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Despite new law, court upholds prior guilty verdict against prominent tattoo artist, but suspends sentence

Published: 19 Dec. 2025, 19:34

KIM JU-YEON
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Tattooist Kim Do-yoon, who goes by the name Doy, speaks at a press conference after the Seoul Northern District Court upheld a guilty verdict for carrying out tattoo procedures without a medical license on Dec. 19. [YONHAP]

An appeals court on Friday upheld a guilty verdict against Kim Do-yoon, a prominent Korean tattoo artist, for tattooing clients without a medical license. The court said that a new law passed this year to allow tattooing by nonmedical practitioners — set to take effect in 2027 — does not override current medical regulations.

Kim, who works under the name Doy, has been a leading figure in a yearslong campaign to legalize nonmedical tattooing in Korea. He founded Tattoo Union in 2020 and helped push for the so-called Tattooist Act, which lawmakers approved this year after decades of treating tattooing as a medical act reserved for licensed doctors.

Kim is known for inking Hollywood celebrities including Brad Pitt, Steven Yeun and Lily Collins. He was convicted of violating the Medical Service Act for carrying out tattoo procedures without a medical license. A lower court fined him 5 million won ($3,380) in December 2021, a ruling he appealed.

The Seoul Northern District Court’s criminal division on Friday handed Kim a suspended sentence of a 1 million won fine for violating the act. A suspended sentence nullifies the penalty if no further offenses occur over two years.

The court said it was difficult to view the Tattooist Act, which will take effect in October 2027, as having been enacted on the basis that tattoo procedures are entirely not medical acts.

"[The law] sets out location restrictions, criminal punishment provisions, safety management obligations and requirements to take out liability insurance, indicating the state’s intent to specially manage tattoo procedures differently from ordinary occupations,” the court said.

"Given the level of development in medical technology, full-body tattoos are often difficult to restore or remove in practice, and recovery possibilities are limited, particularly when performed on minors,” the court said.

It added that “this cannot be left to individual discretion or autonomy.”

Kim criticized the decision in a press conference after the ruling.

“This is a ruling that does not respect the purpose of the Tattooist Act,” Kim said. “The judiciary has failed to respect the legislature and the social consensus.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY MOON SANG-HYEOK, KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]