{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "khem-sak",
 "type": "tool",
 "names": {
  "name": "Khem sak",
  "th": "เข็มสัก",
  "rtgs": "khem sak",
  "said": "The tattooing needle: a long shaft, a fine point, two hands"
 },
 "region": [
  "mainland-southeast-asia"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "family": "poke"
 },
 "instrument": {
  "material": [
   "steel",
   "brass",
   "bamboo"
  ],
  "length_cm": 50,
  "length_note": "long enough to be steadied against the off hand",
  "points": "a single fine point, or a small cluster",
  "worked": "pushed",
  "hands": 2,
  "held_by": "one hand drives, the other guides the shaft and stretches the skin"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "The sak yant needle: a long steel or brass shaft, pushed with one hand and steered with the other.",
  "story": "The grip is the same one Shway Yoe drew in Burma and the same one a visitor photographs in Chiang Mai today — the driving hand, the guiding fork of finger and thumb, the skin pulled tight by an assistant or by the bearer's own posture. A single design takes a sitting.\n\nThe modern working needle is steel, single-use, and that is the part of the practice that has changed most in fifty years."
 },
 "text_th": {
  "what": "เข็มสักยันต์ ก้านเหล็กหรือทองเหลืองยาว มือหนึ่งแทง อีกมือประคอง",
  "story": "ท่าจับเป็นท่าเดียวกับที่เชวโยบรรยายไว้ในพม่า และเป็นท่าเดียวกับที่นักเดินทางถ่ายรูปได้ในเชียงใหม่วันนี้ มือขับเคลื่อน นิ้วชี้กับนิ้วโป้งของอีกมือเป็นแท่นรอง และผิวถูกดึงตึงไว้ ลายหนึ่งลายใช้เวลาหนึ่งครั้ง"
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "sak-yant",
   "as": "What it makes.",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "lek-char",
   "as": "Its older name in the north.",
   "rel": "tool"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-yantra-tattooing",
  "s:sycm",
  "s:shway-yoe"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-yantra-tattooing"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text_th": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "medium",
 "tags": [
  "lanna"
 ],
 "updated": "2026-09-19",
 "images": [
  {
   "file": "khem-sak/khem-sak-needles-wat-bang-phra.jpg",
   "source": "commons",
   "title": "File:Needles Wat Bang Phra.JPG",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Needles_Wat_Bang_Phra.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "page_url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANeedles_Wat_Bang_Phra.JPG",
   "license": "Public domain",
   "license_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain",
   "author": "User:Phydoughx",
   "credit": "Own work by the original uploader",
   "alt": "Tattpoing at Wat Bang Phra temple",
   "date": "2006-09",
   "primary": true,
   "sha256": "699fb35cf92a1597ec342132fa3562446a274e3ae8b6c0d0a1f2842b74e3520b"
  }
 ],
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "sak-yant",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Sak yant",
   "as": "The needle itself."
  },
  {
   "from": "lek-char",
   "type": "tool",
   "name": "Lek char",
   "as": "The same tool under the name the tattooers use."
  }
 ]
}