Tattoos & trances at 'Magic' festival ( Thailand)
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Believers from across Thailand travel to Wat Bang Phra in Nakhon Pathom province, a monastery near Bangkok, to attend Thailand's Magic Tattoo Festival, to have their bodies adorned with tattoos and pay their respects to the temple's master tattooist. They believe the tattoos have mystical powers, ward off bad luck and protect them from harm.
A Buddhist monk uses a traditional needle to tattoo the body of a man at Wat Bang Phra in Nakhon Pathom province, about 80 km (50 miles) from Bangkok March 21, 2013. Believers from across Thailand travel to the monastery to have their bodies adorned with tattoos and to pay their respects to the temple's master tattooist. They believe the tattoos have mystical powers, ward off bad luck and protect them from harm
A devotee in a state of trance is calmed by volunteers during the annual Magic Tattoo Festival at Wat Bang Phra in Nakhon Prathom province, about 80 km (50 miles) from Bangkok March 23, 2013. Thousands of believers from across Thailand travel to the monastery to attend the annual tattoo festival to have their bodies adorned with tattoos and to pay their respects to the temple's master tattooist. They believe the tattoos have mystical powers
Devotees wait to be sprayed with holy water during the annual Magic Tattoo Festival at Wat Bang Phra in Nakhon Prathom province, about 80 km (50 miles) from Bangkok March 23, 2013. Thousands of believers from across Thailand travel to the monastery to attend the annual tattoo festival to have their bodies adorned with tattoos and to pay their respects to the temple's master tattooist.
