Finding Wat Mae Takhrai isn't easy. Driving from Chiang Mai to Mae On district, which by the most direct route takes no more than 40 minutes, we spend two hours winding up and down narrow, ill maintained back roads following conflicting sets of directions offered by villagers along the way.
When we finally stumble across an unassuming cluster of temple buildings constructed in a bland 20th-century contemporary style, I can scarcely believe it has anything to do with Thailand's most famous living sacred tattoo master, Ajarn Noo Kanpai, who lives just outside Bangkok proper in Pathum Thani.
A stroll into the large, open-air dhamma hall, however, reveals a wall plastered edge-to-edge with enlarged photographs of Thai actresses, models and TV personalities. In most of the photos the stars _ including Odette Henriette Jacqmin, Florence Vanida Faivre, Penpak Sirikul, Yotsawadee Hatsadiwijit, Araya "Chompoo" Hargate and Bongkot Kongmalai _ bare a shoulder to display Ajarn Noo's famous ha thaew (five rows) yantra.
Considering the guru behind the gallery, the impressive collection of Thai sex symbols is par for the course. Commanding a legion of loyal followers, Ajarn Sompong "Noo" Kanpai has attained near iconic status in Thai society. He has also been credited with bringing Thai sak yan (sacred tattoos) onto the international stage.
Although his disciples have long included high-ranking police and military men, it wasn't until after April 23, 2003, when Ajarn Noo applied his signature ha thaew design to the left shoulder blade of American actress Angelina Jolie, that the moustached, white-clad khru sak became the most sought-after traditional Thai tattoo master in the land.
Ajarn Noo's path from a humble birth in Nonthaburi to a two-storey, marble-floored tattoo shrine in Pathum Thani where he and his four assistants carry out their work, is paved in legend. I first visited Ajarn Noo in 2005, just over a year after he had inked Jolie a second time. I accompanied a Parisian acquaintance who sought a tattoo like Jolie's. She was the first of several foreigners who have since asked me to help them find Jolie's tattoo master.
When photographer Dan White and I later visited the master in Pathum Thani to photograph and interview him, we found the samnak filled with dozens of monks and laypeople who were participating in an elaborate set of blessing ceremonies. The compound was strung with bai see (blessed cotton string) and pha yan (yantra cloth) banners. The monks, we were told, had come from Wat Mae Takhrai. The temple's rotund, heavily tattooed abbot, Phra Thianchai Suphathutho, led the ceremonies.
By coincidence the date we chose to visit was an auspicious one for the blessing of a large number of Buddhist amulets, pha yan (talismanic cloth) and other watthu mongkhon (blessed materials) dedicated to the late Luang Pu Thuad, a monk who was known for powerful weecha (occult knowledge). All of the yantra appearing on these objects were designed and consecrated by Ajarn Noo, and made at Wat Mae Takhrai.
Among the most popular objects was a rectangular metal medallion, similar in shape to GI dog tags, which bore an image of Luang Pu Thuad on one side and Ajarn Noo's yan krau phet (diamond armour yantra) on the other. The design is considered the ultimate in physical protection and is often paired with the five-row yantra.
Ajarn Noo traces the roots of his early mastery of akkhara (sacred script used for amulets, sak yan and so on) to a book of spells belonging to his grandfather and written in Khmer. The book contained khatha (verbal spells) used by generations of Thai bandits for protection.
''My mother's father was a monk and he studied weecha akhom (mastery of spells),'' Ajarn Noo said when I asked about the legendary text. ''He taught me some of what his books contained, and some of it I learned from studying the books on my own.''
ROOM FOR MORE: The heavily inked back of a disciple is filled by one of Ajarn Noo’s chief assistants.
Asked what lineage these books followed, Ajarn Noo answered, ''It's the lineage of dhamma, of white magic.''
According to most sources, Noo began spending nights chanting at an early age with the elder monks at Wat Laharn in Bang Bua Thong, Nonthaburi. By the time he finished fourth grade, his family noted Noo's obsession with learning and reciting verses from his grandfather's book. By the time he was 13, the confident young man could already read the khaum script and recite many khatha from memory.
A reckless, experimental phase followed, during which the boy would initiate fights on a daily basis, and even invite friends to stab him to test the power of khong kraphan (invincibility) magic. Among locals he became known as Noo Johm Saep (Noo the Hooligan).
