 November 2022 in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his beloved wife, Pua Waikīkī-Santiga-Ghant and her mother, Melody by his side.  They and Vahid’s mother, brother, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, and many dear, dear friends, along with rescue dogs, Luana and Yumi, are left with a deep sense of loss at his passing.   All will miss his broad, exuberant smile, his warm hugs as strong as his heart, his uproarious laugh, his intense conversations, the sheer power of his presence and his fearless courage and capacity to grow and thrive in the face of life’s tests. 

We know the deep bonds of the love we’ve shared with Vahid in this world will continue into the next and we send out our prayers and good works for the progress of his soul in the life beyond. 

His spirit has been set free and his body has been laid to rest in the Baha’i section of the Rivera Memorial Gardens under the protection of the sacred Sangre de Cristo mountains of Santa Fe, which he, his wife, Pua, and their dogs so love.

Ua ola loko i ke aloha: Love gives life within.

God Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the Courage to change the things I can and the Wisdom to know the difference.

(Serenity Prayer)

Vahid’s family extends their deepest gratitude to the Presbyterian Hospital Hospice Team for their exceptional care and compassion rendered through the darkest hours before Vahid’s passing and heartfelt gratitude to the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Santa Fe for their comforting guidance and support from hospice stay through burial ceremon