Thai tattoo and Isaan tattoo
Marc has been living in the north of Thailand for two years and is friends with Lung Addie, which is why he sometimes inspires to write something. He writes under the name Loung Maak.
I have been living in Chiangrai province for several years and sometimes hear and see things here that sound completely unknown to me and sometimes strange.
What is a "Thai tattoo"?
My local shopkeeper who used to work as a welder in Kuwait and Singapore is a guy who speaks good English and we understand each other, one day he asked me if I knew what a "Thai tattoo" was, I couldn't answer. At first I thought of some kind of Buddha tattoo, but I was completely wrong.
He began to explain:
A Thai tattoo only occurs on Thai women and is always on the inside of their right calf, I still didn't know what it was about and asked for more explanation.
Apparently it is a scar caused by a fall with a moped, the exhaust is on the right side and when they fall they usually have a few burns on the right calf.
I started paying attention and indeed, most women had a “Thai tattoo”.
Now the “Isaan tattoo”
This is something I read in a book by Stephen Leather, maybe it's fiction, the legend says this:
It is a much told story that the girls from Isaan who usually work in some bar in Bangkok or Phuket get to know a farang, if they really want to keep that farang they go back to Isaan for a few days and get a fictitious tattoo done by a kind of shaman like there are over there against the border with Cambodia.
That fictitious “tattoo” would consist in that once he placed it anywhere on the girl's body, she would return to her farang, if he touched that invisible “tattoo” unknowingly, he would be attached to her forever, he will do everything do for her and never leave her until he dies.
So much for the legend.
Everyone thinks what they want, but we farangs generally do more for our Thai women than we would have done for a European, don't we?
Maybe something to think about?
Loung Make
Dear Loung Make,
I'm over 70, and I went to Calella on the Costa Brava with a bunch of guys in 1969. Before I left in the evening, it was then still 24 hours behind the wheel of my mini, I saw the fable newspaper for the first time.
You must have looked at that too! Because invisible tattoos do not exist, but "fake" tattoos do.
And to get you completely off your apropos: I, as Ned dude, also have a Thai tattoo. But on my left calf. After parking my bike close to another vehicle so that I scorched my calf on my own exhaust.
Well you again
Invisible tattoos do exist...
I once visited such an Ajaan near the Cambodian border. His whole tent was full of women, most of whom wanted an invisible tattoo like that.
They use oil instead of ink for this, after tattooing it is still red and swollen for a few days, then you can't see it anymore.
They do this because tattoos still have a negative image, "good" women are not supposed to do such a thing.
And they are mainly concerned with the magical power they think such a tattoo has, not so much with how it looks. So such an invisible tattoo is the perfect solution.
By the way, it is not all bargirls who do this, on the contrary…
Invisible tattoos do exist. My wife had several put in the temple with oil.
After they are set you can see the wound well, after a few months you won't see anything again.
I touch them daily, so I'm still with her... now you again
Those tattoos certainly exist, if you don't always laugh at their superstitions, but listen. Then ask that question, I know they don't even just use oil for it. There are also usually bodily fluids of animals or people mixed in. Name man phai that will be mentioned, the belief in ghosts is really very strong in Isan.
Now that the exhausts of the motorbikes are now better protected, the Thai tattoos will quickly go out of fashion.
Yes, I had one too. And honestly: didn't even think it was THAT bad! Belonged!! HG.