The house
An old house, rebuilt by hand.
Tom saw the house, saw what it could become, and asked.
Why here
The only house like it on the strip.
Loi Kroh Road is concrete and shopfronts. Then there is a two-storey timber house set back behind a gravel courtyard, with a carved balcony and a steep gabled roof — Lanna, northern Thai, and as far as Tom knows the last one left on that stretch.
Tom came to Chiang Mai after more than a decade working in Phuket. He saw the house and saw a tattoo studio in it, and the owner agreed to let it to him.
He restored it with a team of workers, and did roughly forty percent of the physical work himself. Timber sanded and lacquered until the floor throws the lamps back at you. Black steel. Two private rooms behind heavy curtains. Brass frames on the walls.
That is 9 House, and it looks the way he wanted it to look.
It started with the street number — and Tom has a second reason to call nine lucky.
While he was building the studio, the payment for the space came due before he had the money for it. A longtime client sent him money that same day, and the work carried on. He says that without that customer there would probably be no 9 House Tattoo.
Inside
Downstairs
You arrive through the courtyard.
Underneath the house there is a bar, a pool table, tables in the gravel and string lights overhead. It belongs to our neighbours, not to us — we don't run it and we don't sell it.
But it is how you find us. Walk in past the tables, take the black staircase on the right, and the studio is at the top.
Clean and safe
What we actually do.
Come up and look at the station before you decide.
- Mostly single-use materials, and a steriliser in the studio.
- The station is wrapped in film before every session to prevent cross-contamination.
- Gloves come off and go in the bin before anyone touches anything else.
- The bed is covered with a single-use sanitary cover for every client.