Despite Korea’s conservative mindset, a niche trend of cosmetic tattoos prevails in the country. From a high school girl to a middle-aged man, individuals stain their eyebrows, tint their lips, and draw hairlines to enhance their appearance. However, even with such a boom, 91% of tattoos in Korea remain illegal.
Beauty shop worker Kim, who asked to remain anonymous due to the illicit nature of her work, said, “Tattooing isn’t really legal in Korea. But I think we really work hard to make the environment clean for the procedure and the tattooist usually gets a license too, so I think nothing is really wrong with it.”
For the past 30 years, Koreans labeled body art as “shady” because of its close connection with gangsters– until the early 2000s, tats warned commoners of hoodlums. As a result, the public collectively associated marks on skins with criminals. Celebrities are required to cover their tattoos on screen and civilians with body art struggle with employment.
Beauty tattoos, on the other hand, evade stereotypes. Even the older generation frequently utilizes inking procedures that allow permanent/semi-permanent eyebrows, lips, moles, eyeliner, hairlines, and aegyo-sal.
The trend of cosmetic ink permeates the whole country, from celebrities to the average person you meet on the street. Kim said, “I think the general public is pretty forgiving when it comes to beauty tattoos being illegal. Makeup tattoos are just a simple touch on what’s already there, but for body tattoos though, since it is like creating a whole new work of art, people are more against it.”
Although these procedures also break the law, they remain widely accessible to the public. Kim explains, “Make-up tattoos are done in various nail shops and clinics because they are all beauty-related. To just focus on one type of procedure like nail extension, there is a limit. It is way more advantageous to learn beyond one practice because you have to be appealing to the customer. It is a merit for a shop to say we do nail extensions, lashes, and permanent brows, rather than saying we do lashes and that’s all.”
Known to be the empire of plastic surgery, Korea takes number one in the world when it comes to the proportion of citizens who have undergone a cosmetic procedure. For every 1000 people in the country, around 8.9 of them experienced plastic surgery. Long vacations, such as winter and summer breaks, get referred to as the plastic season as high school, middle school, and university students get their faces done during this time.
Now, beauty tattoos have risen as an alternative to plastic surgery with the benefits of a more natural look. They also receive less criticism as well. Nothing seems more practical than an easy tattoo touch-up.
Kim says, “I don’t think beauty tattoos can replace the plastic surgery industry completely, but they will help people feel great satisfaction with lower prices compared to surgeries. I feel a distinct difference between the two though. Beauty tattoos are more like permanent makeup, whereas surgery changes your features entirely. The biggest advantage of having these tattoos is that they make your life easier because they reduce the time required to apply makeup. But the biggest disadvantage is that they are permanent. Even if your style changes or if you don’t like the tattoo later on, it is difficult to erase it or redo it.”
Ms. Woorim Lee at DIS tattooed her eyebrows. As a consumer of the trend, she shared similar opinions. “Cosmetic tattoos make it easy to get prepared in the morning. I don’t have to worry about different shapes daily once I get the tattoo. Beauty tattoos sound safer since they are technically not plastic surgery. This makes the decision to get such a procedure done easier. But I think there is a clear difference between the two. For permanent makeup, even if there is a mistake, it is less devastating than surgery. At least you don’t have to go under the knife, so it sounds nicer. Parent’s approval will be easier too, so I think a tattoo is a better option than plastic surgery.”
Kim added, “At the very beginning of the industry, cosmetic tattoos only had eyebrow tattoos. Now it is going wild. Moles, aegyosal, and lips can all be tattooed. I expect the industry to grow well into the future, especially with the boom of K-beauty. More advanced skills will be put in place and people will have to worry less about any regrets that follow. And the more these tattoos become natural, I believe the more people will get them. Old beauty tattoos were done by needles going deep into the skin, but now we just go on the outer skin so side effects are eliminated.”
Individuals from different cultures may feel bewildered by such a trend, but there lies a correlation between Korean culture and their obsession with their looks. Kids hear comments about their appearances and weight from a young age from family members and friends. Relatives bluntly throw phrases such as “You’d look better if you lost weight” or “You should get your eyes done to look better” at family gatherings. Parents don’t help either as they recommend plastic surgery to their children or even treat it as a “gift.”
Our nation prioritizes aesthetics to the point where even companies consider their employees’ looks as one of their prerequisites. Kim explains, “Beauty tattoos are trendy in this country because Koreans are pretty sensitive about others’ views of their looks. We want others to think we look good and natural sometimes to the point that it is quite too much.” In a country where 9 out of 10 people say beauty matters significantly, perhaps we shouldn’t be so shocked by its fanaticism for beauty tattoos. After all, what gives us the right to judge others when lookism looms over all of our eyebrows?
