JoongAng daily published an interesting English article about tattoos on March 16: Fighting for art on a natural canvas.
As you may be aware, getting tattoos in parlors is currently illegal in Korea, where they’re considered a medical procedure that should only be done by doctors. The article outlines the efforts of the Korean Tattoo Association to regulate tattooing in Korea. The association was founded last year, after a revision to medical laws that would make tattoos legal was proposed by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. The revision was scrapped and the tattooist who appealed to the Constitutional Court lost the case, but it inspired Lee Rang, another tattoo artist, to create the KTA.
The article mentions G-Dragon by name, but of course it’s an issue that also affects many other YG artists – the four members of 1TYM, Se7en, Hyun Suk, Eun Joo, Perry, Skull, Kush, Masta Wu and DM all have tattoos. The negative way in which body art is perceived in Korea has forced some of them to hide their tattoos and piercings (ear piercings too, way back in the day!) when they appeared on certain networks.
Another article on JoongAng Daily, posted in 2007, has more information about the issue, along with this striking picture of Lee Rang being arrested for tattooing his friend’s back in public as a form of protest:
source: YGbounce
Credit: bigbangupdates
btw.. heard from someone that G-dragon got his tattoo when he was in a different country so he is not bending the law there~ *nods*
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