# Why being a tattoo artist was illegal in South Korea for so long?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-in-the-world-6570991/why-being-a-tattoo-artist-was-illegal-in-south-korea-for-so-long
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-in-the-world-6570991/why-being-a-tattoo-artist-was-illegal-in-south-korea-for-so-long.md
Podcast: [What in the World](https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-in-the-world-6570991)
Published: 2026-07-16T13:30:00+00:00
Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct994g
Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0nz5jkb.mp3
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Duration seconds: 598

## Resource

For decades, only licensed doctors were allowed to ink tattoos in South Korea and breaking the law could lead to heavy fines or jail. Now, that law has been overturned, but there’s still a lot of stigma around body art in Korea, and east Asia more generally. Leehyun Choi, our BBC Reporter in Seoul, takes us through why and what is changing in South Korea. Plus, we hear from a Korean tattoo artist in the UK (@doo__tattoo) and a Japanese tattoo artist in Osaka, Japan (@taiki__tattoo) about how they see stigma towards tattoos changing. Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Emily Horler, Benita Barden and Lucy Davies Video Producer: Baldeep Chahal Editor: Verity Wilde

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## Transcript

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