The man crouched on the sidewalk had tattoos covering his entire back

Tattoo on back — Man with a large tattoo on his back

On the sidewalks of Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, there is always some kind of contest taking place. It looks a bit like chess, or perhaps Go, though I can’t say I understand the rules. Men squat directly on the ground, using bottle caps or coins as makeshift pieces, their faces taut with concentration as they study the board. The man in the photograph was one of them. To escape the heat, he had stripped off his shirt, and the tattoos across his back immediately caught my eye.

Etched into his skin were three main motifs—a great tree, a grand mansion, and a dragon. It was an oddly allegorical combination. The dragon, throughout Southeast Asia, symbolizes power and courage, and is said to bring wealth and protection. In Myanmar, tattoos have long been more than decoration; they are believed to hold magical or spiritual power, sometimes inscribed with Pali verses like protective spells. The mansion, of course, is an obvious emblem of prosperity, but the tree puzzled me. Did it represent vitality, or family? Perhaps, for this man, the act of “putting down roots” was itself the most urgent wish.

Even so, there was something unfinished about his tattoo. The lines were fine, the shading still shallow. Perhaps he had stopped midway—or perhaps the tattooist had fled. As the man leaned forward between rounds of his mysterious game, I couldn’t help seeing in that half-done inkwork an image of Yangon itself: a city still in progress, still searching for its final form.

Yangon on Google Map

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