7/1/2003: Korean tattooees

[Undertoad]

These South Korean youngsters have been arrested because of the tattoos on their bodies.

Turns out that South Korea officially considers men with tattoos to be unsuitable for the military because they are an "abomination".

It turns out that military service in S. Korea is pretty universal, a sacred duty and avoiding it is considered unmanly. So they've arrested 170 guys with tattoos, and these gents may get up to three years in jail for their crime.

In the country's older culture, tattoos were considered disgraceful, connected to organized crime. But this is colliding with the youth culture where the tattoos are apparently newly hip.

full story

[xoxoxoBruce]

Tsk..tsk..tsk...and they won't get into heaven either.

[headsplice]

As I remember from an article I read about this, these tattoos extend down the inside of their thighs as well. As anyone with a tattoo can attest too, that is a whole lot of needlework. I applaud them for making a stand and making some nice art at the same time, even if it only makes them worth an extra pack of smoke in the Big House.

[Katkeeper]

An artist friend of mine has a book on "Body Art" which has photos of people - men and women, but mostly men - who are totally covered with tattoos, and I do mean totally, even the top of the head and the penis. Apparently when the later is done, the tattooee often passes out. And the tattooing is so extensive that the skin doesn't breathe as it should so that the tattooee (love that word) has a shortened life span, by perhaps 10 years if I remember correctly. It is the kind of book that makes a strong impression.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I saw some pictures the other day of a guy that has about 80% of his "body suit" done. So far it's cost him (pause for effect) $1 0 0, 0 0 0!!!

[warch]

A few years back the Victoria and Albert Museum started this cool thing- "a day of record" where they would collect information from their visitors on a designated day and topic, to be compiled as historical documents, post them on their web site. They had a tattoo day with 1,000+ vistors who could have the museum photographers take digital pics of their tattoos. Its a wonderful visual data base \

[Bitman]

Sneaky. So the army is picky about who they accept. But serving in the army is a sacred duty, therefore getting rejected is your fault, punishable by time in jail and/or hell.

[gaemon]

In the country's older culture, tattoos were considered disgraceful, connected to organized crime. But this is colliding with the youth culture where the tattoos are apparently newly hip.

Well, that's not the reason they are arrested. They tried to abuse the rule to be dropped from the army: that's why they are arrested for.

And yes the tattoo is still related to gangsters (you may call them Yakuzas). Believe me, the usual `hip tattoo' NEVER looks like that!! That's standard Yakuza tattooes I say. Some of keen-eyed of you could make out the katana, snake and tengu (mythical person worshipped by yaks) in the picture.

Jail serves them right. I mean, such icons are not even Korean, they are totally Japanese. Yakuza wannabes... I hope some Yaku big brother in jail treats them RIGHT.

For the record, youngsters' doing `hip' tattooes are not considered disgraceful very much, at least recently -- we cleary know the difference. Of course, for their parents it's a different matter...

[jaguar]

I was about to say, these look like yakuza-type tats to me, though i'm sure the Koreans have thier own orgnised crime syndicates. The yakuza are, after all, origionally samuaris of a sort.

[chrisinhouston]

Some asian cultures like tattoos.

[xant]

Originally posted by gaemon
Jail serves them right. I mean, such icons are not even Korean, they are totally Japanese. Yakuza wannabes... I hope some Yaku big brother in jail treats them RIGHT.

Christ wept... should we start arresting black guys who wear 'do rags? How about skinny people.. probably heroin addicts. I know this is a different culture, but it's still outrageous. I don't care if they are yakuza every one, arresting people because they LOOK like yakuza just serves to undermine the authority of the law itself.

[xoxoxoBruce]

serves to undermine the authority of the law itself.

Not at all. It may undermine the morality but certainly not the authority.

[quzah]

Originally posted by xant
Christ wept... should we start arresting black guys who wear 'do rags? How about skinny people.. probably heroin addicts. I know this is a different culture, but it's still outrageous. I don't care if they are yakuza every one, arresting people because they LOOK like yakuza just serves to undermine the authority of the law itself.

Morality has little to do with legality. If it's illegal to do ___ and you do ___, then according to the laws which govern you, you have some form of punnishment due. It's similar to another thread where kids were "over dressed" and weren't allowed to graduate. Stupid rules by some standards, but rules none the less.

Case and point: pot is illegal, alcohol isn't.

But back on topic...

I also on first glance was wondering why all of these Koreans were wearing Japanese tattoos. Of course, I shouldn't have even paused for thought, since I can wander down the street and see _insert random person here_ with a "cool" Japanese/Chinese/Asian symbol branded on them.

It amuses me to think that were I a tattoo artist, I could put up some flashy Asian glyph which basicly means "I'm a fucking moron" in the window, and people would come in and have it done just because it looked neat. Seriously, how many of these people actually do the research and look up the symbol they go in and get?

"Dude! Check that killer design!"

Quzah.

[OnyxCougar]

I've been thinking of getting the "eternity" symbol on my left wrist, on the top. Cover-upable by my watch. I did my research.

Let it all out, Quzah.

You know, you and me really oughta start a fight club.