Sak Yen at Wat Bang Prah
On a recent motorcycle trip to Koh Chang with Norman, Spencer had the image of Kruda (the God-bird which carried Buddha up to Heaven) tattooed on his chest using the traditional Thai bamboo method. He wanted to get it blessed by the monks, so the Saturday after school ended, we took a day trip to Wat Bang Prah.

Filip, Jess, Spencer and I piled into a cab and headed 50km west of Bangkok to the temple where monks give Sak Yen – “prayer tattoos”.

Filip, Jessica, me, and Spencer

Once we arrived at Wat Bang Prah, we entered a small building where the monks were tattooing. There was one large room with a shrine, a few things along the walls, and three monks sitting on small platforms on the floor, by the windows, giving tattoos with long metal-shafted needles. The monks were surrounded by Thai men and women, most with their shirts off, waiting and helping. Most had elaborate tattoos filling their torsos – mostly Sak Yent, many different figures – birds, gekkos, monkeys, elaborate sandskrit writing, and temple-like images. We sat on the floor and watched.

Spencer only came to the Wat to get his Kruda tattoo blessed, but once there, he changed his mind and decided to have an additional “good luck” writing added to the tattoo. We watched a few men receive tattoos and blessings before Spencer. Large tapestries hung on one wall with pictures of the Sak Yen tattoos. The monks had stamps of some of the options and they would in them and stamp an outline on the person’s body or draw an outline with ink. Then, two people would hold the person while the monk would tattoo them, using a needle attached to a 1 ½’ metal shaft. They dip the needle into a pot of black in and hold the top of the shaft, guiding the needle with their fingers. This type of tattoo doesn’t hurt as much, doesn’t cause bleeding usually, and you can get it wet right afterwards. Neat! Also, the needles are not new, but are sterilized using snakes blood.

We also watched a woman receive a tattoo. Since monks are not allowed to touch a woman’s body, he used a glove. He also used clear ink because women with visible tattoos are stigmatized in Thailand. He tattooed her wrists, forehead, and tounge, and then blessed them all with candle wax.

Before Spencer’s tattooing, he went through a very ritualized group blessing with other men receiving a tattoo.

Prayer before recieving Sak Yen

Our little outing turned into an all-day even and our Taxi driver, Sonchai, took on the role of interpreter, helping Spencer figure out where he needed to go at the Wat, when he needed to pray, and when he needed to give blessings. It was a very complicated tradition.

Spencer and Sonchai

When Spencer told the monk what he would like, the monk refused, saying there is a specific order to Sak Yen tattoos and he had to start with #1, so he turned Spencer around and gave him the first tattoo. The monk took about 30 minutes creating the temple-like tattoo. Then, he blessed Spencer by blowing on the tattoo, and then we all went to another building for another blessing.


The monk tattooed Spencer using a needle attached to a long metal shaft. You can see the Kruda (god-bird) on his chest.



The temple-like tattoo above his previous Native American tattoo brings good luck and fortune.