According to a much-repeated tale, after the young tough finished his daily work as a ticket seller on a local bus, he noticed some merchants in a nearby market being bullied by local mobsters. Intervening on the merchants' behalf, he confronted the gangsters, one of whom stabbed Noo repeatedly in the torso. By the time the police had halted the scuffle and taken the ticket seller away, they were surprised to find Noo unharmed, although his shirt was in tatters from knife slashes.
The very next day, a sinsae (Chinese soothsayer) visited Noo's mother to warn her that her son would either be killed within three days or live to become a powerful and famous figure.
To allay the fears of his mother, Noo ordained as a novice monk at Wat Laharn immediately after the sinsae left.
One day a man who felt he needed supernatural protection came to see the young novice at Wat Laharn. Assuming Noo harboured sacred objects that gave him supernatural powers, he begged him to share some khaung dee (''good stuff'', that is, anything charged with magic power). Having no such objects on hand, the novice Noo instead offered to apply protective khatha as sak yan. Noo created the first tattoo of his career by binding a sewing needle to the stem of a coconut leaf, dipping it into Chinese ink, and tapping akkhara onto the man's skin. Shortly after, the man was attacked by someone wielding a knife and stabbed repeatedly. Again the blade failed to penetrate the skin, and Noo's reputation grew further, bringing him a horde of disciples.
As his interest in weecha continued, he left the monastery on a pilgrimage to Rayong in eastern Thailand to find monks who possessed powerful weecha and who could educate him in saiyasat (magic) and akhom (sacred spells).
The most important of these masters was Luang Pu Tim (1879-1975), creator of the original Luang Pu Thuad amulets, considered to offer very powerful protection.
Under this master and others, Noo says he learned how to meditate and to control his body, while continuing to study sacred spells.
When Wat Talat Nua's abbot resigned, Ajarn Noo was invited to take his place.
''I had had second thoughts about practising sak yan as a monk already, and knew that as an abbot I probably wouldn't have time to keep up the practice or to carry out my responsibilities towards my disciples,'' Ajarn Noo explained.
Rather than decline the invitation, Noo decided to leave the monkhood altogether, and to devote himself to sak yan. He opened a small samnak sak yan behind the monastery. The one-storey structure had wooden floors and a low tin roof.
''Very few disciples visited me at first. Sometimes three or four people a day, sometimes just one. As my disciples saw that my weecha akhom worked, and they spread the word, I started getting more and more new disciples.
''By around 1995 I was seeing over 100 people a day. I started screening disciples more carefully, since it was difficult to get to know each one well. I stopped tattooing anyone under the age of 20, and I wouldn't take drunks.''
Ajarn Noo acknowledges that Jolie's visit in 2003 shot him into the major leagues, bringing a steady stream of international disciples.
''I didn't know who she was when she showed up at my old samnak with three large bodyguards, only that she was an actress from America. I'm not sure how she found me but I think she heard about my work from high police. She wanted sak yan and asked if I could do the work at her room in the Mandarin Oriental.
''I agreed. I told her beforehand, 'I don't care what religion you are, but you must be a good person. You must respect your parents and cultivate the four brahmavihara [loving kindness, generosity, forgiveness and equanimity], practise an honest livelihood, and maintain mindfulness'.''
Ajarn Noo didn't charge Jolie for the ha thaew he applied to the back of her left shoulder, but he asked that Thai reporters be allowed to take a few photos and write about the event. The design took 15 minutes to apply.
Obviously impressed with the master's work, Jolie returned to Thailand for a second sak yan on July 8, 2004.
This time she received a much larger and more powerful yantra, the yan phaya seua khrong liaw lang (royal tiger looking back), on her lower back. Ajarn Noo finished the work in around two hours. Jolie paid for the tiger.
Before Jolie received the ha thaew, it was a favourite among Thai businessmen. Post-Jolie, the design has become a perennial choice for many Thai actresses and models, who perhaps hope to emulate Jolie's success in the film industry.
He employs several assistants to help tattoo disciples and can charge upwards of 10,000 baht for a ha thaew and 100,000 for a tiger tattoo, whereas a more common price charged by other masters is around 1,500 baht for a full back tattoo, 399 baht for a tiger or 99 baht for something small _ keeping prices to multiples of three.
Asked whether he thought Jolie would return for further sak yan, Ajarn Noo admitted that he is not in contact with the star but that he expected she would come back for more.
''Her career has been doing very well since 2003 and 2004,'' he added with a smile.
Joe Cummings is the author of 'Sacred Tattoos of Thailand'.
YOU’LL BE SAFE NOW: Ajarn Noo blesses a disciple. The master is renowned for his tattoos which he says offer protection.