(upbeat techno music)
- This is why I get tattoos.
I feel to break through the next level at least in my life,
I have to go through something difficult.
It's just the hand of cards life dealt me
to level up and become my best self
life has always thrown me challenges and tried to break me
and through doing that, and through overcoming those
I was able to become who I am now
and while life isn't always throwing difficult scenarios
at me I feel like to be able to get to the next point
I've gotta put myself through some hardship, some pain.
And there where tattoos have entered into my life.
(oriental music)
Okay, welcome to the Amulet Market, I'm with Louis, Chai,
and today we're looking at some powerful talismans, right?
- Yep
- So tell me about what we see here.
- Well, much of this place
has been selling lots of amulets that come from
every temple in Thailand, and you see most of this stuff
is made my monks, some old, some new.
- [Mike] And so what do some of them mean?
- Protection. Protection, self-guard,
and blessing for maybe the ladies as well.
- [Mike] 200 years old, these are 200 years old?
- [Mike] No, really?
- Usually some of these amulets you can see the Yant
on the back of the amulet as well. Like this, this is Yant.
- [Mike] Oh, that's the Yant.
- [Louis] Yeah, from Rayong province,
in eastern part of the country
and the Yant here, blessing for protection
for the ladies and financials.
And also including metamorphosis as well.
(techno music)
- [Louis] Also here, you see this one?
- [Mike] That's a penis.
- [Louis] Yep.
- [Mike] Yep.
- [Louis] Here is the other lady here.
This is also a blessing for metamorphosis.
- [Mike] It's a lady riding a penis?
- [Louis] Yeah.
- [Mike] Show me your keyring Louis.
Louis's got that one on his keyring already!
- [Louis] Yeah this is my keyring.
What you see here, see the Yant here?
This is print in Thai here, a blessing for metamorphosis
and love, fertilities, and also sexuals.
- [Mike] And so how many kids do you have?
- Two.
- [Mike] Two, well it works.
(Mike laughing)
- If you want to have more kids...
- [Mike] So you make a wish.
- Before you have sex, you make a wish with this one first
- [Mike] Yeah.
- And then you touch your...
- [Mike] You touch what?
- Wow, what do you think?
(Mike laughing)
- [Mike] And that's how...
- That you have sex. Then you will get more kids for sure
if you have this with you.
- [Mike] - So you just take this little guy
and you go like this, it's the magic key to making sure.
- Yep, that's right.
- [Mike] Sign me up.
I'm gonna have to get one.
So Louis these people,
they hunt amulets and they bring them here?
They find them, so they're like treasure hunters?
- [Louis] Yeah.
- Treasure hunters who find magical amulets
that come to the Amulet Market to sell them to people
so they can have their spells.
If this vlogging thing doesn't work out
I think I've found my job.
Magic Amulet Treasure Hunter is my next calling.
- [Mike] This one is what?
- [Louis] This is for metamorphosis, good fortunes,
and also bulletproof.
- [Mike] Bulletproof?
- [Louis] Yeah. Because it has happened before.
- [Mike] With someone wearing that amulet?
- Yeah. And they got shot, and nothing.
- [Mike] And nothing.
- The gun's working but the bullet can't cut through
- [Mike] It bounced off? It went poing?
- Yeah.
- [Mike] Well I think I found my new necklace.
It is a pleasure doing business with you man,
and being bulletproof for 400 Baht is a good price.
(laughing)
- [Louis] That's good one!
- [Mike] Thank you, thank you so much.
Okay, we've just arrived at Ajarn Rung's house
where he tattoos out of a shrine he's built in the back.
I never like to jam a camera in someone's face straightaway
especially when we're dealing with
situations with magic and talismans and blessings,
it seems a bit disrespectful so I always try
to keep it a bit lower until we warm up to each other.
Seems like he's pretty friendly though.
So I'm gonna slide the camera in with us,
see what I can capture kinda incognito
as we warm up to the experience of getting a new blessing
tattooed in my back.
Shoes off, right? Shoes off.
Ajarn Rung?
Nice to meet you.
Good to see you today.
- You can speak Thai?
- [Mike] I can't speak Thai.
You can speak English?
- Little bit.
- A little bit.
That's all we need.
- [Louis] You said you have a Sak Yant
from Wat Bang Phra?
- [Mike] I do, yeah.
- You want to show him?
- [Mike] Sure.
- [Louis] So then this one you get from Wat Bang Phra?
- [Mike] From Wat Bang Phra, maybe five years ago.
In Bangkok.
(oriental music)
So they said they meant safety and protection, yes?
- Yes.
- And this is Gao Yord.
What does he think? Were they done well?
- All the Yant that you have from Wat Bang Phra,
it's already planned by the month
for the future when you're gonna have something more,
so if he gives you something else,
like outside the line of Wat Bang Phra,
it's not going to suit your personality.
It's not going to suit the Yant what you have.
- Interesting point about how it has to follow the same line
as Wat Bang Phra, because the first pieces of ink
were put in my back there, it has to continue down the path
they preset for me when they first did the tattoos
five years ago.
That's a surprise.
I knew I couldn't exactly pick what I wanted
but it's interesting that it's already been determined
a little bit by what's happened in the past.
