Tahir Tairov was born in 1948 in Baku, Azerbaijan. He graduated from the Department of Visual Arts at the Azerbaijan State Arts University in 1971.

While still being a student there, he was offered employment at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theater to work as the stage and costume designer for the performance of Azerbaijan Suite by the composer Rauf Hajiyev, and choreographed by Rafiga Akhundova and Maksud Mamedov, whom he has worked closely with many times during his career. Azerbaijan Suite was later shown with great success at the International Dance Festival in Paris.

He has designed the visual settings for numerous great stage productions in Baku, Moscow, Tbilisi and Istanbul, such as Babek by Akhshin Alizadeh, Bolero by Maurice Ravel, Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, Romeo and Juliet by Pyotor Tchaikovsky, Leyli and Majnoun and Don Quixote by Kara Karaev, to mention a few.

Tahir Tairov have designed and produced the costumes for Babek included in the World Premiere of Les Ballets Persans.