A lot  of us now are familiar with Thai Tattoo’s due to Angelina Jolie’s ’5 line’Tattoo on her left shoulder blade and the ‘Tiger Looking Back’ tattooed on her lower back by the Thai Buddhist Master - Ajarn Noo who studied his craft as a monk. There is a lot of misunderstanding with ‘Sak Yants’ due to it being a very hard concept of belief to grasp, especially if you do not come from a Buddhist background. It has taken me many years to grasp what and how ‘Sak Yants’ work.

‘Sak Yants’ are Buddhist Mantras written in Khmer script. I’m not going to go into the ancient history of them but center on the Thai belief of how they work. Animist belief and Buddhism are intertwined within the Thai mind. To a large degree it is close to our western belief in quantum physics. Everything has an energy or vibration or power. The more energy’s attached to one another forms a greater energy.

Thais believe in accordance with Buddhism that everything is continually changing form or energy structure. So with the Khmer script, each letter or language symbol carries a meaning or a Buddhist teaching attached to it. The written word in all spiritual circles is believed of course to start with the spoken word and gain more energy when written. This meaning or belief in turn is believed by millions of people for thousands of years. So the thinking here is that the ancient craft of this style of tattooing is compounded energy being attached to the wearer. For example some are for protection, some to attract certain types of good fortune etc, depending on which tattoo is given to the bearer.

Afterward there is a short ceremony of Alchemy where the energy is believed to be transmuted, transformed and made applicable to the energy’s that make up the wearers personality. This blending of energies is carried out by an Alchemist or a Buddhist Monk. Both are believed to be able to pierce through the vail of matter with there ‘minds eye’ and see the energies of life in there true form. The belief goes that all energies and forms of matter arise through thought. The thought firstly arises (or is given birth) through attachment or desire. They are believed to be able to look forwards and backwards upon the chain of cause and effect. There still and clear frame of mind is due to them having there minds free from the attachments of the everyday person through intense meditation and following what is called the ‘middle path’.

The tattoo is applied with a metal stylus which punchers the skin. The coloring or ink is made up of 108 herbs containing different energy properties. They are able to give tattoos faster than a tattoo gun and they are doing it totally by hand with this metal rod.

Now me wanting to experience everything Thai, and this being an ancient craft, I just could not pass up on the opportunity. So I went under the rod, and well, it was very painful for the first few but since than I have become some what accustomed to the pain. It has certainly been an experience that I can not explain in words.

Classical Thai Cravings.