Getting a Tattoo in Bangkok While You Travel

Tuk tuks under neon signs on a Bangkok street at night, the city where many travellers decide to get a tattoo

A lot of the messages we get in English start the same way. Hi! I am in Bangkok from the 12th to the 19th, is there any chance you have a slot? Sometimes it arrives while the person is still at the airport with a bag in hand, working out what to do with a free afternoon.

We love those messages. A tattoo you bring home from a trip is one of the few souvenirs that never ends up forgotten in a drawer. It does need a little planning though, and the part that needs planning is almost never the part people expect.

The one thing worth planning: get it near the end

If you remember nothing else from this page, remember this one. Book your tattoo for the last days of your trip, not the first ones.

A fresh tattoo is an open wound for the first week or so, and the two things it likes least are being soaked and being sunburnt. That means no sea, no swimming pool, no long soak in a bath, and no lying on a beach with the new piece facing the sky. Around two weeks before you swim again is the usual advice, and it is ours too.

Turquoise sea and limestone cliffs in southern Thailand, the beach days that are best enjoyed before a new tattoo

So the order that works is islands first, ink last. Do the beach, do the boat trip, do the pool on the hotel roof, then come and see us in the days before your flight home. That way you get both, instead of standing on a beautiful beach in a t shirt watching everybody else swim.

The heat is part of the plan too

Even with the sea out of the picture, Bangkok asks a little something of a new tattoo. It is hot, it is humid, and you will sweat more here than you do at home. Three things make the week easier.

Pick a spot your clothes can cover. A forearm, a calf or a shoulder blade is easy to keep in the shade under a loose sleeve. It suits temple days as well, since covered shoulders are the dress code anyway.
Loose cotton, nothing that rubs. Bag straps, waistbands and tight sleeves are the usual troublemakers on a long day of walking.
Shade beats sunscreen at first. Sunscreen belongs on skin that has finished healing, not on a fresh piece. Until then, clothes and shade do the job.

Sun is also the main reason colour softens over the years, which counts for more in this part of the world than in a cooler country. We wrote the long version in our guide to keeping colour tattoos bright.

Booking takes about three messages

We work by appointment in a quiet private room, so we are not a shop you can wander into off the street. Everything starts in an Instagram DM.

Send us four things: the dates you are in Bangkok, one or two saved photos of the kind of thing you like, roughly where on the body, and roughly how big in centimetres. That is genuinely enough to start. We come back with a time, and we draw your design before you arrive so the day itself stays calm.

About language, honestly: chatting in DM is easy because there is time to write it properly. In the studio it is simple English, plenty of pictures and a lot of smiling, and it has never once stopped a tattoo from happening. Guests from all sorts of countries have sat in that chair and gone home happy.

Finding us on a busy trip

A BTS Skytrain train crossing the city, the easiest way to reach a tattoo studio in Bangkok

We are on the second floor of the Portcha cafe building, a short walk from BTS Sena Nikhom (N12) in Chatuchak. The Skytrain is the easy way to reach us because it skips the traffic that makes a taxi ride here hard to predict. If the weekend market is on your list, we are a few stops further up the same line.

Downstairs is Portcha, a matcha cafe, so you can turn up early, sit with something cold and look at the drawing before we start. We are open daily from 10:00 to 20:00, and tattoos start from ฿1,500.

What people take home

Most travellers who come to us want something small and personal rather than a piece that needs a whole holiday to plan. Very often it is a flower: the one from the garden of the temple you liked, the one from your grandmother's balcony, the one that simply looks like you. In a naive style it comes out soft and colourful and a little hand drawn, which is exactly how a good memory feels.

If you would rather pick something that is ready to go, our flash catalogue is full of small colourful designs you can choose in five minutes. Plenty of trips have ended that way, and none of those people regretted skipping the long decision.

Questions travellers ask

Can I fly the day after getting tattooed?

Yes, flying is fine. Cabin air is dry, so keep the piece clean and lightly moisturised, wear something loose over it, and do not let a bag strap sit on it for eight hours.

Can I get tattooed the same day I message you?

Sometimes. We work by appointment, so it depends on whether the day is already taken. A day or two of notice makes it much more likely, a week is better, and during high season earlier is kinder to both of us.

I swam this morning. Is that a problem?

Not at all. It is only swimming after the tattoo that has to wait. Come with clean, unburnt skin and we are good to go.

What if my beach days come after Bangkok?

Then we will be straight with you in the DM. Either you accept that the sea is off the list for about two weeks, or you save the tattoo for the next trip. We would rather say that than watch a piece heal badly in salt water.

If you would like one while you are here

Send a DM to @naive.flora.tattoo with your dates, a saved photo and a rough idea of size and placement. We will tell you honestly what fits in the time you have. If you want to browse first, everything ready to go is in our flash catalogue.

Second floor above the cafe, near BTS Sena Nikhom, Chatuchak, open daily from 10:00 to 20:00, from ฿1,500. Come with a saved photo and a free afternoon. That is plenty. 🌷