Chalolemporn Sawatsuk was a young person in Kamphaeng Phet Province, in upper central Thailand, when he got his first tattoo.
The tattoo artist, a Buddhist monk, inked a pair of lizards onto the inside his forearm, the identical tattoo Chalolemporn’s father had. As he worked, the monk chanted blessings intended to imbue the tattoo with spiritual power that might increase Chalolemporn’s charisma and attractiveness. He also recited rules based on Buddhist moral teachings that the teenager would should follow to maintain the facility alive.
The tattoo appeared to take effect almost immediately, Chalolemporn said: Later that day, he convinced a girl to sleep with him.
Chalolemporn later received two more spiritual tattoos. Over the years, nevertheless, the enchanted images proved ineffective in keeping his life on track. In fact, his involvement on the earth of illegal drugs resulted in a sentence of life imprisonment, before his talent in martial arts won him an early release and an encounter with a Christian friend led to his life transformation.
Sak yant tattoos, which date back centuries in Southeast Asia, were initially a method to enlist the assistance of local animistic spirits, but they later became tied to the Hindu-Buddhist yantras, or mystical geometric patterns, used during meditation. Sak yant adherents consider the tattoos secure specific advantages, including physical or spiritual protection, popularity, or success.
The intricate designs and patterns of sak yant have grow to be popular with Thais and foreigners in search of a cool tattoo, but Christians are concerned about their spiritual implications. Thai pastors encourage recent converts with sak yant tattoos, like Chalolemporn, to acknowledge that God has greater power than any spirit.
“[Sak yant] is visible on their body, whereas Christians don’t worship a picture representing God,” explained Thanit Lokeskrawee, director of Chiang Mai Theological Seminary. “We must have faith … within the invisible God, which really goes against the grain of Thai people.”
Skin-deep animism
Sak is the Thai word for tattoo, while yant means yantra. Historians consider the practice is a minimum of a thousand years old, often used to guard men in battle. Although the tattoos predate Buddhism, sak yant and other animistic beliefs were incorporated into popular expressions of the faith once it took hold in Indochina.
Sak yant tattoos include various drawings, symbols, or words often written in ancient Khmer script. Adherents consider that only tattoos done by an authority who can properly perform the required chants and rituals carry spiritual efficacy. Today, sak yant artists are often Buddhist monks or other sorts of holy men.
The rules that monks tell clients to follow in an effort to make sure the tattoo’s continued effectiveness include some seemingly arbitrary stipulations together with moral guidance. Chalolemporn, for example, was told to not walk under an unfinished bridge. Breaking the foundations supposedly saps the talisman of its power.
After receiving a tattoo, a sak yant adherent periodically participates in ceremonies intended to re-enchant the ink on their body. Every March, about 10,000 people travel to Wat Bang Phra, a temple 30 miles from Bangkok, for a festival to honor a famous deceased monk and to receive a fresh charge of magic for his or her tattoos. Videos of the ceremony show devotees seeming to enter a trance-like state as they jump, scream, and charge toward the stage. Many consider they’re possessed by the spirits related to their tattoos.
Decoding Thai spiritualism
Sak yant has grown in international popularity as celebrities comparable to Angelina Jolie, Brooke Shields, and Ed Sheeran have obtained the tattoos. As a results of the increasing demand, more tattoo artists in Thailand are doing sak yant—sans monks or rituals.
In 2011, the Thai cultural ministry called for a ban on foreigners receiving religious tattoos out of concern that they were being placed on inappropriate parts of the body. In Thai culture, the pinnacle is taken into account holy, with lower areas of the body seen as progressively less so. Accordingly, a Thai could also be offended by a sak yant tattoo on a tourist’s leg, since it is a less honorable location than the neck or upper back.
Many Westerners are drawn to the aesthetics of sak yant. However, they often struggle to grasp the beliefs of Thais who use tattoos, amulets, and rituals to secure the help of spiritual forces.
Chris Flanders, a former missionary in Thailand and now professor of missions and intercultural service at Abilene Christian University, often compares the animistic spirit world to a technology his students are more conversant in: Wi-Fi.
Just as a cellular phone is required to connect with the invisible world of Wi-Fi signals, people whose worldview includes myriads of unseen spiritual beings that have to be engaged or appeased will need to have the proper device. For many Thais, Flanders said, the spiritual world is mysterious and scary yet also potentially useful—but provided that people know the way to tap into its power.
