Jolie is fascination with tigers and the Siamese “Tiger King” - Phra Chao Sri Sanpetch V111, the 29th King of Ayutthaya.

The Tiger King - otherwise known as Phra Buddha Chao Sua – became famous for his skills as a Muaythai fighter. And during the reign of the Tiger King, Muaythai had its golden age.

Jolie had two of her tattoos needled in Thailand. She believes that her newly acquired tiger tattoo drawn onto her lower back keeps her safe.

Jolie’s megastar status makes it difficult for her to be a normal spectator at major events – sporting or entertainment. And that’s one of the reasons why she can identify with Thailand’s famous Tiger King who traveled in disguise, from village to village, to fight the best in muaythai. He reportedly won every time.

A lot of Jolie moves in her action scenes are similar to the muaythai style that goes back more than two thousand years when a manual of warfare known as the “Chupasart” was written.

The manual showed how to fight with knives, swords, spears, battleaxes, pikes and crossbows. More importantly though, the manual shows how to use all the physical weapons. The shinbone became the staff of the pike to block and strike. The arms became the raised twin swords of defense.

The fist the jabbing tip of the spear. The elbow, the battle axe to cut through; the knee to break open the defenses. While the flashing foot, a pike, arrow and knife.

But it’s not just the body weapons that captured Jolie’s interest in the Thai fighting art. She says she is lured by the philosophy of Buddhism, the teachings of transformations of life energy and the impermanency of everything.

The daughter of actress Mirchjeline Bertrand and Oscar award winning actor Jon Voight, Jolie declares “there is something about death that is comforting. The thought you could die tomorrow frees you up to appreciate your life now.”

Jolie relates to the muaythai combatants who wear sacred amulets into the ring for protection. Her body wears several tattoos which include a box design on her hip, a Chinese dragon on her left arm, a Celtic rune on her left wrist, two tribal inscriptions on each of her buttocks, the Japanese symbol of death on her left shoulder and the Latin words on her stomach which translates to “what nourishes me also destroys me.”

Her latest and proudest body marking is, however, that of a Siamese Tiger. As well as the sign of the great Tiger King the tattoo is designed to open the gateway of protection to enable life’s energies to flow freely.