Francesco Parrino

Staff reporter

In North America tattooing is increasingly becoming more common, and according to the article of Compare camp written by Arthur Zuckerman the 46% of US citizens have at least one tattoo on their body. Over time in fact the conceptions of them have changed and with it also the laws that regulate tattooing, and now (5 May,2022) in Canada the legal age to get a tattoo without the formal consent of the parents is 16 years old. 

But if the prejudices about tattoos in North America are now outdated, they still exist in many countries because of the rules imposed by h religion or because are still a sign that distinguishes gang members. An example are Asian countries such as Japan, where tattoos are still associated with the powerful mafia gang Yakuza, or in South Korea  which has remained the only developed country in which they are still illegal, and despite are among the most advanced countries of the world in many fields, their society based mainly on work and the image of model citizens has led to place mental limits on some way to appear such as piercings or tattoos. 

In South Korea, however, it is not illegal to wear tattoos, but it is illegal to do them if you do not have a medical degree, and according to the CBC article written by Thomas Reuters failing to comply this law can lead to being fined up to 51,700 US dollars, and usually up to 2 years of imprisonment.

This absurd law has led many tattoo artists to create illegal businesses in which they find themselves forced to work in hidden studios and without the possibility to promote their art except through social media. And some of these despite the restrictions have become famous over time and an example is Do Yoon Kim (aka Doy),  a South Korean tattoo artist who according to Woongbee Lee’s article published by BBC, has also tattooed celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Lily Collins and Steven Yeun, and who expressed his discomfort at being considered a criminal in his own country in the same article, declaring: “When I am overseas, working with celebrities such as Brad Pitt,  people call me artist”.

This law that was intended to identify the realization of a tattoo as a medical activity, and to reduce the demand seems not to be working since the request is constantly increasing and people are more inclined to cover their body with tattoos, making this practice more and more popular and gaining approval for the battle of artists to be recognized as real professionals, deliberating the realization of them.

Sources:

BBC, by Woongbee Lee: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59662783

Vice, by junhyup Kwon: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjb5dd/why-does-south-korea-ban-tattooing

Insider, by Waiyee Yip: https://www.insider.com/south-korean-tattoo-artists-working-illegally-for-art-2022-3

CBC, by Thomson Reuters: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/south-korea-court-tattoo-ruling-1.6403665