Korea Ink

I don't know all the specifics, but I guess tattoos are illegal in Korea? I don't mean, "Hey! That guy has a tattoo, let's arrest him!" illegal, but apparently you aren't allowed to give someone a tattoo unless you have a medical license. At least that's the information I've found on the internet, and we know that the internet NEVER lies! I'm sure somewhere down the line men were using tattoos to get out of military service and it ruined the fun for everyone.

Well, in any case, I got one. Enough friends here have mentioned places in Seoul where people run legitimate tattoo parlors and the tattooists have their medical degrees or whatever, but that just wouldn't be fun, would it? I'm still young and stupid- why not find some underground place to get a tattoo? After all, I've seen tons of legal tattoo parlors. Sometimes you just have to have an experience, right? Why not go to a secret tattoo parlor?

A friend found out about a man not too far from our town who ran a tattoo studio out of his apartment. He has a long list of impressive credentials and we figured a consultation and a good look around his studio couldn't hurt. He was friendly, professional, and most importantly- he had an extremely clean work space. We decided to go for it. I've wanted wings tattooed on my back for a very long time. No special reason, I just felt like I needed to have a pair of wings. And why shouldn't I? So we scheduled our appointments and waited.

Cue appointment day!

Our appointment started mid-morning. We had to be on the bus by 7:30. I insisted on wearing comfortable clothes so I could nap. After a long bus ride, we had an almost longer subway ride, and then a short taxi ride to the studio. My friend went first, it being his first tattoo and a quick one. And then me. I think somewhere along the line your body convinces you that getting a tattoo didn't hurt as much as you thought it did. Because I do not remember my other tattoos hurting this much. After three hours I ended up with something unfinished that looked a bit like this:

Then came a week of having people help me keep it moisturized and complaining as the Vaseline and Lubriderm stained the backs of all of my shirts. I even woke up to my wings printed on my pillow one morning. But just when the last stage of healing (the itchy stage) began, I was due to go back to finish what I started (Even though it hurt and I didn't want to)

In the end I got this:

The tape and plastic wrap is meant to keep all the awesome in :)

When I was finished, the artist called me a strong woman, let me take a nap on his couch while he worked on my friend's tattoo, and that was that. We had our black market tattoo experience. Well, my friend still has one more session to go because he's done experiencing, but no pain, no gain! ;)

I have to say I'm quite proud of myself. I think he did beautiful work. The artist has spent more than 20 years traveling around the East and West as a professional tattoo artist. It's kind of an honor to me to have work done by someone who obviously cares very much about what he does. And I'm very glad to work in a place where tattoos aren't a big deal because my wings like to peek through some of my thinner shirts and give my kids a nice surprise.

Until next time!