Sly Bald Guys Forum
Discussions About Being Bald => Tattoos and Piercings => Topic started by: Semi-Sly on January 17, 2015, 08:58:00 PM
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Hi guys:
Well I finished my stint being an ordained Buddhist monk. What a great and challenging experience that was. I had to shave off my beard when I arrived there and part of the initial ceremonies to become a monk involved having one of the monks shave off my hair and eyebrows with a DE razor. No fancy shave cream, and no clipping the hair before shaving; just a bucket of cold water and a bar of soap - and wham bam shaved bald in under three minutes!
What an experience! If you are interested I will write about it when I get home next week and have a normal keyboard.
I went through the disrobing ceremony yesterday and left the monastery. I took a bus back to Chiang Mai and am staying tonight in a guest house here before leaving for home on Monday night. While I am here I want to experience getting a tattoo in the old manor with a bamboo stick and a needle. I have an appointment for tonight. It is going to be a mixture of a traditional Sak Yant tattoo with new school tigers inside if it instead of just line-type tigers. It will be placed on my lower back.
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Randy, it would be great to hear the details of your trip. Have a good trip home.
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Wow, look like you got nice experiences on your trip to Thailand. Monks shave their head really fast and smooth.
I saw Thai tattoo on monk's body on the internet. It's great. I love tattoos but can't have one at this time. It's would be great if I can see yours.
Congrats anyway BBBA :)
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Wow. Sounds like an incredible journey. Would be great to hear more about it.
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HI Randy,
Wow, what a great experience. I would be interested in hearing more about it when You get back. Hope that you have a safe trip home. Take care buddy.
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I'm jealous!
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Have a safe trip home, Randy! Can't wait to hear more details!
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This is the only photo I have of the Tattoo. The next day he colored in the tigers. This was all done with bamboo sticks that needles tied to the ends of them; one to five needles, depending on what he is trying to do.
It actually doesn't hurt as much as a machine tattoo does, (except for the fact that it was done on my lower back which is a very sensitive area!} The needles don't go down as deeply as the machine needles do. They use less ink.. And, where a regular machine needle is being moved regardless of whether the needle is up or down, there tends to be a slicing/tearing/scarring of the skin. In bamboo needle tattooing the artist only moves the needle when it is out of the skin.
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Wow. That is amazing and beautiful. I cannot wait to see it colored in.
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That looks great! Look forward to seeing it coloured in.
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Wow. Great design, Randy.
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I like it. Do you know roughly what the Thai says?
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Nice tatoo Randy. I would like to see it when it is finished.
Glad you had a great trip.
Take care.
Joe G.
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I like it. Do you know roughly what the Thai says?
The writing is Sanskrit. In general, this was a tattoo worn by Thai soldiers during their many wars with the Burmese and the Lao. It was a "lucky" or "magic" tattoo which was supposed to give the wearer protection in battle and the ability to persevere even if wounded.
I liked the tattoo for the traditional artwork and the application but I don't believe in magic. Also, I don't like what some monks are doing in Thailand by perpetuating these pre-buddhist myths and by "selling" these tattoos to foreigners. The real monks in Thailand are really quite upset by this activity. And, I didn't want to "rip off" what was a sacred tattoo to another man, so I had the traditional tigers replaced with slightly more modern looking and colored ones. But I still had the tattoo done in the traditional manner with bamboo rods and needles - but by a professional tattoo artist; not by a so-called "Monk".
Randy
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Thanks for the explanation. I didn't realize that was Sanskrit, but that makes sense since I know the Buddhist scripts that the Thais use are all in Pali, which is pretty closely related to Sanskrit.
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Nice ink! Some good details on there. How long did the whole process take?
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The entire tattoo took about 9 hours; but it should not have. He wanted to knock it out in one straight session but there were these two Canadian chicks in the shop (only one of which was getting a tattoo of a mermaid and a turtle on her upper leg). Those two were yacking and yacking and yacking for 7 hours straight and they were constantly doing the "well how about it we do this instead" thing. The artist doing the tattoo didn't speak any English so every time their was a new "crisis" my guy had to stop tattooing me and go translate!
The "Yacking" was painful enough in and of itself (especially with my hearing aids). But tattooing the lower back is extremely painful. It has to be to most painful tattoo I have ever experienced. And each time we got into rhythm and the endorphins would kick it, he would have to stop tattooing and go moderate a chick crisis for about 20 minutes. That gave my brain and endorphins time to go back to normal. So each time he restarted it was like starting all over again. Finally, at 1:30AM I said; "that is it! No more tonight!". so we finished coloring in the tigers the next morning at about 11:00AM to 12:30PM.
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Wow! I've done a straight 6 hour session, but 9 hours?! Without the interruption, he probably could have finished in 6 or 7. I do hate the interruptions too, especially when it's someone who's not even getting any ink done!