About BKK INK

BKK INK is a tattoo studio right at the end of Khaosan Road, in the Banglamphu quarter of Phra Nakhon, running since 2009. Co-founded by Ball BKK, it is built around twelve specialist artists, each devoted to a narrow set of styles rather than working as generalists.

Across more than 40,000 tattoos since 2009, the through-line has stayed the same: send every client to the specialist whose craft fits the piece, not to whoever is free.

Ball BKK is a co-founder and co-owner, a self-taught artist and a specialist in both neo-traditional and realism, who spent three years drawing before he was allowed to touch a machine. At 24 he took a 1st prize at the Mondial du Tatouage in Paris with a neo-traditional back piece, making us the only Thai studio to win there. Read Ball’s full profile →

We price by time, with a maximum agreed before we start: 1,000 THB in materials per session plus 3,000 THB per hour. Piece-based pricing overcharges small work and undercharges big multi-session pieces; pricing by the hour is fairer to everyone, and agreeing a ceiling upfront removes the open-ended bill visitors dread. Read why we switched to time-based pricing.

When we applied for an operating licence in 2009, the authorities told us no such licence existed for tattoo studios: the trade was registered under other activities. It took several weeks of discussion before one was issued. As far as we know, it was the first ever granted to a tattoo studio in Thailand. In the months that followed, tattooists from other provinces began calling to ask how we had done it. The team is helping create the country’s first tattoo artists’ union. A profession in a legal grey zone cannot protect its clients or its artists, which is also why every station is cleaned to the same sterile, single-use standard.

Every artist has one specialty where they excel, plus a few close styles that call on the same skills, instead of claiming to do everything. A generalist competent at ten styles is rarely exceptional at any one, and a tattoo is permanent. Matching the client to the right hand is the most important decision we make before any ink is mixed. Meet the 12 specialists →

That is also how the studio is built. BKK INK grew one artist at a time since 2009, around the people who tattoo here rather than around a brand, and each of them keeps their own name, their own portfolio and their own regulars. When you book, you know whose hands you are in, and you can see their healed work before you decide.

With 57 international convention awards from conventions across Europe and Asia, and the only Mondial du Tatouage 1st prize ever won by a Thai studio, BKK INK is arguably Thailand’s most awarded tattoo studio.

Recent wins include Best of the Show at the Artistic Ink Festival two years running, 2025 and 2026, two 1st prizes at the Singapore Ink Show, and Best of the Day at the Vietnam Ink Festival 2024. The full shelf sits in the lounge. Tattoo magazines in France, the UK and Scandinavia, a Hachette book on the Mondial du Tatouage and Thai television have also featured the studio: see our press and TV page.

Most studios in a tourist district live on walk-in travellers alone. We serve visitors from every continent, yet what really sets the studio apart is the other half of the chair: Thai locals who can compare every studio in their own city and still come back piece after piece.

That local trust extends to famous skin. We have tattooed world champions including Tawanchai, Jonathan Haggerty and Singdam, sponsored ONE Championship fighters, and are woven into Bangkok’s creative scene with YOUNGOHM, Preduce, 4Bang and beyond.

The Mondial du Tatouage in Paris, where Ball BKK won 1st prize in 2014, is still one of the most prestigious conventions in the world.