China Dolls’ Suphatchaya “Bell” Lattisophonkul urges says that thought should be put into tattoos, to make them artful.

Yes, Pattaya, infamous for flesh, has designs on your body this weekend

Body parts will be flexing at the second World Tattoo Arts Festival and Exhibition, at Pattaya's Bali High Beach from Friday to Sunday, and most of the fleshy bits will be farang.

Apparently more foreigners than Thais will be flocking to our skin-art show because they love getting scenes from the Ramayana inked onto their torsos.

"They see characters like Hanuman and Tosakan in khon presentations," says co-organiser Rungwipa Sae-Ong, referring to the traditional masked dance. This year's festival will have a khon performance of its own.

Tattoos are, of course, even more fashionable today than they were during their last boom, among soldiers in World War II, and Rungwipa thinks most young Westerners now have a design somewhere on their bodies.

Tattoo your brain

But singer Suphatchaya "Bell" Lattisophonkul - who's half of the China Dolls - says the festival isn't about prodding even more people to get tatted. She sees it as a way of telling tempted teenagers that they have to put some thought into getting a tattoo - specifically the artistic aspect of it and the permanence factor - rather than just going on impulse.

Last year's festival drew 7,000 people, and that number should jump this weekend, with 70 booths hawking all kinds of designs. There are separate zones for Thailand, Japan, the rest of Asia, Europe and North America, and more than 100 of the world's best-known skin artists.

The organisers expect the event to pump about Bt400 million into the local tattoo trade.

XTRA

Slow down there, kid

>> You have to be 20 to get tattooed at the festival.

>> Make sure you're well rested and eat something first, and don't take any painkillers, which can screw up your blood's clotting ability and make a real mess.

>> Bell strongly advises against getting a tattoo where people can see it all the time, like on your nose - or even your neck. Put it someplace that your clothes can cover when you're at a job interview or standing in front of the judge.

>> To attend a free tattoo seminar at Pattaya send an e-mail to joywongtattoo@gmail.com