Nov 22 2008
Tattoo You — The Sacred Art of Sak Yant, Part Whatever …
(Yours truly — sporting the latest)
สักยันต์ – Sak Yant; Sak – meaning “to tap” or, “to tattoo”, and Yant, meaning “Yantra”. Originally derived from the Sanskrit word “YANTRA”.
Through some sort of Google ‘search engine magic’, this site — and, in particular, the posts HERE, HERE and HERE — has become some sort of pseudo-authority on the sacred Bhuddist art of ‘Sak Yant’ tattooing.
The bad news is that, as I stated in the comment section of one post:
Just to set the record straight, I pretty much know jack-shit about EVERYTHING.
My admitted stupidity notwithstanding, people STILL continue to be directed here by the search-engine gods in their quest for knowledge about Sak Yant. My apologies, everyone.
The good news, however, is that I too know know how to use Google to find ACTUAL authorities on the subject of Sak Yant tattoos and have posted links in my above-referenced posts to ACTUAL sak yant authories. Moreover, one of my best friends in Bangkok actually did a video piece for the Bangkok Post (see below) about Arjan Noo, one of the best know Say Yant artists in the — having given Angelina Jolie her well-publicized sak yant tattoos.
The other good news is that there has also been some faily interesting information posted by visitors in the commentary of my posts, including this latest comment by ujalakali:
I have a sak yant tattoo and I am a woman. I made a kind of pilgrimage to bkk to get it done. actually, i would have gone to anyone, but ended up at arjan noo’s to get it done in the belief that women cannot be touched by monks–which arjan noo is not.
later a westerner with plentiful sak yant told me that some bkk temples will put sak yant on women.
here is my experience:
I only have one and was not allowed to choose it. this is important! i think you often dont really get to choose. you tell them what is going on with you (i was on my way to afghanistan so i recieved the protection yant) and they give you the one that is best. also, i felt that they strongly encouraged putting the yants in the classic places. AJ’s is in the normal place for a protection tattoo. they put mine in a slightly different place. they were very clear that they were not going to do anything on my lower back, even though i didn’t ask for such a thing. this was a clear rule.one final thing–this is for real. everything changed for me after recieving the tattoo. come correct.
This is all I really know, that which is my experience–i dont know about the other yants and dont know what the experience is for men.
i have a question if anyone knows– are there rules explicit for women? as far as i can see the rules are mostly for men, so i just try to stay on the right path as i see it. but if there are ladies rules, i would love to know them! thanks!
As I mentioned in those comments:
… it’s my understanding that the ‘rules’ on Sak Yant (in general) is that you cannot have an actual image of the holy Buddha anywhere on your body, and that the yants themselves are not to be placed anywhere beneath the waistline (which, for obvious reasons, is considered unclean — that’s also the reason monks are not allowed to touch women, as they are alleged to be unclean … sorry girls, I’m just the messenger.
That being said, I can also advise all of you fellow tattoo enthusiasts (read: freaks) that obviously Arjan Noo himself does sak yants for women (although when I went for one, he charges foreigners — ‘falangs’ — about US$2,000.00 per, and presumably more if you’re a celebrity).
Further, there was also a Malaysian woman behind me to get inked at Wat Bang Phra when I got my first sak yant. I assume she eventually got one there, although I didn’t stick around to confirm it, and it’s my understanding that women there are only allowed to get ‘invisible tattoos’ made with vegetable oil instead of ink.
Again, what the hell do I know, right?
So for those of you still interested in more info, you can go to the appropriately named Sak-Yant.com — it has just about everything you may want to know on the subject.
And who can (or want to learn to) read Thai, here’s a link to Arjan Noo’s website — actually, there are a bunch of links there written in English also.
