Still churning through the thousands of images I shot in Thailand. This is one of my favourites. I shot this on my first visit to the fields near the farming village in Kalasin where I spent half my trip. There’s this beautiful orange/gray twilight in Eastern Thailand, that’s unlike anything we’ve got in the states, and it was settling over the fields when I first visited them, making them seem even more magical and alien.
Tattoos are casual and everywhere in Thailand. Even the army guys patrolling in Bangkok have prominent tattoos on them. I saw three separate tattooing booths at the Red Cross festival in Kalasin. Lots of text, and a fair amount of imported Western flash. Lots of European tourists sporting great big tribal flash pieces too. This guy had the coolest tattoo I saw in Thailand, a simple line drawing, full backpiece of a butterfly. He’s covered with other, faded tattoos as well, but you’ve really gotta zoom in to see those.
I ate a fair amount of fish while I was in the village, and I keep wondering if any of the fish I ate was the product of this man’s labour. I’ll never know, I guess. This guy was really nice – just like everyone else in the village. I shot two more images of him, but the on up top came out best. Alternate images here & here.