Foreigners flock to ancient Thai tattoo masters

[webfact]

Foreigners flock to ancient Thai tattoo masters
AFP

BANGKOK: -- In a cramped Bangkok room filled with statues of deities and plumes of incense smoke, a master is at work.

With expert precision Ajarn Neng repeatedly plunges a razor sharp needle dipped in black ink into the back of a disciple, each stab producing a perfectly placed pixel that forms a traditional Thai tattoo.

It is an ancient art carried out by ajarns (masters), steeped in superstition that Thais have prized for centuries. But increasingly it is foreigners beating a path to this Buddhist tattooist's door.

"I've been dreaming of getting a tattoo like this for years," says Silvia Falbo, from Rome, proudly showing five lines of Khmer script Neng recently inked onto her shoulder blade.

"I'm attracted to Buddhism and all the spirituality that goes with it. And the design is really beautiful and original," she adds.

Ever since American GIs passed through Bangkok for their R&R during the Vietnam War foreigners have returned home sporting traditional Thai tattoos -- known as "sak yant".

But it was when Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie unveiled a Khmer inscription -- traditionally used in the region for Buddhist scripture -- on her left shoulder that sak yant hit the mainstream.

Now the faces patiently waiting for their turn in front of Neng are just as likely to be from outside Thailand than inside.

- 'Lacks respect' -

But foreign enthusiasm for exotic Thai ink is not without its controversies.

While tattoos in the west are largely an aesthetic decision, in Thailand they are imbued with both spirituality and superstition.

Those who wear sak yant often believe their tattoos genuinely lend them magical powers, bringing good luck or protection from evil spirits. Some are even convinced that their inking will make them bullet proof.

The designs -- lines of script, geometric patterns and animal shapes -- are also deeply interwoven with Buddhist and animist imagery that some Thais fear westerners fail to appreciate.

Tattoos showing religious deities such as the Buddha or the Hindu god Ganesh -- also popular in Thailand -- are particularly problematic, especially if they are below the waist.

In Thai culture, the head is the most sacred part of the body. The further down the body, the less sacred, and foreigners with religious figures inked on their legs have caused upset.

On the main highway into Bangkok from the city's Suvarnabhumi Airport, huge 50-foot (15-metre) wide billboards declare "It's wrong to use Buddha as a decoration or tattoo".

Some groups want a complete ban on any tattoos of religious figures.

"The Buddha was a person who was clean from inside to outside. His mind was free from illusion and all the impurities," Manat Chareekote, a spokesman for the Knowing Buddha Organization, told AFP.

"To tattoo the clean one like Buddha on the body is considered improper and lacks respect."

- Power of tattoos -

Professor Sukanya Sujachaya, adviser and former director of The Center of Folklore Research at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, believes foreigners should do more research before opting for such tattoos.

"Today it's about fashion. But this type of tattoo cannot be sold just for their beauty. It also has to be for the belief," she told AFP.

Thailand is not the only Buddhist country to experience a backlash against foreigners appropriating religious imagery.

In April 2014 a British nurse was thrown out of Sri Lanka for sporting a tattoo of Buddha on her arm despite her insistence she was a devout Buddhist who bore the tattoo as a mark of respect.

And in March Myanmar jailed a New Zealand bar manager for using an image of Buddha wearing headphones to advertise a cheap drinks night.

But while many foreign tourists have little idea about the spiritual significance attached to religious tattoos, others deny being insensitive and say their inkings are more than a fashion statement.

"When I see at my tattoos, it helps me and I think back to what my ajarn told me," said Logan, an American living in Thailand. "I've finally found a perfect ajarn for me. He is really a big brother, he is like a mentor."

When a follower of an ajarn receives a tattoo, they are often told by their master to follow a certain set of rules to improve their life, with the warning added that failure to do so invalidates the power of the tatoo.

Among the rules are the first five Buddhist precepts -- do not harm living beings, do not steal, do not have inappropriate sexual behaviour, do not lie and do not consume drugs or intoxicating liquor.

Neng says many of those visiting him are thinking beyond the look of tattoos.

"Foreigners like the unique beauty of patterns," he says. "But also, they have learnt that believing in the sacred letters of the tattoo might bring them strength."

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2015-05-15

[NickJ]

A lot of them are flocking to a clinic afterwards as well from the filthy needles. ...

