Sak Yant tattoo in Thailand
(Angelina JolieFred Duval/Shutterstock.com)
You have probably seen the image on the right before and then as a tattoo, usually on the shoulder of a Thai. With men it is often not immediately visible due to the clothing, but all the more with the ladies, who walk lightly with a bare shoulder.
If you pay attention, you will often see this tattoo. I see them too, but it doesn't really get through to me, I don't like tattoos. Until last week, I'm standing still at a red traffic light and there's a lady waiting for me too. She has this tattoo on her beautiful shoulder blade and my eyes are so fixated on that image that I almost forget the green light. Suddenly I realized that I've seen that tattoo dozens, if not hundreds of times and don't know what it actually means.
Sak Yant
I consulted the internet and quickly found what I wanted to know. It is in fact a Ha Taew tattoo, one of many – hundreds – designs of the “magical” Sak Yant tattoos. The word Sak means “to tap” or “tattoo” and Yant is derived from Yantra, which means “sacred geometric design”. For many centuries, Thai and Khmer warriors were renowned and feared for the magical Sak Yant tattoos on their skin. The drawings were a mixture of Buddhist psalms and prayers, shamanic spells and sorcery, which had survived the religious transition of the pre-Buddhist Hindu era and had been incorporated into the belief system of the Buddhist reborn lands.
Sak Yant information
In recent years, the interest in Sak Yant tattoos has increased enormously, especially after Angelina Jolie had one done. Greenwood Travel once published a long story by Tom Vine of Thai Tattoo explaining the history and significance of the Sak Yant. You can read that story at this link: www.greenwoodtravel.nl/reisblog/sak-yant-tattoo-in-thailand
I limit myself to that one tattoo that I was worrying about.
Yant Ha Taew
The Yant Ha Taew is a Yant (tattoo) that consists of five lines (katas – mantras) and that in this combination should bring protection and prosperity to the wearer Mantras are prayers and psalms with magical formulas in Sanskrit, Khom, Khmer and Pali script . The powerful Yant Ha Taew consists of the following rows that contain the following mantras as a basis:
Row 1: Protects you against lawsuits and counteracts bad and negative outside influences.
Row 2: Provides a good horoscope, positive constellation and gives protection against bad karma.
Row 3: Protects you from black magic and curses in many forms.
Row 4: Brings you happiness, success and prosperity in your social life.
Row 5: Makes you (sensually) attractive and enhances your happiness and prosperity as described in the 4th row, and gives extra power to the 3rd row.
Finally
So, I know what I wanted to know. It's quite interesting to read, but it didn't entice me to get a Ha Taew or other Yak Sant tattoo as well.
Source: Greenwood Travel Travel Blog
About this blogger
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Bert Gringhuis (1945), born and raised in Almelo in the beautiful Twente. Later lived for many years in Amsterdam and Alkmaar, working in export for various companies. I first came to Thailand in 1980 and immediately fell in love with the country. Been back many times since then and moved to Thailand after my (early) retirement as a widower. I have been living there for 22 years now with my somewhat younger Thai lady Poopae.
My first experiences in Thailand as a kind of newsletter sent to family, friends and acquaintances, which later appeared under the name Gringo on Thailandblog. Many, many articles followed those first stories and that has grown into an almost daily hobby.
In the Netherlands still an avid footballer and football referee, but the years are starting to tell and in Thailand still avid, but the pool billiards is really of inferior quality, ha ha!
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When I see a tattoo, I don't see the person anymore, and I don't look at the tattoo after that. No matter how beautiful the lady is, I think: a pity, such beautiful skin, and then burn. Perhaps that is (also) due to my old-fashioned upbringing: children who ask are skipped. Who attracts attention, does not attract me. Do you bark? Watch out before I start barking.
Have 2 and am proud of them, they are also nicely set!
Where can you get it done in Pattaya?
I had mine set by Archan Anek in Pattaya Nongprue, you can find it on the internet.
I also have 1 but then 1 with 8 lines.
I had them put in a temple and it was also baptized after setting I think you see them everywhere
can have it done in an ordinary village and they cost 300 to 500 b. Do not do it in a tattoo shop is my advice, but just have it done by a Buddha……………..for good luck they say.
With me they did it with a HOUSE of an empty ballpoint pen with a needle in it that is connected to a battery.
I only need row 5, is that also possible? 😀
Hi,
I received a Sak Yant from a monk in Lamphun last February.