Last, but not least, there’s this: the VERY BEST news story you’ll ever see about the subject — where my buddy, Desho Bernard of the Bangkok Post (a.k.a. Guru Bangkok), went to do a story on Arjan Noo and got tattooed instead:
That is all … freaks.
considering the snippets you took from my website and the repeated claims of knowing authorities on sak yant, you could have been good enough to give me a link to sak-yant.com instead of only to yourself
you are using copyright text that is of my handwriting and should post on your own merits and write your own stuff instead of copying and pasting snippets from the forums on sak yant.
Either remove my text or give me a linkback
apart from that most of the info you have given is a crock of bull and untrue in many ways.
Why cant you blog about something you know about instead of stealing peoples words and pasting them here without even crediting them for it??
regards Spencer
http://www.sak-yant.com
Hey douchebag!!
Did you even read the post?
Do you even KNOW the domestic and international laws concerning the use of purportedly copywrited material on public domains (i.e., the internet)?
Did you even SEE that I said I don’t know jack-shit about sak-yant?
And most importantly, did you even see that I ALREADY POSTED A FUCKING LINK TO YOUR SHITTY SITE?!?
Learn how to fucking read ‘Spencer’. Then maybe you can come back and rant.
In the meantime, lighten the fuck up — it’s just a freaking website … douchebag.
hey man just wondering what ur ink means the one under the temple its pretty cool
I just visited Thailand and went to Wat Bang Phra Temple for my tattoo. I am a 35 year old women and looked into it before receiving my tattoo. I did not get the invisible tattoo.
Also, the monk that does the tattoo cannot touch the skin of a woman and therefore he wears a glove while he conducts the art work of the tattoo. He also had an assistant that is able to touch the back. If he has no assistant then he cannot do tattoo on a woman. I was lucky that there was an assistant there and he was able to do the first in a series of four tattoos which is the “Temple”.
You are correct, we are not allowed to choose what and where we want the tattoo. Monk chooses for you. When he is done he does a prayer and then you finish. I only paid 200 Baht for it which is equivalent to about $6-$7 american dollars. I gave an additional 100 Baht as a contribution. They take the money as an offering with cigarettes, flowers and incense which is sold at the temple for 200 Baht. So really i spent 500 baht for the whole experience and I am very happy with it, which is about $20 us dollars for a tattoo.
So don’t be fooled. You must go to Wat Bang Phra Temple which is wear Angelina and Jon Bon Jovi got their tattoos.
It is meant for men but women can get them. It is suppose to protect you from harm and give you look in love with the opposite sex.
Yes you are right about that one should lighten up
I apologize publicly
Smetimes we humans get too easily wound up and i am no exception, i obviusly jumped the gun and i am man enough to admit it.
But also you should lighten up as if it is after all only a website then you shouldnt be calling me a douchebag if you are taking things as lightly as you would like me to.
I am however not offended as i know you are only suffering a natural angry reaction to my first comment, which is quite understandable. Dochebag is howver a rather inpolite term for which im sure you have just made yourself look just as tupid as did by jumping the gun and not looking properly before i open my big stupid mouth. I feel rather embarrassed for my slip up. I wonder if you do for your extremely angry reaction and offensive/aggressive reaction.
forgot to add that i wish to thank you for reminding me of what was always my principle since the beginnig and somehting that i seem to have forgotten;
Namely, my desire to promote free information for all on the internet and non-posessive sharing, that applies also to fotos. Thanks for waking me up to this fact i must have got the selfishness or jealousy mind poison in my brain somehow. How stupid of me , i have now decided to not interest myself whether my material is taken and used somewhere else on the www.
