Sak yant, the art of sacred tattoo

Sak yant tattooing process. Photo courtesy Tanat Talat

Sak Yant is a form of tattoo that has distinct religious and talismanic meaning. The tradition to decorate bodies with such tattoos appeared hundreds of years ago in Cambodia with the use of ancient Khmer script. Those who had to risk their lives on everyday basic - soldiers, fighters, criminals - wanted some special spiritual protection and thus they started to make permanent drawings - different animals, gods, sacred symbols - on their bodies believing that those images would help them in dangerous situations, would give them courage and strength, would avert swords, guns, knives, would make their skin, muscles and joints invulnerable to any attacks.

Hindu forehead marks

Sadhu, the follower of Shiva. Photo courtesy Pierre-Emmanuel BOITON

Hindus regard the forehead as a pure part of the body and many of them wear a colourful mark there. Such marks are especially important for members of different religious communities. Each sect has its own marking by which its member can be easily identified. Followers of Vishnu use mainly vertical marks. It can be just one vertical line or more usually there are two parallel lines with a black dot or open circle between or under them. The dot represents the deity, the circle is a unit of perfection, without beginning or end.