Southern INK Tattoo Studio Thongsala
We operate on both appointment system and walk in.
Each of our clients are treated as we would like to be treated ourselves,
with strict professionalism.
*all equipments are 100% sterilized
*Our tattoo colors & tattoo equipments meet Eu.standards
I would say "its all about the art"
"They" being 4 Southern Boys, - Mr. Johnny, Mr. Peat, Mr. Niw and Mr. Kob.
A bunch of Glowing young Artists from the South.
The sweet and talented group have known each other all their lives growing up together in the same small village by Nakhon.
Together they have made a colourful journey through life, art, tattoos, travels and studio work.
They are sweet and enthusiastic about their art and ideas and you will always find a welcoming embrace when you step through their door.
Phanganist meets up with them in their studio to hear more about their work.
It is a nicely decorated, clean and professional looking studio and we sit down with Johnny Acoustic in their couches with a few munchies and while Johnny tell us their story, we drink, eat, smoke and enjoy our selves!
He shows us various Bamboo tattoos in which they specialize in and to my surprise you can not tell the difference between some of their Bamboo makings and machine made tattoos!
Before talking with Johnny the idea was, that it is not possible to make a Bamboo tattoo as colourful as a machine tattoo let alone be as detailed or precise.
This was to be proven wrong. – and to give us an example Johnny offered to make a colourful Bamboo tattoo on each of us there. We are looking very much forward to this, also just for the experience of their work.
It can be a very different experience to be Inked on! The word is though that these boys are fast, precise and as painless as can be.
For the comment about the painless procedure, Johnny added that it was because of the technique they used when they worked on the skin. Instead of going through the skin from the top, they have a technique to go in from the side, which makes it less painful. Plus the colour stays longer, Johnny said and showed us one of his colourful Bamboo tattoos;
The 4 boys was born in Nakhon in the south and they all grew up in the same village.
“ We were out growing our village fast and we were not fitting very well there, so we chose to leave early from our home.” Johnny said about their childhood there.
He, himself, got his first tattoo when he was 16 years old and from that time he began his own tattoo story slowly working towards becoming an artist himself..
Now he is 26 years old, soon 27 and sitting in his own studio with more than 10 years of experience!
Before they came to stay in Phangan they moved around to a few other places.
Among other places they spend some time on Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta. Gaining a lot of their working experience from Koh Lanta.
After working on Koh Lanta for many years they arrive to Koh Phangan in 2007/8 looking for new inspiration and maybe future challenges and teachers.
They came here and found that it could be a good place for a future studio and home, so they go back for two years to finish with their work in Lanta Ink. and prepare for a new journey.
They were visiting Koh Phangan on and off in the two years while they left Koh Lanta to prepare for their new home.
When they came back here, the studio was ready to take over and the boys began the renovation of the whole shop.
It was all pink when they began and they boys together turned it in into a beautiful, comfortable, clean professional looking studio.
At first they worked for friend from the tattoo shop next door, a friend from Pi Den's shop.
“Our most valued inspiration is Pi Den for his Thai art!” Johnny told us. " He is the real teacher!"
“But we learn from many others too. Everyone have their own style. “
“Mr. Tung was the inspirator and teacher in making our studio for bamboo tattoo here.He was such a good man that if I tell our customers that he passed away they cry for him!
Tung was our main mentor. He was a good teacher and helped us in taking over the tattoo studio. The needles, the light, all the materials we have now is still from him. Unfortunately he is not among us anymore. He is the Legacy."
“Tattoo is about making people look good with art.
Even in a good or famous studio like Miami ink you still need a good artist.”
“Our bamboo tattoo technique has become really really good!
We have 60 colours to work with and everything that is possible to make on machine we can also make with bamboo. We changed colour six times before we found one that really stayed and had all the qualities we wanted.”
"People think that you only can make simple styles and only one colour when you make with bamboo. This is not true. ALL our tats are made with bamboo and it surprises many that you can not see the difference between them and the machine made ones.
Even the colour stays better and the art becomes more real. We even make 3D tattoos in colours with only bamboo.
“Sak Yant is the original bamboo tattoo. Like the ones the monks will make. Those are the Magic tattoos, like a Protection Spell.
Blessed tattoos blessed by the monks and so on. Further down our road here, there is a studio for that also. Mr Man is very famous for his Sak Yant tattoos and knowledge about them.”
“A tattoo is also a name tag somehow. When you wear my Tatt you are wearing my art. You wear a piece of us and we want you to look good with it. Small or big, pay or not pay, a tattoo is a tattoo and something you will wear forever and something that will refer to us, to our artist, always. So we take great honour in every tattoo. This is our reference on you from us forever and ever and we want other people to see it and love it too.”
“If you come with your picture that you maybe found on Google we will ask you if we can personalize it so that you always have something unique.
The whole creation from the beginning is important. Choosing the right drawing, the right colours, the right place on your body. Everything is a process that we go through together. It is a feeling .... Of making something beautiful and special not about making a lot of money. This is pure passion and real art work. We are all artists and that is our first priority”.
Asking about their future dreams, they were very modest and saying they still had so much more to learn. They still felt very young in the game and they still had many teachers to learn from.
As a future idea they mentioned that they would Love to make a convention here sometime. On their street alone in Thong Sala are a few artists and studios and around the island are many others and with different styles, so one day it would maybe be a good idea to collect and connect and make Phangan Tattoo convention. Why not ? ))
Welcome to Southern Ink!!
