‘Country club can reject membership over body tattoo’

Rejecting an applicant for country club membership because of his full body tattoos does not violate his rights if the tattoos cause discomfort to other members, a human rights panel said Wednesday.

The petitioner, whose name was withheld, filed an appeal with the rights group in February after he was turned down for a membership to a local country club that took issue with large tattoos on his upper body.

The National Human Rights Commission said the club's decision to reject him does not violate his right to equal treatment as the refusal was based on the tattoos that can "cause abomination" to other people.

Although there is no law against tattoos in South Korea, they carry a stigma here as many people associate them with gangsters, who display their tattoos as a means of intimidation.

As a country club is a private facility that promotes fraternity among members, and since the petitioner can still use the facility as a non-member, the rejection cannot be seen as unreasonable discrimination against him, the commission said.

Commission officials said there were minority opinions that opposed the ruling.

"By now, tattoos have become a way of expressing an individual's personality," said Choi Kyung-sook, a commission panelist. "Perception of tattoos differs from individual to individual, and there is a high possibility that such a (negative) perception could have arisen from prejudices."