“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News series featuring interviews with and columns by North Korean defectors, most of whom left the DPRK within the last few years.

Readers may submit their questions for defectors by emailing [email protected] and including their first name and city of residence.

Today’s question is about tattoos in North Korea. 

Joshua Kim (a pseudonym) — who was born and raised in North Korea and lived there until he defected in 2019 — writes about who gets tattoos, how people get inked and the most common designs on DPRK citizens.

Got a question for Joshua? Email it to [email protected] with your name and city. We’ll be publishing the best ones.

In North Korea, tattoos are wildly different from what people in the rest of the world might imagine. Since coming to South Korea, I often see people with tattoos, and many times I can’t interpret the meaning of what they have inked on their bodies. 

I sometimes see images that are strange to me, or a person who might be decorated in English words or Chinese characters that I don’t understand. Sometimes, I see people with tattoos all over their faces and even feel afraid. 

North Koreans’ tattoos, on the other hand, are quite intuitive, and in most cases, people can easily interpret their meaning — though the messages they convey are quite limited.

LOYALTY TO THE LEADER 

North Korea’s Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System stipulate that loyalty to the leader should be placed first when selecting party officials, while capability comes second. For this reason, tattoos are permitted to express loyalty. 

Examples of these types of tattoos are expressions such as “spirit of self-destruction” (one’s determination to die for the leader if needed), “a match for a hundred” (a warrior who can destroy 100 enemies single-handedly), “gun-bomb” (protecting the leader with guns and bombs) and “defending to the death” (protecting the leader by risking one’s life). 

Tattoos of images must also represent loyalty. Mount Paektu, tigers, knives, guns and grenades are some of the most commonly seen tattoos in the DPRK and all aim to represent the same thing — someone who is so loyal to the leader that he would be ready to give his life at any time. 

Some people might have tattoos of something like a dragon to express their personality, but they are in the absolute minority. 

In North Korea, it’s only men who get tattoos. If women get tattoos, they are cosmetic ones like eyebrow tattoos. 

Having said that, North Korean women dress conservatively and don’t wear clothes that would reveal tattoos if they had them, so perhaps they just keep them well hidden. 

Generally speaking, there has never been any distaste for men getting tattoos in North Korea, but there are very few people who would accept a woman getting a tattoo. 

As tattooed women would be seen as strange in North Korean society, I think that 99% of women wouldn’t get tattoos, even if they knew they’d stay hidden under their clothes.

TATTOO TABOO?

There was a time when North Korea imposed severe restrictions to prevent people from getting inked, on the basis that tattoos were an expression of individuality and people had tattooed themselves with senseless expressions.

These new rules led people who were already tattooed to have their markings removed. My memory’s a bit shaky, but I recall this happening in the late aughts.

However, tattoo removal is not a common procedure in North Korea, so the process left peoples’ skin with permanent reminders of their previous ink.  

There are no professional tattoo artists in North Korea, and people find out about tattoo artists via word of mouth. Tattooing is carried out in a primitive way, without any technical equipment or topical numbing ointments. Listening to the stories of people with tattoos, the pain they went through is palpable.

Trends change with the generations. Now, very few people in their 20s and 30s in the DPRK have tattoos. In fact, I don’t remember seeing anyone in their 20s with a tattoo when I was in North Korea. 

Perhaps tattoos have gone out of fashion in North Korea. Unlike in South Korea, it’s not an environment where you can get tattoos that reveal your personality. 

Also, in comparison to the past, there are exceedingly few people who would express their loyalty to the leader through a tattoo. 

EXPRESS YOURSELF 

In South Korea, many people get tattoos, and there is no distinction between men and women. People are covered in strange images and inscrutable writings that I cannot understand, but I imagine there’s a personal philosophy behind all of their inkings.

I once saw a woman on the subway in Seoul whose arm depicted a cute baby shooting an arrow with a bow. On the way home, I thought long and hard about what that image could mean, but I couldn’t come up with anything.

When I searched for an answer on the internet, I discovered that it was Cupid, shooting an arrow of love. In the age of the internet, perhaps this image is commonly known, but to me, it was completely unfamiliar.  

When I see young people in South Korea with tattoos all over their bodies, I often think about how that is not something I would want for myself. I imagine they must feel frustrated when they take their clothes off but remain covered in something that cannot be removed. 

While I have no interest in getting a tattoo myself, I understand that it is a form of self-expression. 

However, even now when I see women with tattoos on the streets of Seoul, I sometimes catch myself staring. 

Edited by Alannah Hill