Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic books and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
Yesterday, Achan Neng Onnut, a Sak Yant tattoo master who supported the research of my new book Sacred Skin, the first English language publication on Thailand’s sacred tattoos, celebrated Wai Khru Day. During the course of the day, hundreds of his devotees visited his home in Bangkok to pay their respects to the master and [...]
A Bangkok Post review of my new book Sacred Skin - Thailand’s Spirit Tattoos, co-authored with photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat, has just been reposted on the Awesome Tattoos blog.
The review includes an interview with Aroon.
Photo taken at Bangkok International Airport.
Achan Neng Onnut, one of several tattoo masters featured in my recent book Sacred Skin, the first English language publication on Thailand’s spirit tattoos, Sak Yant, has posted a number of images of the shoot for two documentaries on the book.
Check out the images here.
Director Marc Eberle shot an 8 minute docu on Sacred [...]
Lard Yao Peter travels and tattoos. With long steel needles.
Peter learned his trade in Lard Yao Prison, also known as Klong Prem or the Bangkok Hilton, Thailand’s notoriously infamous jail, where he spent some time in the 1990s.
Spiegel TV has produced an interesting documentary on this extraordinary German. Obviously, the film is in German but [...]
Regional news round-up publication AsiaViews republishes a great review by Ezra Kyrill Erker, of my new book Sacred Skin, which originally ran in the Bangkok Post in July 2011.
“Sacred Skin Thailands Spirit Tattoos, the new two-hundred page, eight-by-ten-inch guide to sak yant protection tattoos by Tom Vater, with color photography by Aroon Thaewchatturat, is a beautifully organized, visual treat for both tattoo artists and collectors. Divided into easily navigable sections (Sak Yant, Master and Devotees, Sacred Images, [...]
On a recent trip to Cambodia, I noticed that my first non fiction book Beyond the Pancake Trench is still being sold as a bootleg photocopy in Siem Reap bookshops.
I was browsing the shelves of a pirate DVD shop in Phnom Penh a couple days ago, when I found, much to my surprise, that The [...]
Had the pleasure to hang out with Italian writer, traveler and former punk rock impresario Marco Ferrarese. Marco, who has lived in Asia for four years and is currently a resident of Penang in Malaysia, runs the website Monkeyrockworld, which focuses on young people’s travel and alternative youth culture in Asia, or as its author [...]
2011 proved to be a mad, mad year for me and I’d like to thank all the people who supported me over the past twelve months. Living it all was almost too much. Here’s to the great times this year.
The publication of Sacred Skin, the first book on Thailand’s sacred tattoos, was a major milestone [...]
Finally, the DVD for The Most Secret Place on Earth is out, about a year after the film surfaced on YouTube! There are some great extra, never before seen interviews with the film’s main characters but unfortunately the footage is all in German, as are the subtitles. Given that the film has garnered so much [...]