“Sak yant is a kind of spiritual technology,” Flanders said. “It offers a chance to access the spiritual power that’s throughout us, but we’re just not aware since it’s invisible like Wi-Fi.”
Sak yant and the church
For Thai Christians, in search of spiritual protection or help through sak yant or other practices is clearly outside the bounds of their faith. Thai pastors say it’s not crucial for brand new believers to remove sak yant tattoos they got before conversion, especially since tattoo removal is usually a difficult, expensive, and painful process. But even when the ink stays, pastors need to help eliminate the tattoos’ spiritual mark.
“I don’t have any problem with [Christian converts still having sak yant tattoos,] so long as they understand that the facility isn’t in sak yant,” said Natee Tanchanpongs, lead pastor at Grace City Bangkok and a former academic dean at Bangkok Bible Seminary. “The power to guard them comes from the God of the universe who created them and is in a position to do greater than we ask or imagine.”
Thanit, the seminary director, grew up in a Buddhist family and remembers noticing male relatives’ Sak Yant tattoos during childhood. He became a Christian after meeting a Thai evangelist while studying at a university. He has seen how Thai Christians struggle to completely let go of old ways of coping with fear or feelings of helplessness.
“When life is smooth and completely happy, [old beliefs] will hide,” Thanit said. “But when you get struck by a crisis, this sort of belief will float up and haunt you.”
In a pastoral role, Thanit says it can be crucial to “discredit the influence” of sak yant tattoos and help Christians view them as simply ink patterns. But even for mature Christians who got here to faith years ago, this is usually a continuing challenge. Thanit isn’t all the time sure of one of the best method to help.
“I want God’s wisdom,” he said. “People prior to now survived harm, fights, and wars with this sort of belief, so it’s demanding [to give it up].”
A distinct person
For Chalolemporn, the facility and love of God provided something his three sak yant tattoos never could. As a teen, he showed promise in boxing, but he began hanging out with the unsuitable crowd and fell into drug addiction. When he ran out of cash, he began selling drugs.
One day, Chalolemporn met one other drug dealer in a rice field to settle a dispute, only to seek out the person armed with a sawed-off shotgun. Fearing for his life, Chalolemporn attacked, gained control of the weapon, and fired. Although he had intended only to scare the adversary away, the shot killed him.
Initially, a court sentenced Chalolemporn to death for his crime. However, the king of Thailand commuted his punishment to life imprisonment. At 19, he appeared destined to spend the remaining of his days in Thailand’s harsh prison system.
While incarcerated, Chalolemporn restarted his martial arts profession, competing in boxing and muay thai tournaments contained in the prisons. He racked up victories and eventually became a national prison system champion. This success led to his sentence being reduced, a reward granted in Thailand to well-behaved prisoners who win martial arts competitions. At age 33, he was released.
The newly freed fighter desired to proceed his boxing profession, but promoters were hesitant to work with a former death row inmate. During this time, Chalolemporn talked with a Thai Christian who suggested that he pray to God about his situation. Though the Christian faith was strange and unfamiliar to him, he and his wife, Sarunya, decided to ask God to offer him a probability to compete.
Within per week, Chalolemporn was invited to enter a boxing match in China. However, when he arrived, he was told that he wouldn’t have the option to fight. Discouraged and doubtful, he prayed that the fight would happen.
“If you’re real, let me compete,” he remembers praying. “And then after I get back to Thailand, I’ll go to church.”
After a tense wait, he was informed that the match was back on. Since that first fight, he has continued competing in and winning international boxing and muay thai championships.
After returning home, Chalolemporn followed through on his promise. Another former prisoner who had grow to be a Christian helped him discover a church. From his first day at Tawipon Church in Ayutthaya, a city 50 miles north of Bangkok, he felt something he had been missing his whole life: unconditional love. The people weren’t judgmental of his past sins, nor were they fearful about his tattoos.
“The Christians I met at church took no notice in any way of my sak yant tattoos,” Chalolemporn recalled. “All the people got here as much as me and said, It’s okay, welcome! Everyone loves you. God loves you. You have been redeemed.”
Chalolemporn says that God modified him dramatically as he learned about his recent faith. Old vices gave method to an intense desire to honor his Creator.
His tattoos are still very visible, and so they have even given him his nickname within the boxing ring: Kontualai, or “tattooed one.” But his belief of their power is gone. Instead, he prays to God for help and protection.
“Becoming a Christian was a very big change for me,” Chalolemporn said. “It was like becoming a special person.”
