i had read the articles, did my homework , and was nervous, but finally big day came, the long traditional needle tattoo wasn't nearly as painful as i had expected, a bit irritating but over quickly, and my machine made tattoo by the famous monk in the articles... was more painful but it too was over quickly.. i have lifetime experience, and souvineer art that i can wear. The other people waiting for tattoos were helpful holding my skin tight, and making me feel good about the experience , i recommend!

As I was planning on going here for a tattoo I couldn’t find a recent review so here it goes:

Have been looking into this for a while and have read mixed reviews about foreigners being ushered upstairs at the temple and asked to pay thousands of bahts vs. Locals having it done for a donation. Decided to go and find out for myself. Hired a taxi to bring us out there and arrived around 7:00am. Asked the driver where to go and he said it didn’t open until 8:30 we asked if we should line up, I’m not sure if he didn’t understand us but just repeated 8:30. At around 8:00 he brought us to the area where the tattoos were being done. We payed our 75B for flowers, incense and cigarettes and were indeed brought upstairs where we were quoted 4000B for the 5 line tattoo. We tried to explain that we wanted to go downstairs but he was adamant that upstairs was safer as they used fresh needles for each tattoo. When asked if we could go downstairs we were told we could but we’re strongly cautioned not to due to safety ( we were also told we could not get the 5 line for our first tattoo downstairs - I’m not sure if this is true or not). I would have been okay with sharing the pin and there were lots of foreigners downstairs waiting, but inside the temple overall was filthy and smelled like cat and dog urine. It was also upsetting that even though we arrived very early we did not get shown the area and explained our options until waiting in the parking lot for a hour. I’ve seen tour options from Bangkok and this might be a better way to go. They also seemed unconcerned that we did not have our shall’s on yet to cover our shoulders so I wonder about the authenticity. I don’t mind paying for something but this felt like we were being taken advantage of and honestly the cleanliness in the temple was disgusting.