The Burmese, Laotians and for the most part, Thais use a very long metal rod to do their tattooing. The rods are about 18 inches long, sometimes in two or three pieces, screwed together and generally have only a single point formed by a split down the tip.

The actual tattooing process is all in the wrist, using the weight of the rod to puncture the skin. The effect is reminiscent of the dot matrix printers, essentially just an outline.

The subject matter is traditionally of a religious matter, symbols akin to the Christian “Amen” or the Buddhist “Ohm”. These are interspersed with animals, more often than not, tigers, although centipedes and demons are common as well. The whole procedure is accompanied with chanting, and blessing. With the Thais you even get gold foil rubbed into your forehead and your head blown upon by Monks as a prelude to the actual tattooing process.

The contemporary tattooists are using Chinese and Indian inks, essentially bone carbon drawing inks. Apparently some of the early Chinese inks were made from the burning of pork fats, these were found to make some of the darkest pigments.

The Burmese in particular believe that the tattoos lend the wearer special powers. For instance a tattooed soldier will be impervious to bullets. Monks could be rendered invisible with the appropriate tattoo.

Thomas Lockhart
Vancouver, May 2002

Renowned trend spotter and arbiter of all that's 'cool,' DeeDee Gordon is the brains behind the quarterly publication of 'The L Report,' a compendium of what's in and what's out among the hippest 14- to 30-year-olds across America and which subscribers pay upwards of $20,000 per year to get a peek at.

But when it comes to tattoos, Gordon's opinion has been proven to be all wet. In the June/July 1997 issue of BUZZ: The Talk of Los Angeles, Gordon regally intoned, "The whole piercing and tattooing thing is over," says Gordon. "When I first moved here (to LA) my Mom was, like, "You're not going to get tattoos and fake tits, are you?"

Not having seen Gordon naked we can't comment on the state of the authenticity of her breasts, but since 1997, the popularity of tattooing has continued unabated. In fact, according to Lycos' weekly rating of the Net's most popular search terms, "tattoo" has increased in popularity each year since Gordon's less than omniscient prediction.

That suggests that Gordon needs to learn to tell the difference between mere fashion trends and major shifts in pop cultural perceptions...

The Vanishing Tattoo is continuing to try and put all of our production financing in place. Making a documentary series about anything is a wearying, incredibly complex undertaking that requires the money and support of a bewildering number of parties from all over the world.

As you get this, The Vanishing Tattoo is currently a co-production with the wonderful people at Natural History New Zealand, one of the world's largest producers of documentary programming. You can check out some of the amazing shows they have done at NHNZ Online 

The really exciting news is that our American broadcaster is National Geographic Channel International who have commissioned us to do a one-hour pilot on the tattooing of the Iban in Borneo for the series. If they like the pilot, and let's face it, how could they not!, they will then broadcast either a 13 or 26 part half-hour television series about traditional tribal tattooing around the world. The best part of this of course, is that during the research phase of The Vanishing Tattoo we have uncovered all kinds of tattooing stories in many different cultures around the world that have never been heard of or documented before! Heck, we could probably do fifty different half-hour shows on the amazing world of tattooing, both past and present, traditional and modern.

Other good news is that The Vanishing Tattoo web site continues to get coverage and press around the world, both on the Internet and in other media. This is due in no small part to the great support of people like yourself. As always, we cannot thank you enough for your encouragement and interest in The Vanishing Tattoo.

As an aside, Chuck Eldridge, Doug Cook and myself spent days searching for some quotes about tattooing. Now, over the years, Lyle Tuttle has collected some great quotes about tattooing, but it appears he's the only one. If you have a great tattoo quote, please pass it along to AskUs@vanishingtattoo.com. The best ten tattoo quotes will receive a copy of the World of Tattoos CD-Rom.

My personal favourite tattoo quote is by author Jack London, who said... "Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past".

This Winter and Spring I had the enjoyable experience of working with Editor Andrea Danese from Rolling Stone magazine as she spearheaded putting together a book on celebrity tattooing tentatively entitled, Tattoo Nation. Tattoo Nation is scheduled to be released onto the bookshelves of America this November through the wonderful folks at Bulfinch Press.