Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic crime fiction and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
“I tried to capture not just the devotees’ tattoos but who they were. My models were rather shy at first. Most of them were male and taking their clothes off for a female photographer was definitely a challenge for them. But after I had taken a few shots, their confidence increased and they conveyed a [...]
Check out new travel magazine Wicked World which launched this week! Great stories that originate off the beaten path, far away from guidebooks and iPhones… Wicked World exists to promote the kind of travel related writing that wouldn’t normally find an outlet in more mainstream publications. We’re not here to sell expensive guided tours, round [...]
I’ve been interviewed by acclaimed travel blog Where Sidewalks End, about travel, crime fiction, Sacred Skin, Burma and The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu.
Last month, we had a visit from veteran tattooist Bruce Bart and his wife Jennifer. They were on an Asian road trip and were looking for a tattoo master in Thailand. Their search, quite an adventure, eventually led them to Sacred Skin and to the house I share with my wife, photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat. This [...]
In 1999, I first visited the Moken sea nomads/sea gypsies in Ko Surin Marine National Park in Thailand. I had been recording indigenous music around Asia for the British Library for some years. Thailand had not been on my usual routes, I spent most of my time in India, Pakistan and Nepal in the 90s. [...]
Sacred Skin receives a great review from Danny Keens, Producer of 60 Minutes, on Amazon. Wonderful!!! When I stumbled upon this print collaboration between author Tom Vater and photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat I was taken completely by surprised and totally mesmerized. You see, I’m not the sort of person who would have considered a tattoo and [...]
Just got back from the 3rd annual reading competition that my wife, photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat organizes in Banphed Village, Issan, Thailand. This year, three publishers and several donors took part. 25 students won prizes and the school library was restocked with new titles. I got to read a short story, The Monkey in a Murder [...]
The Orissa Post in India has rerun my very first story on Thailand’s sacred tattoos. The Illustrated Kill Convention originally ran in The Fortean Times (amazingly that story is still online but the first paragraphs are missing, eating by time or digital weasels, one assumes) in the UK in 2003 and subsequently in, dare I [...]
Just received author copies of Moon Angkor Wat. Hurray!!! Out now in all good book shops in North America. Photographs by Aroon Thaewchatturat.
Excellent promo shot by Aroon Thaewchatturat!!! who also took the pictures in this guide to the Khmer ruins. Published in November 2012.