I wonder how you will react when you see somone make a blog with a large portion of your content and publish? I hope you practise what you preach – i will definitely practise what you preached to me..
you are allowed to choose yur design if you can speak Thai and explainyourself.. but someone born in year of snake for example, cannot have a Garuda, as they are enemies. If you have a tattoo of Phra Ram (Rama), then you cannot have a tattoo of a Yaksa, as they are enemies and will fight.. so sometimes the monk wont do a certain tattoo. Also if the tattoo design does not exist in the lineage of that particular Master or temple then they wont do it. Some masters, such as Ajarn Thoy Dabos, will make any design you wish, as he is very flexible. MOnks who tattoo women are actually breaking the law of Vinaya as they are not allowed to touch a woman, so it is better and fairer to them to visit a Ruesi instead of a Monk. Ruesi are not breaking any rules by tattooing or touching a woman.
in contrary to the above idea that the reason that monks are not allowed to touch women because they are unclean, (total nonsense!) the truth is that a monk must not touch a woman because it may arouse his sexual desires, which it most definitely does after decades without any honey pie and the anyway rpude nature of Thai Culture. Some Thais get excited just seeing white skin on your arms never mind legs, and thats talking about lay Thais not Monks…
Monks should not touch women for their own protection to keep their Sila, not because women are unclean. I am well studied in Vinaya.
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Do you even KNOW the domestic and international laws concerning the use of purportedly copywrited material on public domains (i.e., the internet)?
/Quote
Do you? The fact that something is posted by the author in a website doesn’t mean it is copyright-free for you to use.
Hey Paksi,
If you haven’t noticed, this is a personal blog post about sak yant tattoos. I neither asked for, nor wanted, your opinion on the subject of international copyright law. If I wanted to get into a full-fledged discussion about copyright law, I’d go back to practicing law. But I don’t, so umm … piss off?
Thanks for playing!
Quote:
Learn how to fucking read ‘Spencer’. Then maybe you can come back and rant.
/Quote
Read how to fucking write ‘Paski’. Then maybe you can bitch louder than anybody because everybody knows that your capital letters and your insulting make you more right.
If you don’t want to be lectured about copyright law then you don’t fucking (just to use your lexicon) start questioning others about copyright law.
Yes I… piss off. I don’t want to mess with the blogger, he might whip me with his witty sarcasm. You can answer if you want, although I’m not coming back to read the response we all know you need to answer publicly in an act of exhibitionism… That’s why you became a blogger after all.
hello! i would like to have the tattoo of angelina jolie on her left shoulder. where can i find it? can anyone have it done? i am from the Philippines.
thank you!-Ning
hELLO MY NAME IS CLAUDIA and in my recently trip to thailand i get a sak yant tatoo in ink name gao yord in the temple WAT BANG PHRA that is located about 1 hour drive from Bangkok. The temple opens early and is busy so is better arrive early, you must get some cigarrets and flowers that you can purchase in the Temple plus 200 baths as an offer.
You must wear apropiate clothes if u are a girl, and with that i mean not showing to much skin, and a extra jacket if is possible.
Make sure you enter the room with respect, without shoes, and with your head down and shoulders in meaning of reverance of the monks present.
Also make sure you know rhe name of the sak yant that you want a get and where you want it or where it supossed to go and show it to the monk. maybe is a good idea take with you the symbol somewhere like in a piece of paper and show him where you want the Sak Yant, as the monks dont speak english.
Or well you can maybe ask for a taxi driver, from a local taxi company that speak english to take you there and be your translator this will cost you about 1500 baths, trust me is a good deal.
The pain that you will experiment is really reasonable dont worry about it. Just try to keep your hands together like if you will pray, or you can hug yourself as well. The process is fast and efficient, you almost wont even bleed.
When the Sak Yant is done make sure you say Thank You. (ka pun ka)
You can get a Sak Yant tatoo in ink, if you are a girl, dont worry about it and go for it you wont regret the experience.
The temple is beautiful, and you can eat the best fried rice you ever tried in your life in there
plus feed the fishes in the river.
Is such a wonderful experience, just do some research about the SAK YANT you wand and why?
Buddhism is such a beautiful wise and peaceful philosophy i reckon we all should get more in to it
Dont hesitate ask me for more info if you need it, i will do my best, and hope this clear some of your doubts.
WITH LOVE XX
Can you receive more than one tattoo at a time or must you return another day?