Bangkok bartenders celebrate their body art with Giffard’s Spirit of Art

This article is sponsored by Giffard.

The French liqueur brand is putting the Thai industry’s tattoos under the spotlight.

Bartenders and body art. This meeting of creative energy was first celebrated by Giffard back in 2015, when it commissioned a book titled UK Tattooed, in which inked-up British bartenders showed off their twin loves of mixing drinks and living art. Soon after, Giffard did the same for Singapore and then last year turned the camera on Hong Kong (see our Facebook photo album here).

Now Giffard has shifted its gaze to Bangkok. Shot by Thai photographer and Patcharaporn Komolpis and videographer Soracha Anghin, the Giffard Spirit of Art Bangkok edition has been truly inspired by the diversity of the artistic culture that can be found within the city’s vibrant bar scene. And today, on Giffard’s own Facebook, is the last day telling each of the 11 bartenders’ stories through portraits and video.

At DRiNK we’ve created an abbreviated version of each of the interviews you can watch on video, to accompany our selection of their portraits. Click through the slideshow to see… from homemade tattoos to major pieces, encompassing samurai, ha taew and apparently quite a few cats (lions and domesticated!), the range of creativity is as broad and diverse as the bartending community itself.

If you are in Bangkok you also have the chance to taste each of the bars’ Spirit of Art menus, until Saturday, the 23rd December. At the next Bar Awards in Bangkok (February 21 to 25), Giffard will host a Spirit of Art event to celebrate the bartenders and their skin art.

Giffard’s lenses turn to Kuala Lumpur next. Stay tuned for the launch of the city’s own Spirit of Art campaign in February.

Giffard is distributed in Thailand by Brand Connect Thailand. For more from Giffard, check them out on Facebook and Instagram.

“I’m German – or I’m Thai, Japanese and German. But I was born in Germany. I wanted to have tattoos since I was a kid, and then at last my mum let me do it. She asked me what I wanted to get, and I wanted to do many cool things, but she told me that it’s better to get a tattoo that means something to you, especially since you’ll have it forever. So I decided to do an eagle, which is an emblem of empire in Germany. For me, having tattoos is a way of telling who you are – the same as making drinks. You want to show what style of drink and garnish you like.”

“My tattoo is a woman’s face, a butterfly and flowers. The flowers and the butterflies are for the night and the woman is me, because I’ve been working at night for about three years now. I have two ideas for what to get next: one is to have more tattoos on the same arm, and the other is maybe getting one on my leg. I’ll probably do something cuter, because this one feels more strong and powerful.”

“For me bartending and tattoos are very similar. You have to really think what you want to get them right. My tattoos are dragons, monsters and samurais. I like these styles because I find them very beautiful and expressive about power. They give me power and strength when I’m working. The style is very classic and old-school. I also have “Too fast to live. Too young to die”, which for me means you have to enjoy life before you die. If you like bartending, you will be a bartender. If you like tattoos, then you will get a tattoo. So just do what you like and what makes you happy, because life is short.”

“My first tattoo was this one with arrows. I just found it very beautiful – but there’s not so much meaning behind it. The other one is a compass that shattered. The meaning for me is about freedom – I also have one written ‘My life, my choice’. For my next one, I think I might get a tattoo of a shaker or a cocktail glass – something with bar equipment in it.”

“I did my first tattoo when I was 16. Ever since my tattoos have come from places all around the world, wherever I am. They all have significance in one way or another. One of my favourites is one I did in Harajuku, in Tokyo. If I get more it will probably be more cats. I think chefs were doing tattoos before bartenders. And I think bartenders are following closely behind chefs – we have started to embrace refining the experience, the guest experience, and using the best ingredients, and making the best possible products. You know, when I was service staff, we were not allowed to have any tattoos. But we are not only service staff; we are also creative people.”

“My first tattoo was an oil tattoo and the second was a ha taew sak yant tattoo – ha taew means five rows. I have more on my back. One has big brush strokes, like when you are doing a painting. I also have colour splashes on my back. Most don’t have so much meaning, although I do have my parents name tattooed. And my cat, Sophia, too. The rest is more just what I like – I got the inspiration of my owl tattoo from a stick-on tattoo. I put it on and liked it so I tattooed it for real! I also have a lion on my back. That’s for my surname, which means lion. Tattoos and cocktails do say something about what kind of style you have. If you have a look at someone’s tattoo, you can almost guess what kind of drink that person would like.”

“Bartending to me is not just about staying behind the bar. It’s about connection, contact, creation and management. If you are a bartender, or a drinker, you will probably recognize my tattoo. It’s from a spirit brand, whose symbol is a stag with a crucifix. The stag is a signature of leadership – and this spirit brand was the first spirit I could drink!”

“When you serve cocktails, you need to explain the concept or story behind the cocktail – where the inspiration is from and why you did it like that. It’s the same for tattoos. It’s storytelling for guests. Before I started as a bartender, I used to like art very much. In my free time I used to go to art museums and exhibitions. Many of my friends are photographers, and my parents are very hippy, and we had a lot of art at our home. So I wanted to get a tattoo and saw ‘The Creation of Adam’ by Michelangelo, which I really liked. My moon was drawn by a friend who is a tattoo artist, but it was made after we drank a lot of Martinis at a friend’s bar. The bartender there [Carson from Iron Balls] had his own tattoo machine, so my friend got down to work.

The roman numerals are the date when I started bartending. Hopefully next month I’ll get two new tattoos: one on my neck, a red coloured Chinese word, and the other one somewhere I can hide it. It will be a beautiful girl seducing a devil. The devil is wearing a priest’s uniform to pretend that he’s good, but actually he’s bad inside. The girl will be holding a knife behind her back, which she’ll kill him with. So it’s like irony.”

“I got the hawk on my arm when I was around 19. It means I like birds and freedom. You keep tattoos like a memory from different occasions during your life. If you find something good that you like, you’ll keep it as a memory and ink it on your body. If you find something that you don’t like, and you know that you shouldn’t do it again, you can ink that on your body too.”

“I have five tattoos. The first one I made here in Thailand. It’s a Ganesha. Then I stopped for a while – almost eight years. Then I did a pineapple, then Captain Haddock, an anchor and my last tattoo was a Jordan Ninja Turtle. The pineapple represents hospitality, and I’m in the business of hospitality, so it seems natural to have a pineapple. I like the look of pineapples as well. I also want to do my personal hashtag: #Everydayisapinacoladaday. And also I plan to do a panda with a Hawaiian shirt drinking a tiki drink. Apparently my spirit animal is a panda. I think the schooling between tattoo artists and bartending is very similar: you learn from a mentor. You start as an apprentice and then you climb the steps, almost the same way.”

“I only have these tattoos on my arm. Otherwise I have small tattoos here and there from when I was in school – me and my friend did homemade tattoos. At the beginning I only had this one star. It’s an old-school version of a spirit brand. I was at that brand’s event and they had a tattoo booth, but I like listening to metal and this kind of star is also a signature for metal. After that I did six more stars, to make a group of seven stars, called the Big Dipper. When travellers are lost in the woods, they look for the Big Dipper. When you find the Big Dipper, you can then find the Pole star, and then you will no longer be lost. So the meaning of it is that you will never be lost in your life. Sometimes I see bartenders with tattoos and I think it’s charming. The story of your tattoo may not have any connection with your career, but it’s a part of your life. This is why you keep it for yourself, to remind you about different parts of your life. I think my next tattoo will be a compass and something to remember our King Rama 9.”