Before going on this trip to Thailand, I wanted to do something special for my final day here to mark the incredible time I knew we’d have. I decided on a traditional Thai Sak Yant tattoo and booked myself an appointment at Bangkok Ink.
Sak Yant tattoos combine sacred geometrical, animal and diety designs with Buddhist text, and are believed to offer benefits such as power, protection and luck to the recipient. When I looked up my Chinese horoscope for 2023, it said that I should “wear trinkets of deer” for good luck. Given that I have a close connection to the deer that live on my land, getting a deer tattoo seemed like a fitting way to satisfy this prophetic advice. As it turns out, there’s a traditional deer Sak Yant design.
When I booked our stay on Koh Lanta, I noted that there’s a section of the beach we’d be staying on (Klong Dao) which is known as Kaw Kwang beach. Then there was Kaw Kwang Bistro, Kaw Kwang Seafood restaurant… I didn’t think much about it at the time.
When we got to Koh Lanta, I started noticing deer symbols around: on a tablecloth, a blanket design, in wooden statues. This was surprising to me because there are no deer that live in this part of Thailand—they inhabit the forests of the north. So why was this deer symbology following me around? I asked several local people about this but never got any clarity.
I knew the Thai word for deer before we even left for Thailand but it wasn’t until a few nights before we left Koh Lanta that the pieces fell into place and I had a good laugh! KWANG is deer! The shape of the north end of Klong Dao beach and the peninsula at the tip of the island is that of a deer neck and head, thus Kaw Kwang Beach. We were literally staying right on Deer Beach the whole time and I didn’t know it!
I chose Bangkok Ink because they have an excellent reputation for great tattoo work and cleanliness, and they have two Arjans (monks) who do traditional Sak Yant tattoos. These tattoos are done using the poke method, not a machine, although a surgical steel needle is used instead of the traditional bamboo. In my experience, the feeling of getting tattooed this way is different from machine tattooing. I could feel each singular needle prick, rather than a more continuous burning feeling of a machine tattoo. Overall, it’s difficult to say which method is more painful since it had been many years since my last tattoo and because tattoos can be more or less painful depending on where you have them placed on your body.
For my Kwang Sak Yant, I chose my chest, left side, close to my heart for the location. I went in without a lot of firm ideas about what I wanted in terms of the design. I had a few images saved on my phone of designs I liked and figured they would also have a Kwang design that they do. I liked most of the Kwang design in their folio, which included text that translates to luck and kindness, but wanted a couple of changes: snout facing backwards and three-point antlers instead of four. Their design and three designs that I emailed to them were printed out and the Arjun cut the head off one print out and placed it on the body of another print out. It looked perfect! They asked if I wanted the design to be exact or if I wanted the Arjun to incorporate his own style into it and I chose the latter.
We went upstairs to the shrine room where the Sak Yants are done, he placed the design over my chest and I approved the location with one small adjustment. He pressed the stencil onto my skin, then I lay down and he went to work. I closed my eyes and matched my breathing to his. He finished in about 45-50 minutes, placed a piece of gold leaf over the center of the tattoo and then it was time for the blessing. I made a donation, sat before him and he held my clasped hands and rubbed my tattoo while chanting. I held up the donation bowl and he chanted over this. Then he placed a huge, ornate helmet/mask on my head that completely covered my face and chanted again. He blew a big puff of air and removed the helmet. Lastly, he drew sacred designs on two 20 Baht notes and gave us each one. We were instructed not to spend this, it’s for good luck.
What an experience! I love the tattoo, it’s exactly what I’d hoped for.
After getting back to the hotel, with a bit of shopping along the way, we went down to the pool area to defrag. Of course, I can’t swim with a fresh tattoo but I sat in a few inches of water to cool off and stayed out of the sun, and it was a great finale to this last special adventure in Thailand.
For dinner, we went to Krua Khun Puk, around the corner from the hotel. It seemed fitting to have our final meal out in Bangkok where we had our first, one month ago. When we arrived, the place looked full but the server indicated that we could sit upstairs. I was a bit disappointed because I like the roadside tables but went with the flow. I went up the spiral staircase and sat down at the first table. It took a few minutes for me to notice but just above where I sat, there was a wooden mask on the wall with three-point antlers, like those of a deer. I can’t be certain but it felt like some kind of nod of approval for me.
We’ll be getting picked up for the ride to the airport at 5am to start the long journey home, hearts full of love for this very special country and its people. What an amazing adventure this has been!!