Tattoo, the fashion of sacred.
Fashion and art is similar. When people love the art and painting , they could paint them on the paper or on the wall or any surface they could find and think it is nice to have it . They even prefer to have the design on their bodies to show about their life style. In the old days Tattoo is famouse among the groups and people in the East including in Thailand, the tattoo is the way that all Thai men had the design or the holy words and pictures of the powerful creatures with the strong believe to protect them from the evil or the bad things. In some of the places when you travelling in Thailand, you could find the elderly people had the tattoo on their skin , wrists and backs. Most of the tattoo show the register numbers if the old men used to be a soldiers when they were young and strong. On their skin and backs, most of them have the tattoo in the words of protecting them from the weapons in the battles. The Tattoo like these usually have the special process and the holy Montra while the monks or the Arjarn ( The professors who had learnt and had meditation for many years.) would have said the holy words while they start the pigment on the skin of the men in different purposes.
There are 2 different ways to do the tattoo in Thai ways, one is in black ink and other is oil. With black ink, after they have the pigment on the skin by the sharp pin from metal or from bamboo. Soon the pigment stay on the skin which we could see the design easily. However if someone would prefer the tattoo, but don’t really need to show them. They could choose the oil pigment tattoo. It would just clear oil, but follow the pattern or the designs. However it is invisible tattoo. In the old days, men who have tattoo from the monks or Arjarn wouldn’t walk under the hanging clothes or the skirts, sarongs due to the they don’t want to lost the Montra and get a bed curse. Many men in Thailand still follow this tradition strongly. However now it has change a bit while the women do have the tattoo as well for the same purpose : Good luck and charming.
When time changes, the tattoo not only the sacred design that people do the pigment on their bodies for protecting anymore. It now is a fashion for us to do and enjoy. There a re many designs and even in colors. The design now is more graphics and modern which you could find the Tattoo shops everywhere in the big cities for you to choose. However if you prefer to have the original way of Thai way Tattoo, there is still the monks and the Arjarns around Thailand who could do this for you. You also have to make sure that you could practice what the monks and the Arjarn told you to do. Most of them is not difficult to follow. Simple and basic, you have to be good and help other. Not to do the bad things, that would be enough to have the special tattoo on you.
Tattoo may not be only fashion , but it could be something that remind us to be a good person as well.
