In the Theravāda Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia, certain tattoos are said to have a magical influence. They are said to bring luck, health, wealth and love. Created by the best masters, some tattoos are said to protect the wearer from stab wounds and gunshot wounds.
The region has a long tradition of sacred tattooing. Belonging to the Buddhist world and known in Thailand as Sak Yant or King Sak, these tattoos are said to exert a certain influence on the lives of the tattooed. Do they really have power, and how do they work?
These questions raise the issue of the influence of beliefs, rituals, tattoos and other forms of amulets on the mind and health of individuals. Once considered irrational, these questions are now being addressed by the scientific world. Recent studies have shown that not only can our beliefs condition our lives, but that tattoos and other forms of amulet can act as veritable placebos.
Today, these tattoos have spread beyond the borders of the countries where they originated. In the "tattoo studios" of Sak Yant's masters, you'll find Hollywood actors, international sportsmen and businessmen from Singapore and beyond. Now more popular than ever, the practice is not confined to celebrities. Men and women of all nationalities, ages and social levels want to have one of these tattoos inked on their skin. For their part, the masters are invited to practice their art in Australia, the USA, Europe and other Asian countries. Why do these tattoos provoke such passion? Who are the men who practice Sak Yant, and who are the people who get tattooed?
Based on a three-year survey of Sak Yant masters, lay and religious, and of tattooed people, and drawing on studies in fields as diverse as anthropology, religion, history, art, medicine and psychology, Sacred Tattoos - Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar - can a tattoo change your life? is the first book written in French devoted to the practice of sacred tattooing in the Buddhist countries of Theravāda Southeast Asia.
The 244 photographs, images and drawings illustrate one of the world's last remaining examples of traditional, sacred tattooing.

 

Isabel Azevedo Drouyer studied archaeology, art history and European political, social and cultural history in France. In charge of a comparative study of stone Buddhist iconography in Cambodia and Central Java (6th-11th centuries) at the University of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), she has given several lectures on the subject. After specializing in anthropology, she has been working for several years on the sacred tattoos of Southeast Asia, as well as on the Nagas, ancient headhunters living in the border region between India and Burma.

René Drouyer, engineer, former student of the Beaux-Arts, photographer and passionate traveler, has been working with a number of photography and advertising agencies since 2004. His photographs and illustrations regularly appear on the covers of books and magazines.