"In the year Sakalat 185, year of the Horse, the Thai came to tattoo all the inhabitants of the Lao cities." -- Oden Meeker, "The Little World of Laos"
The Lao government doesn't like tattooing. It doesn't like Laos' illegal yet flourishing spirit cults either, but its aversion to the tattooists' art represents more than just a modern campaign against backwardness and superstition. As one-time subjects of the Siamese, all Lao males living in Thai vassal states along the Mekong River used to be tattooed, like Jews in concentration camps, as a form of easy identification. No wonder the practice still rankles.
Thai-Lao relations have never been easy. But grievances over foreign control and intervention came to a violent head in 1826, when the Lao king, Chao Anou, a former advocate of Siamese rule and loyal paymaster of annual tribute in the form of gold flowers and silver, suddenly declared war on Siam. Chao Anou's rebellion was short-lived. After being captured by the Siamese Army, he was dragged to Bangkok, where he was displayed in a cage before a gleeful public, while his people were decimated as a punitive measure.