The day was full of offerings, good conversations and finally what my intention was for getting a Sak Yant.
The monk asked if he could choose both the Sak Yan (Pok Sap) and the spot. Of course I said yes to this and I am very grateful to this day for the beautiful experience and the special meaning that the Pok Sap has for me.
Nothing for me.
You do see people in the Netherlands who have a tattoo, in memory of someone or with another special meaning such as birth.
I can imagine something else.
But a Sak Yan that is often worn by not too fresh Thai figures is not my thing.
These tattoos are often worn by Thai drug addicts, ex-convicts and people who cannot function in society.
Set by a monk?
Has anyone ever asked for their moniker's passport?
But to each his own.
In any case, it does not harm others.
I am not a fan of tattoos, not even on beautiful female shoulder blades.
The tattoos, of course, don't work on their own and against anything, nor for anything.
Did Messi start playing football better after having his left leg fully tattooed? Not at all.
Will Ederson keep more balls out of goal now that the tattoos reach down to his neck? The statistics prove not.
Tattoos do work through the brain. Because you THINK you look more attractive with one of these on your shoulder, men like Gringo are now turning their heads. And because you THINK they protect you from adversity you haven't for several weeks or months now….and so that is attributed to the tattoo. And if you still have adversity, you say that the tattoo does not work and that you have to wait a little longer (incubation time of the ink?). Sure enough, the adversity ends at some point.
Hundreds of examples of this placebo effect are known, so it is nothing new. It's just 'changing your mindset'.
When I see a big guy on a heavy motorcycle with a lot of tattoos on the highway, I keep more distance with the car.
So it does protect him against an accident and me completely.
But yes, it is a mindset.
It reminds me of the incident with the very expensive Thai talisman that a high police official had bought.
The talisman is said to provide protection against bullets.
A subordinate was ordered to shoot the senior officer with his pistol.
Unfortunately, the talisman did not work as expected and the senior police officer had to pay for it with his death.
There are therefore 2 possibilities.
a) the talisman was a forgery or
b) a talisman does not work.
The same goes for sak yant I think.
I admit that I have an opinion about wearing a tattoo, which is completely different among others, especially many young people.
Even if young people occasionally ask me how I like their new tattoo, you notice that you should never really say your opinion.
An honest opinion, to someone who is usually very proud of his/her tattoos, is almost taken as a personal insult by many.
In their eyes you are totally OUT, and that is often the least hurtful thing you can hear.
You can expect a roughly comparable reaction if you were to tell a bodybuilder that you personally don't like too much muscle development.
It gets even worse, if you were to say to a lady who is into this sport that you wouldn't find too much feminine.
Almost comparable, I find someone who is full of all kinds of Asian tattoo sayings, many of which cannot read the meaning themselves, and accept a translation blindly.
Even the figures that were still recognizable in youth, when your body has acquired the often inevitable traces of age, can you at most still use it for your weekly game night "Who knows what it was"?
I think my body without Tattoo, Piercing, Bodybuilding etc. is beautiful enough, and if someone had a different opinion about it, I would show it with all the decorations, only more unnecessary.555
I often ask people in the Netherlands what the meaning of a certain tattoo is that they wear.
Many moving stories I must tell, which sometimes stay with me as a listener for a long time.
Unprocessed suffering, memory of deceased persons, important events.
Having a tattoo with Chinese, Thai, Tibetan tattoos that people have no idea of, what it really says, of course done by a real monk, preferably in a well-known old temple and also blessed with magical spells is another thing for me. story and has more to do with image building.
But to each his own.
It does no harm to others.
It often seems that so many people wish so much.
And that is of course largely true.
The Thai texts in the form of a Sak Yant tattoo should simply be refused by many people, especially by tourists.
Buddha images have not been allowed as a tattoo with tourists for a while, so I thought why not this.
As said, it doesn't do much more than a solid bit of interesting.
The propagation of a 'message or wish' that one has also been told.
It is clear that there are many tattoo images that, if in the right place on the right body, are often even a true work of art.
A piece of character culture et cetera can sometimes be read from a 'picture' of a tattooed person.
Then it clearly didn't work for Angelina Jolie, except for row 4!
Well then you read the news badly about this lady Jomtien Tammy or you have completely different ideas about it than I do.
Think she misses the boat a bit with all five.
Or you should see a solid bank account as a good replacement in all of this.