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There was a time not so long ago, when tattooing and tattoo shops existed in their own space/time dimension- A private, somewhat secret world of special codes that answered to nothing other than itself. Tattoo shops were a refuge and sanctuary for the marked men who gathered there. Occasionally, a woman was included but this was rare and for the most part tattooing was reserved for the company of men. This was before tattooing adopted today’s trendy persona as the thing to do and know something about… Everything has changed.

40 years ago tattoo shops that were located out on the apron of civilization, in exotic and extreme places like Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore or Honolulu were embassies for a select group of adventurers, military or maritime men who carried unique passports of introduction. The tattoos on their bodies that they had received from tattooers located in the world’s port cities were measure enough to cross any shop threshold and feel welcomed. There were no strangers in these places, only an interested audience awaiting the latest news from distant shores.

Today in Bangkok, Jimmy Wong works from his shop on Soi 5 at Sukhumvit Road in an atmosphere that is about as close as you are going to get to how it used to be when things were good in tattooing… before the avalanche of “Looky Loos” showed up. Jimmy started to tattoo during the Vietnam War years in the early 1970s outside an US airbase in northern Thailand. After the war he moved to Bangkok, and he has been tattooing there continuously for more than thirty years. He now has three children Joy, Jukko and Jack who also tattoo in Bangkok in their own shops located in various sections of the large and chaotic city. In Bangkok, the Wong name is synonymous with tattooing.

Jimmy keeps late hours at his shop. He usually turns his key into the lock at 11:00PM and as the door swings open a stream of tattoo enthusiasts enter who are like no other in the world. Bangkok is truly one of the world’s incredible international cities. The sidewalk along Soi Five is crammed with a selection of Thai, S.E. Asian, European, North American, Mid-Eastern, African, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and South American people who come to Bangkok for both business and pleasure. Jimmy’s reputation is world-wide, and people from Bangkok’s rich demographic wander into his shop, pull up a chair and talk tattoo. A visit to Jimmy’s is a mandatory stop-over for any tattoo artist passing through town

There is a three-hundred year history of tattooing in Thailand that reaches back to the Hindu images and beliefs of the Khmer civilization. Khmer kings ruled over a region extending from today’s Thai-Myanmar border, through Cambodia to eastern Laos from 802-1431AD. Khmer king Suryavarman II ruled from 1113-1150AD and built the central city of Angkor Wat (Temple City). The walls of the ancient cities of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are carved with images of the Hindu pantheon that became the tattoos of Thailand and Indochina. The Wong family tattoos a mixture of western and Asian designs but they respect the foundations of tattooing in Thailand. Jimmy has a deep understanding about Thai tattoo history and he has passed this knowledge on to his children.

“I started to tattoo in 1971 on the border of Thailand and Laos outside the NKP U.S. airbase located at Nakhon Phanom,” Jimmy says. “I was a young man and tattooed U.S. military people there. It was the end of the Vietnam War and the U.S. was flying illegal bombing raids into Laos to stop the North Vietnamese from moving south to Saigon... No good! More bombs were dropped on Laos during the late War years than were dropped on Europe during WWII. Thirty years later, farmers and their kids still dig up old bombs in their fields and get blown up…

“The Vietnam War (was) big trouble and very confusing for this part of the world,” Jimmy continues. “America come here and take over everything… Bangkok become ‘Little America’… All military and C.I.A. This when Bangkok become big sex town. U.S. Troops come to Bangkok and south to Pataya for relax and sex. U.S. military controlled all hookers. It was big money… Still is.

“I moved to Bangkok 1977-78. I lived in neighborhood called Pratunam. It is simple neighborhood full of old style Thai people. When I first work I talk to taxi guys and they bring customer to my apartment. I would pack up all my things and move them to the side of my room and set up my tattoo equipment. Then I started to get calls from hotel desk guys that had guys looking for tattoos. I would pack up my tattoo things and run over to the hotel.”

Bangkok has changed exponentially in the past 20 years and it is now a cosmopolitan city. During the 1960s and 70s, Bangkok was a distant outpost for the American Empire. The mountain of military supplies, personnel and chaos that passed through Bangkok became a staging ground that introduced American culture into S.E. Asia. Today the bars, girls and nightlife of Bangkok continue to resonate like the left over bombs of Laos as fall-out from the Vietnam conflict. “Bangkok was a different place before the War,” Jimmy remembers. “There were no girls walking the streets… Today, these girls come from villages… a region known as Isan. These girls are traditional girls. In the past, village girls sent the money home… Now girls live in the city and they keep the money. Some of these girls own two apartments.

“After the War,” Jimmy continues. “The soldiers went away. Business was bad. I thought that I would have to follow the G.I.s to Okinawa or the Philippines. During the War I was paid in U.S. dollars. The U.S. dollar became the money for the region. It still is in places like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Burma (Myanmar). These governments print money but nobody uses it… It isn’t worth the paper it is printed on. This is the power of a place like the USA. It takes over everything…

“Slowly, a tourist trade started in Thailand during the 1980,” Jimmy says. “Europeans started to come to Bangkok and slowly the tourist thing started. I tattooed in a bar called City Bar. It was located on Sukhumvit Road around Soi 4. The bar owner let me set-up in the bathroom… At that time the drug trade was developing in Thailand and especially in Bangkok. Heroin was everywhere and the police were suspicious of tattoo people. Tattooing was difficult…

“My reputation started to be good,” Jimmy says. “People start to know my name. This take time… I start to have reputation at same time Bangkok start to have reputation… People start to come see me from everyplace in the world… My shop become interesting place in this part of Asia… Very interesting people all the time…” (to be continued…)

Jimmy Wong - The Changing Face of Bangkok Tattoo Part II

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