Grace Neutral Explores Korea's Illegal Beauty Scene

June 8, 2016 5:02 AM

British body mod artist Grace Neutral heads to South Korea to compare and contrast their mainstream beauty standards with the (still illegal) underground tattoo scene.
posted by divabat (16 comments total)

Tons and tons of plastic surgery? Mandatory! A tattoo of a butterfly on your ankle? Jail! Hang 'em!
posted by 1adam12 at 6:19 AM on June 8, 2016

Tattooing isn't illegal in Korea. It's just that under the law you need to be a doctor to tattoo people, and most artists aren't doctors and find the requirement unreasonable. This is explained in the documentary (though the host keeps calling it "illegal" for dramatic effect I suppose...)
posted by airmail at 7:58 AM on June 8, 2016 [7 favorites]

So it's not illegal to get a tattoo or to have one, just to provide one without meeting the (onerous, unreasonable) licensing requirements? That's less ridiculous. Still ridiculous, but there are levels here.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:58 AM on June 8, 2016

So it's not illegal to get a tattoo or to have one, just to provide one without meeting the (onerous, unreasonable) licensing requirements? That's less ridiculous. Still ridiculous, but there are levels here.

Yeah, it was interesting going over there last year. You'll see someone with ink every now and again, but actual shops are basically nonexistent. I'm semi-heavily tattoo'd and got some interesting sidelong stares... altho not as much as my coworker, who has no ink but is black, heh. (at one point a cabbie tried to rub the black off his arm, which had us both jawdropped and then cracking up to no end)
posted by FatherDagon at 9:27 AM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

I know tattoos in Japan are mostly associated with yakuza, do they have the same connotation in the mainland? I could see the authorities trying to prevent or make much harder for regular people getting ink to ease up identifying people who might (or might not be) mafia.

Not that I agree, but seems plausible.
posted by lmfsilva at 9:35 AM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Tons and tons of plastic surgery? Mandatory!

This is a wildly untrue stereotype. They do have a slightly higher rate than the US (20 procedures per 1000 people vs 13 per 1000 in the US), but the vast majority of South Koreans do not have plastic surgery and its not dramatically different than the US in that regard.

I know tattoos in Japan are mostly associated with yakuza, do they have the same connotation in the mainland?

Yeah, there is a strong association between tattoos and crime in both Korea and Japan (and both often have restrictions, like being refused from spas/onsens/etc).
posted by thefoxgod at 2:25 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

I got my most recent tattoo, maybe 5 years ago now, in SK. We met in a gymnasium early in the morning, arranged the discrete space through a mutual friend.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:57 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

She keeps stressing the connection between Korean beauty standards and K-pop, but I feel like those standards predate K-pop and are so intertwined (although K-pop undoubtedly perpetuates them).

That said, from my time in Japan and assuming cultural associations of tattoos are similar, the video captures the view shift of the generations pretty well. Seniors are basically scared of tattooed people. Middle-aged people understand the changing tide, but still think tattoos are too much trouble. And younger people have no problem with tats for the most part. I live in a pretty rural area of Japan but still see tattoos on under-30 folks fairly often.

Also my sister-in-law has a small salon for hair, nails, and make-up, usually more ornate styles for events or formal occasions, and one of her services is tattoo cover-up via make-up (i.e. for sleeveless or backless gowns). Many youngsters still want to cover up the tattoos for occasions around the older generations.
posted by p3t3 at 4:48 PM on June 8, 2016

They do have a slightly higher rate than the US (20 procedures per 1000 people vs 13 per 1000 in the US)

To add to this, this number is likely skewed upwards too by how popular S. Korea is for plastic surgery tourism (about a third of the business is foreigners - previously).
posted by airmail at 5:42 PM on June 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Even here in LA (which has a huge Korean population) some Korean spas will refuse you for tattoos sometimes.