- [Louis] This is Paed Tidt.
- [Mike] Wow.
- [Louis] So what he's going to give you is like
a different incantation inside and outside as well
and this is pointing in different directions
you see here, this is what we call Paed Tidt.
Now you can count one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight.
- [Mike] Paed Tidt, can Ajarn Rung tell me a bit about what
Paed Tidt means?
(speaking in thai)
- It's a blessing for properties or things, safeguard,
metamorphosis,
happiness,
good jobs,
healthy,
charming, or to be attractive,
for safe travels,
for mindfulness, because mindfulness will lead to power.
That's why we call Paed Tidt Eight Directions
spinning all around.
- [Mike] Spinning all directions.
- This will be the piece we will place
on the center of your back.
- [Mike] So why always the back, it seems?
They always seem to go on the back.
(speaking thai)
- Okay he said, in a former time when the people
just looked in front, they could see lots of things,
they could see all the dangers coming to them
they could see all the people coming to them,
but they couldn't see anything from behind.
So that's why the Yant is placed on the back,
for protection first.
- [Mike] So am I ready?
Give me five minutes?
(laughing)
- Five minutes to bet the adrenalin going...
(calming ambient music)
- [Louis] Are you ready?
- I think so.
It doesn't hurt right, no pain?
(laughing)
- [Louis] Don't cry.
(upbeat techno music)
- Okay, the Eight Directions is complete.
On further discussion with Ajarn Rung I can get
another tattoo put on top of it.
It's called the Golden Tongued Magpie,
which is to help you speak, it makes you speak convincingly
it makes you speak beautifully
and for people who have speaking jobs, as I do,
I can get it done right above the Eight Directions.
So I haven't seen the bigger tattoo yet,
but we're going to get the magpies put right now
to finish off the day.
- [Louis] You ready?
- I'm ready.
(oriental string music)
- Okay moment of truth.
I have not yet seen the Eight Directions
or the Golden Tongue.
Wow.
That's incredible.
- [Louis] So intricate and beautiful, right?
- I love them.
You're a very good master.
All across Thailand, you can get Yants in a lot of places
but there aren't very many real monks
who are still practicing being a monk,
giving tattoos these days.
So Ajarn Rung traveled all across Thailand learning
from the best to know how to do this now,
he's still a practicing monk,
and while you can go get a Sak Yant at a tattoo studio
in Bangkok if you like, they're empty, they're plastic,
there's no magic to them at all,
they're just lines on your skin.
Here, and coming to see Ajarn Rung,
you can get the real deal, and he finishes off
with a blessing and the spell is imputed in your skin.
You have to come somewhere like this to have the real magic.
A tattoo studio can't do that with a tattoo gun.
Thank you so much, it was my honor, thank you.
- See you next time.
- [Mike] I will be back!
Okay, you probably want to see it right?
Hold on.
It's been probably about a month and a half now,
and I'm really happy with it.
Like I said at the beginning of the video,
tattoos for myself are this...
This trial by fire,
this experience I put myself through to go through some pain
to learn a lesson.
I was going through a bit of a hard point in my life
and I like to get a tattoo when I'm ready to level up
to the next level, Mike 2.0, Mike 3.0,
we're probably at Mike 7.0 now,
but this tattoo experience was intimate,
it was very personal with Ajarn Rung,
and it was very spiritual,
and for myself, incredibly transformative and very powerful.
So if you'd like to do a similar tattoo experience,
I actually did this one with a company called
Where Sidewalks End.
A friend of mine leads these, I don't want to say tour,
because it's way more deeper than that, it's very intimate
with these Sak Yant masters.
But there's all kinds of them, they have on the website
a handful of different Ajarns, masters you can choose from
and if you're worried about sanitation, authenticity,
anything like that, they take care of all of those details
to make sure you have a safe, fun and powerful experience
at whatever master you choose.
Where Sidewalks End, there's a link in the description
if you'd like to get a Sak Yant enchantment
tapped into your back.
Also these dog chains have been something I've been wearing
since the very beginning of my YouTube career,
before I was Fearless And Far, when I was Kick The Grind.
One right now has the Fearless And Far logo as you can see
The other has Experiences Over Possessions
and originally they were both the same color
and this one eventually rusts, the more you have experiences
and I was giving them out to people when I traveled, mostly.
And also to patrons on Patreon because, for myself,
I think they're a symbol of what the channel stands for,
and I thought I would do something
a little bit different with them.
So for the next seven days, everybody who signs up to my
Patreon page, doesn't matter what tier you sign up as,
you jump on, you support the channel,
I will send you some of these.
Fearless And Far dog tags that rust as you have your
experiences over posessions and also
okay okay,
these, boom!
Fearless And Far sticker, and also
the Experiences Over Possessions sticker.
Not the water bottle, I only have one of those.
But I got lots of these, so sign up on Patreon,
there's also a link below, there's a link at the end,
there's a link up the top right now.
And you can get your very own dog tags, swag,
and even a tattoo, check out Where Sidewalks End.
Remember, Dragons, keep chasing your fear,
and I'll catch you in the next video.
And I'll catch you on Patreon right?
I'll catch you, I'll catch you there.