{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "hnitkwasok",
 "type": "tool",
 "names": {
  "name": "Hnitkwasok",
  "my": "နှစ်ခွဆောက်",
  "local": "hnitkwasok",
  "local_lang": "Burmese",
  "said": "The two-pronged pricker: two feet long, weighted with a brass figure"
 },
 "region": [
  "mainland-southeast-asia"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "family": "poke"
 },
 "instrument": {
  "material": [
   "brass",
   "iron"
  ],
  "length_cm": 61,
  "length_note": "about two feet, in Shway Yoe's account",
  "points": "a solid round point about four inches long, split into four by long slits at right angles, which hold the colour",
  "worked": "pushed",
  "hands": 2,
  "held_by": "right hand on the shaft; the left forefinger and thumb form a rest on the body"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A brass rod about two feet long, weighted at the top with a cast figure, with a split four-way point at the other end.",
  "story": "Shway Yoe describes it part by part in 1882 and the design is a solved problem. The *yat*, the style, is solid with a round sharp point, split into four by long slits at right angles — the slits hold the pigment, so the tool carries its own ink. The style is about four inches and fits into a hollow pipe, which joins it to the weighted end. **The weight is at the top and the length is hollow**, so the tool has mass where mass helps and none where it would tire the hand.\n\nThe weight is cast as a bird, a *nat* or a *bilu*, and a good *saya*'s is carved elaborately. The tattooist catches the shaft in his right hand and rests the point in a fork made by the left forefinger and thumb, the left hand flat on the body — the hand becomes the guide rail.",
  "how": "Ink is lampblack from burnt sesame oil, mixed with water as it is wanted. The outline goes on first with a camel-hair brush."
 },
 "text_th": {
  "what": "เหล็กทองเหลืองยาวราวสองฟุต ถ่วงน้ำหนักด้วยรูปหล่อที่ปลายบน และมีปลายแหลมผ่าสี่แฉกอีกด้าน",
  "story": "เชวโยบรรยายไว้ทีละชิ้นในปี 1882 ปลายเหล็กตันปลายกลมแหลม ผ่าเป็นสี่ด้วยร่องยาวตั้งฉากกัน ร่องนั้นอุ้มสีไว้ เครื่องมือจึงพาหมึกไปเอง ส่วนปลายยาวราวสี่นิ้วเสียบอยู่ในท่อกลวงที่ต่อไปยังปลายถ่วงน้ำหนัก น้ำหนักอยู่ด้านบน ลำตัวกลวง"
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "htoe-kwin",
   "as": "What it makes.",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "lek-char",
   "as": "The same idea, one border east, and lighter.",
   "rel": "tool"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:shway-yoe",
  "s:wp-tattooing-in-myanmar"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:shway-yoe"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text_th": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "high",
 "tags": [
  "lanna",
  "start-here"
 ],
 "updated": "2026-09-19",
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "htoe-kwin",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Htoe kwin",
   "as": "The two-foot brass pricker that made it."
  }
 ]
}