Yesterday I came home from a week-long stay in Bangkok, where I met a lot of wonderful, talented, beautiful, sexy, creative, amazing, friendly and inspiring people. These are just a few of the photos of the amazing people and scenes that I captured there.
During one week in Bangkok, I spent most of my time in tattoo shops and hanging around with other tattoo interested people. It all culminated in the MBK Tattoo Convention 2015 on my last day, where most of these photos were taken. For me, as a person who’s probably more than average interested in tattoos, being at a tattoo convention makes you feel at home: You meet lots of people who all share the same passion and love for the same kind of artistic expression. It makes you feel like you’re a part of an international society. I’ll post plenty of photos from this magnificent event later. Because I had a flight, I couldn’t stick around to find out who won in the different classes, but for me it wasn’t important to find out who came out victorious or not – the important part was to be there, feel the vibe and be a part of the event.
The Muay Thai boxing photos were shot at Bankok’s Rajadamnern Stadium (which will also be covered in a separate post) and, since I was already in Bangkok, of course I made sure to arrange a photo session with a local model: Rogue Seraphim and make-up artist Adia Braun (the photo session will also be covered later). I haven’t had the time to go through even a small fraction of my photos yet, but I probably have some interesting street photos to share as well.
I hope you all (my readers) have been having a good time and enjoying life lately and I hope that I get to visit Bangkok again soon! The sooner the better!
Beautiful portraits Max and some pretty amazing tattoos. Glad you had such a great time.
Thank you Michelle! It’s an understatement to say that I had a great time! 😀
Great photos of some stunning tattoos and beautiful people. Like always, I love your work! Cannot wait to see more.
Thanks a lot Michelle, I’m looking forward to go through all the photos myself: so many intersting situations and people. Bangkok rules!
I can only imagine from the hint you showed us!
Excellent photos and subject matter. I was in the US recently, in New Jersey and Manhattan and I noticed that there were far fewer tattooed people compared to the UK.
But the people with tattoos had very similar-style tattoos as here in the UK.
To my ‘untrained’ eye, the tattoos in your photos look more akin to Japanese tattoos. But the general idea of a whole-arm tattoo is very common here.
The recent history of tattooing is exactly that in the UK – very recent. Ten years ago there were only a very few people who had big tattoos.
So it makes me wonder: How long has tattooing like this been popular in Bangkok?
And did the influence spread from there to the UK or did it go the other way – from Europe to Thailand?
I’ve said this before, elsewhere, but these tattoos both fascinate me and make me aware of my own ‘judging’.
That is, when I see a photo of a Maori tattoo from the 19th century, I give respect to the tattoo and the people who have them. I ‘assume’ that the tattoos have meaning and are in a sense spiritual.
Whereas when I see someone in the UK today with a tattoo, I think they are just dedicated followers of fashion. In the days when large ear lobe rings and tattoos were very unusual, then I thought the people who had them were brave – out on the edge of what was ‘normal’ and ‘safe’. But now that everyone has them, there is no respect ‘per se’ just for having a tattoo.
I’d appreciate your thoughts on this, and once again – great photos.
Very interesting comment David. Thank you very much for that.
Your comment gave me inspiration to continue on my articles about the history of tattoo (I’ve already written the foundation of my next article in the series many years ago as a scientific paper, but it needs to be updated with some new information, translated into English & proofread before I can publish it in the blog). It’s actually been in the back of my head since I published my last article in January 2014, but it’s one of those neverending projects that tends to collect a lot of dust in between each time I work on it. 🙂
Anyway, it’s late here now and I’m getting ready for bed, but I will write you a reply with my reflections on your highly interesting comment.
Thanks again.
great pics, can’t wait to see more
Thanks Julz.
The skull and sideburn tattoo looks pretty cool. What an amazing trip. Looking forward to your write-ups.
Thanks. Bangkok was amazing, there’s no doubt about it.
So many great images but I know I can always expect that from you! I am delighted that you had a nice time. I know how wonderful it is to be surrounded by people who share my passion.
Yes, it’s wonderful to be surrounded by people who share the same passion. Well said Lisa.
WoW! Great shots, love the tat sideburns. Hope you are doing well.
The tat sideburns are really cool, but you need dark hair to pull off something like that. It wouldn’t look good if you have blond hair like I do.
Beautiful set of photos, C. My favourite one would have to be the one of the Bank Tattoo, the girl with the pink dreadlocks. Brilliant portrait. Have fun going through the photos and hope you have time soon to do that. I’m sure it was a very memorable trip and looking forward to hearing more about it.
Awesome trip! The pink dreadlock girl is truly beauty.
Some wild and crazy body art. I have a tattoo … but I’m trying to imagine how many hours you have to spend under the needle to get that much work done. Great photographs. Your pictures tell a lot of stories.
Hours and hours of pain, but like we say in the tattoo community: pain is temporary, pride is forever.
Very well captured, Lisa… 🙂
Tattoos are used widely one way or another in almost all regions of the world for thousands of years for many reasons.
That’s correct Drake, but I still go by the name Max (haven’t changed my name or gender lately). 😀
‘-hahaha-‘
In my hurry I made the line break too late – when I tried send a comment for you and an other for Lisa too… 😀
Tried to multi task, men can’t multitask – at least not me… 😀
Excellent captures, Max… 🙂
Hehe, they do perform a lot of sex change operations in Bangkok though, but it’s not my thing (I’ll stick to the tattoos). 😎
Agree with you – every time some one tells me they are going to Bankkok I say to them “Take care of the boys” 😀 😀 😀
Great picture, Max.
Thanks Geert.
Very cool captures…all. I like Node. And those three ladies with back tats. How did you get so close to the ring at the fight? I couldn’t get anywhere near close.
VIP tickets and you’ll get close 😀
We were right there in the action of the red corner.
wonderful portraits Max!
🙂
Wonderful photography, CG! Thailand, I think has become one of the most popular travel destinations in my homeland, if not THE most popular … not for the tattoo reasons though 😉
Bangkok is officially my favorite destination from now on!
These are fantastic, Cardinal. Looking forward to more posts…
Thank you very much Richard. I’ll catch up on your blog soon to see what you’ve been up to lately.
Great, great work, Cardinal! You clearly had a great time.
Top notch work!
Thanks a lot. There’s lots of Bangkok photos coming shortly.
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