Up with tattooing!

Recently, I watched a BBC television program on YouTube (“Secret Ink,” February 2025) about the business of tattooing in Korea. I wasn’t aware that the practice was illegal, stigmatized and a site of cultural contestation as well as gender discrimination. I also learned that the Korean national legislature has approved a bill to legalize the practice, with conditions, over the next two years.

Body art is a contested space and a matter of expression in many societies. The body is a site for freedom of speech. Speech is not just what we say or write; my appearance and dress reflect how I choose to express myself. In a free society, individuals have the latitude to dress and to decorate or change their bodies even if others don’t like or approve of those changes. These freedoms can be limited, in particular if they cause harm to the public. Tattoos illustrate the practice of free speech and matters of taste, preference and style. They show how freedom requires expressions that may be found distasteful but must be respected or tolerated.

Tattooing also touches on matters of public safety. As with any free expression, it requires oversight to prevent injury, whether to the person wanting a tattoo, the artist doing the tattoo or the general public. However, in a free society, it isn’t sufficient to ban a form of expression simply because it isn’t liked or valued.

In another vein, we have to tolerate expressions that we may disagree with, even on moral grounds. I may view tattooing as unnatural and reprehensible, even ugly, whereas others might have the opposite reaction. I gather that, in Korea, many of a conservative bent believe that women who adorn themselves with tattoos behave improperly. That is exactly the kind of viewpoint that limits freedom if it becomes the basis for prohibition. That attitude now appears to be reversing in South Korea.

In a free society, we won't always agree about what others say and do with their bodies, but we can respect and tolerate those with whom we disagree. We would want that tolerance from others who might disagree with us. This is an embodiment of the Confucian notion of not scapegoating and the value of mutual development. It likewise illustrates the aspect of negative liberty — freedom from interference by other people — which is the cornerstone of a free society. It is another version of the Golden Rule.

I applaud the Lee Jae Myung government for introducing this law and the Korean people for passing it through their elected representatives. It may require further refinements over time. The BBC video showed several tattoo purveyors forced to work underground for fear of arrest. Many women artists face sexual harassment because those who don’t like tattoos, and even some male customers, think it’s okay to scapegoat women tattoo artists and women who have tattoos. Misogyny often consists of allowing men behaviors that are not allowed — or at least not allowed in the same way or extent — for women, rendering them less free in their speech and expression. That women who have tattoos or are tattoo providers have been met with contempt or worse is a threat to the integrity of Article 21 of the South Korean Constitution.

It is sensible that the Korean legislature will require tattoo artists and establishments to have licenses and to conform to medical and safety requirements that prevent unintended harm. There should be consideration of age limits and perhaps parental permission for younger patrons.

As a foreigner and student of Korea, I enjoy seeing how personal liberty is growing in the country. Through increased education, awareness of other societies, popularization of fashion and style that aren’t traditional, and the growth of diverse and diverging popular cultures, Korea continues to grow as a free society. The understanding of public morals is changing.

I encourage all dedicated to individual freedom to continue avoiding dichotomous and Manichean thinking about those who speak, dress and behave in law-abiding ways that we don’t fancy, like, agree with or view as moral. These differences inevitably exist in a free society. Not permitting or acknowledging them is a habit more common in Pyongyang.

Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and academic services and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and a former visiting professor at Hanyang University.