Bangkok – Concentrated and with a stoic expression, the young Thai woman endures the procedure. Dressed in a pink dress, she kneels before the Master, her back bared, her hands in prayer position. Behind her, Ajarn Neng sits cross-legged on a wooden bench, holding a sharpened metal staff. The 45-year-old is tattooed up to his neck with mysterious motifs and characters. With movements that are as targeted as they are routine, he pierces under the skin with the heavy tool.
The woman has a sak yant pierced between her shoulder blades. Sacred tattooing has been practiced in Southeast Asia for centuries. Sak means something like “to tattoo”, the word Yant comes from Sanskrit and stands for sacred geometric figures. The special feature: Unlike skin decorations in the West, which are often displayed, Yantra tattoos often remain hidden. Their purpose is not aesthetics, but the development of mystical powers.
dpa / Carola Frentzen
Sak Yant tattoo master Ajarn Neng from Bangkok activates a tattoo.
“Ajarn” is not a name, but the common name for Sak Yant masters. In Thai, the word simply means “teacher”. An ajarn has undergone a long training during which he has been initiated into the knowledge transmitted from generation to generation of the mysteries, rules and messages of yantra tattooing. Many Buddhist monks are also Sak Yant masters. Only sharpened metal or bamboo sticks are used.
“This is not to be confused with the Sak Yant tourist shops in Bangkok’s backpacker mile Khaosan Road, for example,” says the German author Tom Vater, who has written a book on sacred body art. For “Sacred Skin – Thailand’s Spirit Tattoos” he researched together with the photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat for a year and a half.
Angelina Jolie also got Sak Yants tattooed
Ever since Hollywood star Angelina Jolie and other celebrities in Southeast Asia had their Sak Yants tattooed and made body art popular, many Thais have sensed big business. Shops from Phuket to Chiang Mai advertise “Bamboo Tattoos” at low prices. “This has nothing to do with real yantra tattoos and protective forces, they are just pretty pictures on the skin,” emphasizes father.
dpa / Massimo Insabato / Mondadori Portfolio
She also got tattooed in Asia: actress Angelina Jolie.
The 54-year-old, who has lived in Thailand for 20 years, has had a Sak Yant engraved by Ajarn Neng for a number of years. “It surprised me how painful it was compared to regular tattoo needles. The first two minutes were hell,” he recalls. Ajarn Neng advised him on the motif with seven points. The tattooing is always preceded by an in-depth conversation between the master and his “devotee” (German: follower).
The question of what the Sak Yant should do and what powers it should unfold will be discussed. Bless you? success at work? lucky in love For almost every wish and every situation in life there is a pattern, a geometric figure, an animal or an enigmatic Khmer script written in the ancient Indian Pali language. “I then also recommend a specific body part for the sak yant, depending on what the wearer wants to achieve,” says Arjan Neng.
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Sak Yant tattoos are popular in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
In his small studio in the On Nut district of Bangkok, “Ruesi” sculptures – the Thai equivalent of the Indian rishis – are stacked up to the ceiling. These wise hermits and shamans, who usually have a third eye on their foreheads, are inextricably linked to the Sak Yants and the power of the tattoo masters.
On the wall are photos of Ajarn Neng with action star Steven Seagal and actress Brooke Shields, both of whom are clients. Next to it are more than a dozen metal rods of various lengths. Many foreigners come to him, says the foreman, alongside Americans and above all Germans.
The middle class tends to dismiss sacred tattoos as working-class mumbo-jumbo
During the tattooing process, the ajarn recites a mantra. Then the Sak Yant is activated – also with the woman in the pink dress. Ajarn Neng puts his hands on her shoulders and says another mantra, then gently blows on the spot and sprinkles water on it. Although the master has been stabbing for 20 minutes, the woman’s skin is only slightly reddened and the tattoo cannot be made out.
The Thai woman has opted for a sak yant in oil, not ink. It is there, but remains invisible. A lot of women do that, says her friend Rin, who herself has worn several oil sak yants under her skin. Unfortunately, there are many prejudices against tattoos: “Not everyone is open to it, so I don’t want my Sak Yants to be seen,” she says.
Because the conservative Thai middle class in particular likes to dismiss sacred tattoos as working-class hocus-pocus. “But for them it’s one of the very few ways to express themselves culturally and religiously – and to have something of their own,” says Tom Vater. “Moreover, a sak yant is like a moral code, and thus a constant and powerful reminder to stay on the right path.” Many a criminal is said to have been put back on the path of virtue thanks to their sak yant.
Because the devotee undertakes to observe five Buddhist rules throughout his life, such as not taking life, not stealing and not consuming intoxicants. In addition, each Ajarn has its own bids. It is said that if the devotee breaks them, his sak yant loses power.
All superstition? Those who visit the annual Sak Yant festival in Bangkok’s Wat Bang Phra with tens of thousands of participants experience incredible scenes. Under the influence of the Yantras, some of which are freshly engraved, many a follower falls into an ecstatic trance state. Or in his experience he even becomes the animal that he now wears on his skin, be it a tiger, a crocodile, a dragon or an elephant.
Yantra tattoos are a world of their own, “a bizarre clash of circumstances, of faith and history, of order and chaos, of seekers and charlatans, of humility and machismo,” says Tom Vater in his book. And a large part of Thai society is part of this mysterious world, with a sak yant as a “second, magical skin”.