Valued by the world’s lost youth for its fascinating vulgarity, Khao San Road is also home of another treasure: the tattoo shop BKK Ink, owned by the Thai/French team on a mission to conquer the tattoo world. Here is a portrait of these two tattoo artists from the sky, live from Bangkok’s crowdy slum.
There is no false orientalism at BKK Ink. The shop is bright, super clean, the walls are white and the coaches are made of black leather. Tony is a friendly thirty-year-old who welcomes us at dusk. This French expatriate has been in Thailand for about ten years, and has opened this shop at the end of Khaosan Road, the street of backpackers in flower shorts, the same street where Leonardo Di Caprio’s wild journey begins in The Beach, the street where you can eat grilled scorpions, get you feet nibbled by fish, book a trip to Cambodia, and get alcohol poisoning for less than five Euros. But the district is also a strategic point for its two million visitors each year. “My girlfriend and I had been acquainted with the world of tattooing for quite a while when I met Ball and Tom, who wanted to fly solo as oppose to work in other people’s shop for years and years. We decided to form a partnership: I deal with the paperwork and management of the shop, they take care of the tattooing”. Ball and Tom nod politely.
In a country where upward social mobility has been quasi inexistent since the Kingdom of Siam, Ball’s story sounds like a fairy tale. He is 24, wears his cap backwards and shiny sneakers. Born of the country’s labor class, he stops going to school at the age of fourteen and starts working for less than 150 Euros a month, helping night market merchant push their carts around. At the heart of this universe of laborers, he meets street tattooists who let him have his own tattoo stand and show him a few tricks. He copies, draws, persists, trains on a few friends, and then, at the age of 19, he meets Tony. “He lied to me about having a professional experience in the industry, but it didn’t matter: I saw his drawings and could tell he was different, largely above the others” tell Tony. Five years later, his work is acclaimed, his salary has been multiplied by 40, he won the 1st prize at the Parisian Mondial for a full back piece, and he travels around wherever there are conventions in Asia.
His partner in crime can also be proud of his remarkable career. Tom is from the countryside and starts tattooing his friends when he is 22 with a tattoo gun he has built himself with the battery of a cassette tape player. After his two children are born, he has to start working to feed his family and finds a job in a mechanism factory. But he quickly starts building tattoo machines again, connects with people in the industry and begins to tattoo more seriously. Before he joins the crew of BKK Ink, he works regularly for a man who sends him on three-month missions in South Korea. What is the deal? Tattoo bodysuits of mafia people in padded hotel rooms because tattoos are prohibited there. He earns 2000Euros a month, quite a nice sum of money in Thailand, but with no appreciation for his artistic skills whatsoever. “I’m happy to work here with the respect of the art. I want to keep on working and make my own way, go to conventions with the crew and improve my skills in Asian style. I spent my whole life watching and admiring other artists’ work, and I want to find and improve my own style now” Tom adds.
Tony explains that having your own style is not common thing or envy in Thailand. “Tattoo artists in Thailand are like 4x4: they can almost do any style or any design. They always follow the occidental trend. Thai customers like new school and neo traditional, and all kinds of trendy designs, such as birds. European customers are more into Japanese/Asian style. In our case here, Ball already has fans and tourists from anywhere in the world who come to get his realistic pieces. He is lucky to be incredibly gifted with drawing”.
The young prodigy enjoys the luxury to be able to choose the designs and the customers. He is the happiest whenever somebody walks in with a complicated idea for a big piece. “My passion is realistic and neo traditional. It has to require a minimum of artistic and creative work to make me enjoy it”. This state of mind is compatible with Tom’s who is more flexible and doesn’t mind juggling between Asian and graphic styles. Tradition demands it, the two of them also have to do sacred tattoos sometimes, the famous Sak Yant, on some Thais who don’t want to get tattooed at the temple for hygienic reasons. All tattoo artists know the basic design by heart, and send the customers see a master for the technically complex pieces. For the sacred aspect of the tattoo, the customers have to go to the temple to have their art blessed anyway. What about tattoos of Buddha, touchy topic in South East Asia? “There is a certain pressure from extremists on tattoo artists so they don’t mess with the image of Buddha. But it seems pretty obvious that no Thai will mess with those icons. They are Buddhists themselves, and know and have known ever since they were born what is right and what is wrong. They will never tattoo it on the wrong placement or in a scandalous position, such as a Buddha tattooed under a foot (the least respectable part of the body for Buddhists) or smoking a joint, for example. Same goes for the image of the King” Tony explains.
BKK Ink customers are for the majority occidentals, attracted by the fame of the artists, the quality of the service, and the place itself. “I thought it was impossible to have a wait list in Thailand, because people only come here for a few days, on vacation, but there is a 2-month wait list right now. We have built our credibility little by little, I refuse that any bad tattoo comes out of this shop. I am very demanding about quality. I would love to open a shop in Phuket, there are a lot of Australian costumers who love huge pieces. It bothers me that we don’t have more Thai costumers too: they think it’s expensive here because it’s for white people. But our prices are the same as any other good shop in the city, around 3000 baths per hour (less than 70euros)” Tony adds.
On top of being artistically forerunner, BKK Ink also brought professionalism in Bangkok’s tattoo world. They were the first to introduce the notion of license in this country where law is about as important as interior decoration. “I got inspired by the actual constraints in Europeans countries and we really wanted a legislation here, by introducing it to the authorities who were a bit surprised that it even existed. I wanted it to be clear and square. It’s simple, if you don’t create the law, you have to pay a bribe to the cops, and I refuse to get involved in that stuff”. Tony uses his retailer’s activity to push other artists who come buy equipment in his shop to get a license. More professional, more self-confident, more beautiful, Thai tattoo slowly comes out of its historic triumvirate jail-prostitution-Sak Yant, and is getting ready to conquer the West.
BKK Ink website: www.bkkinktattoo.com Text: Laure Siegel Photo: P-Mod
