Bamboo and Ink

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Its raining again, has been all day and most of the night. I am so glad it’s not cold though…Miles and I rode in it for some time coming back from Ban Muang. Malie stayed at the orphanage all day and had some peace from her brother.

I am avoiding my Thai studies so far this time. Kat (a volunteer from Singapore) has picked up pieces of Thai that compliment what I know and we can usually figure things out between us. Nan has given up waiting for us to learn enough Thai to figure out what he is saying, so he tends to just babble on without waiting for our brains to translate it. He is so much fun!

I think he is sweet on Kat, but no one is willing to point it out. ;-)

The weather is so cool in the past few days, I can hardly tell I am in south east Asia…but for the lightening, that smells of raw earth and still water. I am so in love with the smells of things here.

The smells of life really, food and sweat, jasmine oils, and incense, mosquito coils and brick mud. Naa Bai (Auntie Bai) has taken over Miles again…she loves him so much, and with all the kids here now in his age range, she has a veritable troop following her around.

Marrin wants to put up a Thai fish pond at our front door, complete with google eye goldfish and coral. I like the idea except that the still water becomes a breeding ground for mosquitos. Hmmm…

So I sat around with Britt and Cat last night for hours talking about community and boys, Buddhism and rain and of course the topic of tattoos. I have always wanted one done here and in the traditional way. When Wendy and I traveled to Phuket, I looked into getting one done there, but with a machine and in a shop. I much much prefer the traditional way, sitting on a woven frond mat under the roof of a sala in the jungle. The smoke from the candle and the smell of jasmine blended with the breathing of another human body crouched over you as he tends to his craft.

Nan took us to see his friend in a nearby village. Mac has been tattooing for years in the traditional Thai way of doing it. A bamboo stick that forms the shaft and tattoo needles bound with wax and line to the shaft. The resulting tattoo is made up of thousands of pointillism dots…you can see them up close when you look at the finished tattoo. It’s a beautiful way of tattooing….similar to the Japanese and Maori styles.

We all sat in the Sala and Mac’s partner Mai guided us through some of the drawings. Nan kept insisting we opt for large dragons and Thai tigers….I have always wanted something expressive in Thai script rather than a representing animal but Britt chose a tiger for her shoulder. “It gives strength,” was the basic explanation. Women are not allowed to have the “magic” added to the tattoo though. The image is okay, but the Thai words surrounding most traditional designs are for men only.

I chose to have our Thai names. Simple, small and personal.

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Photos

Traditional design
Brittany chose the "Tiger" for strength

Strength
Britt's completed tattoo. To bring her strength.

Comments

[Grandma D]

Cool tatoos. So what does your tatoo say?