If you’ve been to Thailand, you’ve probably ridden a taxi where on the inside roof above the driver are funny little squigglies and wondered what they meant. These are religious protection markings, like a charm or blessing. The markings aren’t really Buddhist, but you’ll see them interconnected with Buddhism due to the superstitious powers they grant.

Sometimes people get these markings tattooed onto themselves. This form of tattoo is called sak2 yan1 สักยันต์. Sak is an everyday word for tattoo, and yan means Yantra. They are done by monks, ‘magicians’, and even regular tattoo artists. The markings are supposedly a mixture of ancient Khmer script mixed in with Bali.

There are many types of sak yan out there, and I recommend browsing this google image search of sak yan to check it out.

There is one famous type of sak yan called huh3 taew5 ห้าแถว. The tattoo means ‘5 rows’, just like the song5 taew5 สองแถว truck has two rows of seats. It’s so popular that even Angelina Jolie got one tattooed on her back (amongst many other things). It’s so famous they even made a movie about it.

Now for the strange part . . . Some people believe that getting these tattoos releases your ‘inner animal’. Like something out of Ripley’s Believe it or Not, you just have to see it for yourself.

In this first video, you’ll get to see a full ceremony where a man gets his sak yan. Notice what happens at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWecslk8vt0

Sometimes many people get a sak yan together. Sometimes a few people need to hold them down.

And sometimes it just gets insane! (watch the first half of this video)