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I thought I'd start a thread here about sak yant. I've had three significant sak yant sessions, and I consider sak yant a spiritual path for me. As such I do get lots of questions online, so maybe it would be good to have an evolving conversation. So here are a few videos and links. Hopefully others can add their experiences or questions here too. An note about "meanings". A lot of the sak yant meanings are fairly similar, bestowing luck, strength, fortune, though yants are sometimes gendered, and by custom are found among certain kinds walks of life. For instance I've heard that my two backward facing Tigers are favored among members of the police or military. I am by NO means an expert in this, but in many ways looking for the "meaning" is the wrong kind of question. Yants are more like devices, spiritual devices, and the better question may be "What do they do?" Firstly: These are all of my blog posts on Sak Yant My First Sak Yant - Elbow (June, 2013) and the blog post on the experience. My Second Sak Yant Sangwan Rahu (April, 2014) and the blog post on the experience My Third Sak Yant Session: Backwards Facing Tigers and Takroh (April, 2015) and the blog post on the experience This post isn't about me and my sak yants though, but an invitation to discussion and building awareness. As I've stated before, sak yant are not "Muay Thai tattoos", but rather part of a much, much wider Thai Buddhist spiritual syncretic practice of which we as westerners don't really get much more than a glimpse, and don't have easy references to make sense of them. If you'd like to read up on what is unique about modern Thai Buddhism this book is really good: The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk - it isn't focused on sak yant in particular, but explains the nature of Thai Buddhism that brings together Buddhism, Brahmanism, and animism and allows these grounded, real world focus practices to flourish. Arjan Pi Bangkating is someone I do consider my spiritual teacher. All my sak yant are from him. He tattoos in Chiang Mai, Rangsit (outside of Bangkok) and Taiwan, and sometimes Singapore. But I did attend also my friend Robyn getting her sak yant in Bangkok from the reputable Arjanneng OnNut, so I have a little cross-reference to other practices, but not much.