"gangsters have never caused any racket or trouble in the hospital"

Tattoos are fairly verboten in South Korea, as they connote criminal activity.  Times are changing however, and Western influences are always on the rise.  Enter Dr. Cho, a plastic surgeon who know offers tattoo services (including tattoo removal):

"It has been changing for the better. But it’s still too early to say that tattoos are being positively accepted by this society. The mainstream still feels negative toward tattoos — a lot of people don’t understand why people get tattoos. But there is no right or wrong here. Tattoos definitely don’t inflict harm on others. It’s different than smoking. What’s on my body may disgust others, but that’s their problem.

It was interesting when I first started business in tattoo. I mean, it wasn’t exactly a pretty picture when a man who looked like he belonged in a gangster mob and a woman getting double-eyelid surgery were sitting next to each other in the waiting room. And the nurses were intimidated [by such clients] too. But such gangsters have never caused any racket or trouble in the hospital.

After about a decade in this business, a lot of other doctors were beginning to understand what I do. I don’t only draw dragons. I also do medical tattoos, such as evening out the skin tone of patients with vitiligo."

I've defnitely seen a surge in the popularity of ink over the past ten years among my students.  A lot of them go with small, hard-to-notice ones, but no small number (especially men) are going for full sleeves and such.