In Japan I spend most of my time in Yamanashi where I rarely see tattoos, and my wife and her friends (mid-30's) definitely still think of tattoos as a Yankii/criminal thing. Tokyo seems different of course. So I guess to me Japan still seems very anti-tattoo but it probably varies a lot and I don't personally know many under-30's.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:49 PM on June 8, 2016

1adam12: "Tons and tons of plastic surgery? Mandatory! A tattoo of a butterfly on your ankle? Jail! Hang 'em!"

Given the above figure of 20 cosmetic surgery procedures per 1000 people in S. Korea, and the stunning number of tattooes I see every time I travel to the U.S., I have to wonder which is more mandatory, tattooing in the U.S. or cosmetic surgery in S.K.
posted by Bugbread at 7:02 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

As far as getting tattoos in Korea, while there aren't very many shops in the traditional sense (a place with a sign on the street you just walk into) there are plenty of artists. You kind of have to find them by word of mouth/internet, though, and in the case of both artists I met, I was directed to a nearby landmark and then picked up by them for my first visit.
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 8:51 PM on June 8, 2016

The "tattoo artists need to be doctors" approach to soft-banning tattoos that airmail mentioned happens in Japan too, by the way.
posted by thefoxgod at 8:58 PM on June 8, 2016

What I found most interesting was that Grace has internalized an opposite double standard than Korean society--she seemed legitimately horrified at the idea of plastic surgery for 18-year-olds, but got her first tattoos at 14 and sees them as just expressing who you are. Add to that the facial scarification, ear mods, and permanent(?) scleral tattoo, which I will admit I found unsettling.

Maybe there is some truth to her version, if plastic surgery really is a reaction to beauty standards and societal pressure that's not motivated by what the individual would truly want in a vacuum. If someone gets a visible tattoo in Korea it's not because they will to have an easier time walking around in public, but Grace's own framing of tattoos as rebellion would mean they're still a reaction to societal pressure.

I did like the scenes where the heavily tattooed woman reveals them to her parents, and the second last scene where a different family is in a tattoo parlor together. And getting to see the breathtaking body art throughout.
posted by j.r at 10:35 PM on June 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I think the "what people would do in a vacuum" line of thought breaks down under sufficient pursuit. If you're getting plastic surgery because that's what you need to get a job, or a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, or whatever, then that's one issue. But it's a separate issue entirely if you're doing it just because you want to look a certain way, a way that you believe is beautiful or otherwise aesthetically pleasing. If that's your motivation, then there isn't a huge difference between "I have been molded by society to believe eye shape X is beautiful, and I do believe eye shape X is beautiful, so I want plastic surgery to make my body the way I like" and "Society has tried to mold me to believe eye shape X is beautiful, but I believe eye shape Y is beautiful instead, so I want plastic surgery to make my body the way I like."

When I read this giffed quote, I just think, "well, yes, that's what people getting really ordinary plastic surgery are trying to do." And for the quote underneath it, I think she would be absolutely shocked to see how many people in a world like that would look just like they do now. If I walked out the door tomorrow looking just like I wanted (assuming she isn't including "having more hair on my head" or "looking like Chris Evans"), I'd look pretty much the same as I do now, except I might be wearing raver pants again. I wouldn't have body mods or tattoos, because I don't like 'em. Nothing against people who have them, but I'm not unmodded and uninked because I'm scared of societal disapproval, but because I don't like 'em. I suspect there are rather a lot of folks like me out in the world.
posted by Bugbread at 12:45 AM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

While we were in Seoul on business a couple years ago, my boss was denied entry to the pool at either the Grand Hyatt or Millennium Hilton for a simple shoulder tattoo. Not a little mom and pop place but a giant international hotel. Now I live here and see that tattoo shops are quietly tolerated around US military bases even though Americans in uniform aren't supposed to get tattoos here for health reasons (there's basically no regulation because all the shops are "back alley" and no one's checking them for hygiene, etc). Apparently ink will find a way...
posted by the christopher hundreds at 4:55 AM on June 9, 2016