<Anchor>
These days, there are not a few people who wear semi-permanent eyebrow makeup or tattoos on their body. There is also a survey result that there are 10 million people undergoing the procedure, but in Korea, it is illegal unless you have a doctor.
Reporter Park Byeong-il has covered the situation in which the law is separate and the reality is separate for 30 years.
<Reporter>
A studio specializing in semi-permanent makeup procedures. A woman is undergoing a so-called 'eyebrow tattoo' procedure.
Unlike regular tattoos, where dye is applied to the dermis layer only, it is applied only to the epidermis layer, so it will be thinned or erased after 2-3 years.
That's why it's called semi-permanent makeup.
[Kyung Choi / ○○ Beauty Director, semi-permanent makeup artist: It is possible without (anesthesia) cream by adding color only to the outer layer of the skin, dead cell layer, and stratum corneum.]
However, all these procedures are illegal.
There is no law related to tattoos, but since the Supreme Court in 1992 defined tattooing, including eyebrow tattooing, as a medical practice, it has become a precedent.
[Han-Kyung Go/Attorney: If a non-medical person does (procedure) for profit, it becomes a so-called unlicensed medical practice.]
However, a tattoo artist license is also issued, and you can register as a business.
Some lawmakers and local governments even give citations.
[(Is the government recognizing illegal jobs?) There are many things like that.] The
law is separate from reality.
So, why should tattoos be done only by medical personnel?
[Hwang Ji-hwan / Medical Association Advisory Committee: Bacterial infection or herpes simplex infection may occur. Hepatitis C infection or syphilis can be a problem.]
Then, will the doctor directly perform the procedure at the hospital?
[○○ Plastic Surgery: (Does the doctor do it when it is performed?) No. The manager doesn't do it. These are teachers who have been trained to specialize in beauty.] The
reporter team randomly selected 10 plastic surgeons for phone consultations, but none of them were directly operated by doctors.
[Kyung Choi / ○○ beauty director, semi-permanent makeup artist: Some semi-permanent cosmeticians work in hospitals or run stores in hospitals.] The Korean
Medical Association says that a plastic surgeon specializing in tattooing is dangerous and only a doctor should do it. It refutes the claim head-on.
[Myeongshin Cho / Plastic Surgeon Specialist (Tattoo Specialist): When we get a cold shot in the neighborhood, a nursing assistant puts it, most of the time. I don't think tattoos are more dangerous than intramuscular injections.]
Except in Islamic countries, Korea is the only country that prohibits tattooing by tattooists.
[Kim Do-yoon/Tattoo Union Branch Manager: For 30 years, the sophistry that 'tattoos (tattoos) is a medical practice' has been exposing them to danger up to this point, when a quarter of the people have tattoos.]
Since the 17th National Assembly, related bills have been submitted several times, but each time has not passed the threshold of the National Assembly.
In the National Assembly this time, a member of the National Assembly put a sticker tattoo and announced the need to enact a tattoo law, while members of the three ruling and opposition parties have each submitted a tattoo-related bill.
More than half are in favor of legalizing tattoos.
China has legalized tattoos since 2002, and Japan is also preparing a law allowing tattoos to be performed by the Supreme Court in September last year, ruling that it is not a medical practice.
(VJ: Yoon Taek)