[Rod Wallop]

I've never got the tattoo thing. Earrings, mullets, ugg boots yes, but ugly ink that looks ridiculous once over 30. Especially women

[Bluespunk]

"Foreigners flock to ancient Thai tattoo masters"

Baa baa baa

"Those who wear sak yant often believe their tattoos genuinely lend them magical powers, bringing good luck or protection from evil spirits. Some are even convinced that their inking will make them bullet proof.""

Baa, baa, baa, baa.

Everywhere you look, flocks of sheep.

[WhizBang]

"Foreigners flock to ancient Thai tattoo masters"

Baa baa baa

"Those who wear sak yant often believe their tattoos genuinely lend them magical powers, bringing good luck or protection from evil spirits. Some are even convinced that their inking will make them bullet proof.""

Baa, baa, baa, baa.

Everywhere you look, flocks of sheep.

LOL, you are being far too kind.

[HooHaa]

Among the rules are the first five Buddhist precepts -- do not harm living beings, do not steal, do not have inappropriate sexual behaviour, do not lie and do not consume drugs or intoxicating liquor.

Sadly this invalidates the power of most sak yant - on foreigners or otherwise

[ldiablo]

Let's get one of these Thai's that are convinced their sak yant will make them bullet proof to stand in front of the barrel of a gun and see just how convinced he actually is.

[tomyumchai]

those buddha tattoos always look great on the <deleted> of fornicating hipsters rolling round on the beach while trippin out on mushrooms n paint stripper buckets.... rules? there are no rules....

[Jeremy50]

Tattoos. The stamp of the uneducated.

[JingerBen]

Let's get one of these Thai's that are convinced their sak yant will make them bullet proof to stand in front of the barrel of a gun and see just how convinced he actually is.

You nailed it... that's the real test.

Everything else is just hogwash.

[Happy Grumpy]

but ugly ink that looks ridiculous once over 30. Especially women

Some of them make good targets.

[Happy Grumpy]

Let's get one of these Thai's that are convinced their sak yant will make them bullet proof to stand in front of the barrel of a gun and see just how convinced he actually is.

You nailed it... that's the real test.

Everything else is just hogwash.

Two pattaya locals shot at each other after argueing whose tattoos protected them from bullets more.

Was in the news about 2 years ago.

Neither of their tattoos offered much protection at all, you'll be surprised to hear.

[Prbkk]

I've never got the tattoo thing. Earrings, mullets, ugg boots yes, but ugly ink that looks ridiculous once over 30. Especially women

Agree with your list but add ponytails on men...especially ones who try to compensation for receding at the front by adding at the back. The Swiss are big offenders in this regard.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Prbkk

[Happy Grumpy]

I've never got the tattoo thing. Earrings, mullets, ugg boots yes, but ugly ink that looks ridiculous once over 30. Especially women

Agree with your list but add ponytails on men...especially ones who try to compensation for receding at the front by adding at the back. The Swiss are big offenders in this regard.

Remember:

Under every ponytail, there's an a-s-s hole.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Happy Grumpy

[shaggy851]

Its insensitive to local culture if they are sought soley for beauty or asthetics. Without the correct research, understanding of the spiritual attachments and protection offered to wearers its definately an insult and ignorant to have these on your body. But then again people come here to visit temples but they are not devout buhhdists either. My self i have many sak yant tattoos for my own reasons. I agree with the article and dont approve of people getting these tattoos on their first few visits to los but shouldnt be excluded from wearing them because they are not thai people.

[cookee68]

What a croc of shit, And I bet they still believe in the tooth fairy, 3rd world countries need to believe in something, without that they are just uneducated 3rd world people, Like the Catholics believed in witches many years ago, And the so called powers that be, but then they educated themselves realised that it was a croc of shit, and moved on, I think they should do the same, and the first Buddha came from India, and he was not pure, he was an ordinary man, who cleaned himself and then learned others, and if any one wants to have a tattoo of a Buddha then he or she should have with no bitching from others, especially cardboard cut outs of people who claim to be a Buddhist, then rape and steal the next day.

[Star Dust]

Greetings Farangs.

I'm currently back working in Europe.

I see them everywhere. Farang tattoo artist shops already figured the trend and offer them as well.

It's a new trend here. Especially when it has been done by a monk ("Siam Grand Master"), or should I say a Thai guy in sweaty t-shirt and a bullet hole in his ear.

99% have no idea of the meaning or purpose of their sak yants beneath their skin other than it's from the "Grand Master" himself. LOL ;-))))

yant=Yantra...and has a supersticious (what else of course) background, especially with black magic practises as well as white magic...bla bla bla

The majority of those tattoos are purely commercial, however many of those I saw, since the sun came out a month ago here in mediEvil Europe are the black magic ones, indeed.

