By 10 Magazine has a recent article looking at the best places to get a tattoo in Korea:
Iroc Kim, a Korean-American with 13 years in the industry, first came to Korea in 1995 as a singer and it was then that he identified a lack of structure and professionalism in the largely underground tattoo scene here. After working in California with Phillip Spearman, currently ranked the No. 5 tattoo artist in the world, his connections enabled him to fulfill his dream to open up a clean, foreigner-friendly tattoo parlor in Seoul.
“The thing that sets us apart from the other tattoo parlors is that we follow strict sanitary procedures as set out by LA state law, by the book,” said Iroc. “For each artwork, we take 30 minutes to set up. Everything we use on our customers is brand new and state of the art, including the needles, wraps, sterilizing equipment, and tips for the machine. If we touch something with our latex gloves, we remove it and put a new one on straight away. All our ink is imported directly from the States.”
The studio is affiliated with Inkworks Tattoo in California, and Iroc and his artists all hold licenses to attend international tattoo conventions. Tattoo Korea artists have a combined total of 32 years in the industry and can help you develop an idea. Of particular mention is San Lee, the most highly regarded female tattoo artist in Korea.Needless to say, the language barrier is eradicated and in fact 90% of customers are foreigners, ranging from the military, FBI agents, to local and international celebrities like DJ Skumfrog and the Pussycat Dolls. [10 Magazine]
Since tattoo parlors are off limits for military personnel I wonder if CID will be investigating this place? Anyway click the link for contact information as well as other recommended tattoo parlors in Korea.
6:01 pm on April 12th, 2010 1
Why would CID ever need to investigate them if their services area already off-limits to GIs?
I will say, however, if these guys have implemented the standards and practices of the licensed operations in the States, that can only be a good thing. The real reason overseas tattoo parlors were put off-limits in the first place was because of health and safety concerns.
Maybe not for tattoo parlors, because the military has a thing against tattoos in general now, but I wonder if the bases will ever consider reviewing some of their out-dated off-limits concerns. Look at the Osan AB list.
I mentioned elsewhere that pharmacies were placed off-limits because in the past you could purchase hard drugs without a prescription. The laws in Korea changed to require doctor's prescription about 10 years ago.
The generic "Hospitals (unless an emergency)" is still there, because in the past there was concern of receiving unauthorized or unsafe treatment. But today, some hospitals are Tri-Care authorized. So is it still necessary to restrict GIs married to Koreans or Korean American GIs from visiting family relations in hospitals?
Osan AB still has listed "Market Area (after dark)," even though the activities for which that restriction had been imposed for, haven't existed there for maybe 20 years.
6:05 pm on April 12th, 2010 2
Nothing says "classy" like an armful of vaguely Korean-looking demons.
I like the couple tattoos, "We are a match made in heaven." I would be tempted to add, "…and I got gas from Hell."
It seems kinda disrespectful to write heaven without a capital H… being that it is referring to the name for the place of perfection where God resides.
Whenever anyone shows me their new tattoo with Chinese characters, I always burst out laughing… then ask, "Why in the world would you get that?" When they give me a puzzled look, I say, "Oh. You don't read Chinese, do you?" They tell me it means, "power" or "loyalty" or whatever juvenile statement they think they are making. I say, "Nooooo. This is the character for 'animal' and this one is for 'sex' or 'to have sex with'. Combined, this translates into 'bestiality'. Somebody has a sick since of humor."
Sometimes they get indignant and teary-eyed.
10:42 pm on April 12th, 2010 3
A few years back when the movers showed up to pack up my stuff, a young lady on the moving team had a tattoo on her neck. I could read the base portion of the tattoo – 黃(which means "yellow" and is pronounced "hwang" in Korean). But it had a radical to the side of it, so I knew it was somehow related to the word yellow, but didn't exactly mean yellow.
So I asked her what it meant. She said, "It's my boyfriend's name – Juan."
I knew she was probably going with the Chinese pronunciation instead of the Korean or Japanese pronunciation, and it probably did sound a lot like "Juan" in Chinese.
I said, "I think I'm following what you're saying – that it's pronounced the same as the name Juan…but what does it actually mean?"
She gave me a look like I must be an idiot for not understanding her the first time, and said, "Juan. It's means the name Juan."
I was tempted to explain to her that when it comes to Chinese characters, the meaning and pronunciation are two entirely different things…but I knew it would be useless.
I later looked it up in a Chinese character dictionary. It was this character: 潢 which means: "expanse of water, lake, pond."
So I guess she shouldn't feel too embarrassed about what it means. Although I sure was hoping it meant something like whale penis.
11:20 pm on April 12th, 2010 4
"I was tempted to explain to her that when it comes to Chinese characters, the meaning and pronunciation are two entirely different things"
It's the same in every language, actually (semantics and phonetics).
12:25 am on April 13th, 2010 5
"It’s the same in every language, actually (semantics and phonetics)."
I guess that's why the best file to use when you want to make a 10mm hole into a 40mm hole is a…
…pedophile.
12:43 am on April 13th, 2010 6
That's not what I meant when I said it's the same in every language. Clearly, semantics and phonetics aren't the same.
1:23 am on April 13th, 2010 7
Ok, maybe I'm being too picky here, but I'm wondering when LA became a state???
3:22 am on April 13th, 2010 8
"Ok, maybe I’m being too picky here, but I’m wondering when LA became a state???"
April 30, 1812
http://tattoojoy.com/tattoo_laws/united_states,lo…
I'm joking… I think your comment is correct.
How about…
"Tattoo Korea artists have a combined total of 32 years in the industry "
So. My second grade class had a combined total of over 100 years of education.
Teadrinker… buddy… relax. I was not arguing your point… I was demonstrating it.
9:50 am on April 13th, 2010 9
1812.
9:54 am on April 13th, 2010 10
"So. My second grade class had a combined total of over 100 years of education."
That's a good one.
10:55 am on April 13th, 2010 11
It's obvious they meant LA as in "Los Angeles" and not LA as in "Louisiana". Or am I missing something here? lol
6:23 pm on May 23rd, 2010 12
Tattoolife moved to Hongdae, new studio, same family and as usual the best artists in the business!!!
Contact us aT TATTOOLIFE1@HOTMAIL.COM
3:55 pm on October 20th, 2010 13
Phillip Spearman will be at Tattoo Times Korea from November 3rd to 13th, 2010. If you're interested in getting some work done, email diane_inkworks@yahoo.com (for English) or tattoo_times@hotmail.com (for Korean)
2:53 pm on October 26th, 2010 14
I raised an issue in #1 above, regarding areas historically off-limits remaining so because nobody cared to review the original intent and decide whether it still made sense.
Well now, we find another rare instance where someone finally took and interest in doing that.
3:07 pm on October 26th, 2010 15
So they are now no longer concerned about the buildup of bars and human trafficking near their homes?
5:24 pm on October 26th, 2010 16
Leon,
"So they are now no longer concerned about the buildup of bars and human trafficking near their homes? "
No. The old-timey farmer parents are passing away.
The children left with the land have a choice of farming or building bars and trafficking in humans.
Hmmm… that was an easy choice.
I wonder what started this? Did the A-Town Good Neighbors miss a payment that keeps their monopoly going?
12:28 am on October 27th, 2010 17
LA. I thought that referred to Lower Alabama.