Tattoo artists near end of fight for legitimacy in Korea

An American tattoo artist in Seoul, identified by her alias Sun Child, has never felt at ease greeting her clients. Instead, she always has to be on high alert as if she were a covert operative.

A person gets a tattoo done by a tattoo artist in downtown Seoul on Aug. 27. [YONHAP]

An American tattoo artist in Seoul, identified by her alias Sun Child, has never felt at ease greeting her clients. Instead, she practices her art on high alert, as if she were a covert operative.

Sun Child never lets her customers visit her studio near the Hongdae neighborhood in western Seoul on their own. She waits in open public spaces like subway stations to escort them to her parlor. And she remains observant along the way to avoid being caught by law enforcement.

Korea has produced world-renowned tattoo artists, some of whom have inked Hollywood actors like Brad Pitt and Lily Collins and K-pop idols like BTS's Jungkook. However, tattooing by nonmedical personnel remains illegal.

Under the Public Health Control Act, tattooing is classified as a medical act, which is permitted only for doctors, dentists, nurses and practitioners of traditional Korean medicine.

"I always arrive at the place [arranged to meet clients] early so I can see them coming," Sun Child told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Friday. "If something seems strange, or police officers are around, I am not going to meet them. I would go away."

Despite being a certified artist with tattoo licenses from the U.S. states of Georgia and California, Sun Child keeps a low profile in Seoul because she is not a medically licensed artist here.

However, that may soon change because of a possible revision to the law for the first time in 33 years. The National Assembly is about to legislate a bill that formally certifies tattooists. The so-called Tattooist Act intends to issue a license to those who pass the state-run qualification exam or equivalent yearly tests run by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Out of the system, out of protection

Sun Child gives a tattoo to her client in the United States in April last year. [SUN CHILD]

Under the current law, tattoo-seeking clients weren't directed to doctors. Instead, it has driven the industry underground, leaving it largely unregulated — from the supply chain to the safety of clients and artists.

Snook, another tattoo artist based in the Itaewon area in central Seoul with nine years of experience, said that the absence of oversight and legal guidelines created safety loopholes, which might jeopardize public health.

He said the current system allows random people to purchase supplies — from ink to needles and machines — through unlicensed vendors and perform tattoos on themselves without any proper training.

"Recently, tattoo supplies can be easily bought from online marketplaces and platforms like Coupang and Naver Shopping," Snook said. "I heard of a case in which an unskilled high schooler bought tattoo materials and gave tattoos to other middle schoolers."

Sun Child also noted, "If a tattooist doesn't know the suppliers, they may end up with old supplies or the ones that labels were just changed."

With no legally binding safety and sanitation rules, a labor rights group representing tattoo artists — Tattoo Union Korea — developed its own guidelines, which Sun Child described as similar to a rule from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"If you are a part of the union, you follow the guidance," Sun Child said. However, she noted that not all tattoo artists in the country are union members.

Tattoo needles and ink available for online purchase from Coupang [SCREEN CAPTURE]

From the perspective of tattooists, they feel unprotected and exposed to the risk of becoming criminals at any time while performing their profession.

Kim Nam-ryeong, who began her tattoo career in 2023, said she tends to conceal her personal details and the address of her studio. "Some of my acquaintances in the industry were caught by undercover police officers," Kim said. "So, I behave cautiously."

Snook also recalled his own experience when he had to run away from his studio and hide at a nearby McDonald's for two hours after a client refused to pay and later called the police to report his tattooing activity in 2019.

"A bit luckily, police failed to locate me," Snook said. "But at the time, I was upset that I had to face this [referring to a situation of being a subject of a police report and search] because my profession is outside the legally acknowledged sphere."

Tattooist bill, shedding illegality

A group of tattoo artists stage a protest calling for legislation of a bill that acknowledges tattooist as a legitimate occupation in front of the National Assembly in western Seoul on Aug. 27. [YONHAP]

The size of the nonmedical tattooist workforce — more than 300,000 artists — seemingly proves the public demand for their services.

A Health Ministry survey conducted in August 2023 showed that only 1.4 percent of 500 respondents who received tattoos had their body art done by doctors. This means that more than 98 percent received tattoos from artists without medical licenses.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that tattooing constitutes a medical procedure, which made tattooing by nonmedical practitioners punishable under the Medical Service Act. The Constitutional Court concluded that the 1992 verdict was constitutional in a petition filed by the Tattoo Union Korea in 2022.

Critics have argued that the judicial rulings have been blamed for being remote from reality, which ultimately prompted the legislature to take actions to officially recognize nonmedical artists.

A tattoo artist draws a caricature of liberal Democratic Party Rep. Park Ju-min, who introduced the so-called tattooist bill, at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Aug. 27. [NEWS1]

The proposed bill — the Tattooist Act — only allows license holders to practice tattooing and restricts their activity to their registered business places. Those who breach the regulation are likely to face up to a year of imprisonment or a fine of up to 10 million won ($7,177).

The bill also requires tattooists to receive sanitation education each year and limits each needle to a single use. Hygiene-related violations will result in a fine of 10 million won or less.

The parliamentary Health and Welfare Committee reviewed and passed the bill last Wednesday. For legislation, the bill needs to be approved by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and passed at a plenary session.

Legalization of tattooing by nonmedical artists would allow them to report their income more transparently, as their jobs would be officially recognized by state authorities. It is also expected to help tattoo artists access loans and finance their businesses more easily because their source of income can be substantiated.

Still a long way to go

A person receives a tattoo in a studio in Seoul in 2021. [YONHAP]

Yet, tattooists believe that the bill itself can be incomplete in terms of education and improving social awareness.

While the proposed tattooist bill centers on a licensing system, it barely mentions technical training and education in its text.

In Korea, hagwon, also known as cram schools, and academies typically train more than a dozen aspiring tattooists in a single class. Some of them advertised on their websites that their students could master extensive genres of tattoo styles through their two- to six-month courses.

Sun Child pointed out that the training period in hagwon is shorter than overseas, where an apprenticeship typically lasts over a year. She said she did a lot of cover-ups on poorly healed tattoos — often done by fresh graduates of tattoo hagwon.

"Some artists come out of hagwon and present themselves as fully experienced tattoo artists on Instagram," Sun Child said. "The system pushes them into the world too hastily, without long-term support. It's not good for clients, and it is a disservice to tattoo artists."

The three tattoo artists who spoke with the paper said they feel societal perception toward body art has changed. Nevertheless, they called for a more open-minded approach.

A tattoo exhibition is held in Gwangjin District in eastern Seoul on Aug. 31. [YONHAP]

According to a 2023 poll by Hankook Research, 66 percent of 1,000 respondents said that people with tattoos are seen as delinquents. The survey results seem to suggest that social stigma surrounding tattoos lingers in Korean society. A total of 72 percent of those over 60 expressed a negative perception, while 58 percent did so in the age group between 18 and 29.

Kim said she received words of encouragement from passersby while staging a one-person rally in front of the Yongsan presidential office about five times last month.

"During the protest, a police officer came up to me and consulted about their children's career prospects as tattooists," Kim said. "I want there to be a social consensus that views tattooing as an art."

Snook, the tattooist who claimed that his mother once threatened him with a knife to get him to give up his career, said the legislation of the tattooist bill will be "a symbol of embracing greater cultural diversity in Korea."

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]