Even those offered on FarangBook https://www.facebook.com/groups/124701727571284/?fref=nf

I was offered one as well by an old old monk, who told me that the "original" can only be given (offered and tattoo'd) to some one, and not purchased. Because if someone purchased such a thing it won't have powers and the someone might not be bulletproof after all.

In LOS commonly worn and usually ONLY for Thai men who obtained them during their monkhood or black magic full moon parties.

AND I remember that during the whole procedure done only in a temple (which takes 3 days no matter the size) requires the recipient of the "sak yant" to remain in praying position, meditating (or should I say "summoning the spirit under the skin") and is said to be very painful.

But that was in a small temple north of the Eravan Cave, just a stones throw away of the Mekhong River waaayyyy up in Udon.

I'm still thinking of claiming that offer one day or another Maybe one that gives me the power to get reborn as a enormously beautiful and successful Thai Bar Lady. That be worth some pain&prayer I suppose....lol

Besides. It spreads Thai culture, and brings money to the streets of good old LOS.

So why not let them be. It will pass.

I hope...

[fey]

Most of the common ones have been thou roughly desecrated by pumping punters.

Edited May 15, 2015 by fey

[ratcatcher]

"Foreigners flock to ancient Thai tattoo masters"

Baa baa baa

"Those who wear sak yant often believe their tattoos genuinely lend them magical powers, bringing good luck or protection from evil spirits. Some are even convinced that their inking will make them bullet proof.""

Baa, baa, baa, baa.

Everywhere you look, flocks of sheep.

[aussiesteve63]

Tattoos. The stamp of the uneducated.

It is you that is uneducated people from all walks of life have tattoos including professionals

[NongKhaiKid]

It's become all so predictable now :

the govt MULLS the BIB RUSH tourists FLOCK foreign governments UNDERSTAND and the TAT, ah well that would get me suspended.

[SiSePuede419]

"In a cramped Bangkok room filled with statues of deities and plumes of smoke, a master is at work...."

Are we getting a tattoo or in an opium den?

No worries. Whether you're a heroin or a tattoo addict, the end result is the same.

It's a lifestyle, for sure. A lifestyle of doing a meaningless activity that does nothing more than drain your money away.

It's not art. A picture or drawing of a tat may be art, but never is an actual tattoo on someone's body displayed in an art gallery, nor is it bought & sold like a piece of art.

It's just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.

If few people in your age group have a tat, then that might make you a rebel if you get one. If everyone in your peer group has a tat, that only makes you a conformist.

I think everyone should get a tattoo.

To express their "individuality", 555

Hey, no "regerts"...

Edited May 15, 2015 by SiSePuede419

[Rod Wallop]

I've never got the tattoo thing. Earrings, mullets, ugg boots yes, but ugly ink that looks ridiculous once over 30. Especially women

Agree with your list but add ponytails on men...especially ones who try to compensation for receding at the front by adding at the back. The Swiss are big offenders in this regard.

I stand corrected. Ponytails on balding, middle aged men are as bad as tattoos, though more temporary. Potentially.

[Chwooly]

Tattoos. The stamp of the uneducated.

It is you that is uneducated people from all walks of life have tattoos including professionals

Don't feed the troll.....

[Yunla]

I've never got the tattoo thing. Earrings, mullets, ugg boots yes, but ugly ink that looks ridiculous once over 30. Especially women

Agree with your list but add ponytails on men...especially ones who try to compensation for receding at the front by adding at the back. The Swiss are big offenders in this regard.

That made me laugh, it reminded me of the John Sessions line;

"Men over thirty with ponytails. Has to be public, has to be a beheading. Either chop the ponytail off, or we chop your head off."

[HooHaa]

Tattoos. The stamp of the uneducated.

righteous ignorance becomes you.

[PaPiPuPePo]

I'm not sure I want an ancient guy/gal sticking needles in me, master or not. Experienced, yes, but ancient? Sounds sketchy.

Same with that "ancient ice cream" you see at the walking markets, personally I prefer my ice cream fresh.

[talktomarty]

How much do they charge?

[NeverSure]

Tattoos. The stamp of the uneducated.

It is you that is uneducated people from all walks of life have tattoos including professionals

He's educated enough to know not to let someone scar his body. I saw an older guy getting fined 5,000 baht for getting his "artwork" all wrinkled, LOL.