Pets are clearly an important element of life. No one is arguing that, least of all Miley Cyrus. After all, she got a memorial tattoo for her dog. Not that your furry friend has to have moved on to the Dog Park In The Sky to warrant that kind of immortalization. Seriously, I need two hands to count all the people I know with tats of pets both past and present. However, getting tattoos of your cat is actually illegal in South Korea. Despite this strange reality, South Koreans are breaking the law to get cat tattoos, because they don't give a meow.
In South Korea, inking isn't exactly regarded as a cute way to solidify friendship or even simply decorate your bod. Tattooing is considered a medical procedure and thus legal only when done by an actual medical professional. Basically, it's more than a taboo—having a tattoo or distributing them can actually land people in jail. You see, in South Korea, tattoos were used to mark criminals back in the day. This ban goes way back.
Regardless, many studios in Seoul continue to thrive. Sol Tattoo, for one, specializes in cat tattoos—or cattoos, which is a word I just made up (although it appears to already be an actual thing on Instagram). Sol's artists do some really killer work:
And for further cattoo inspiration (guys, I am committed to making this word happen), scope the following:
I'm 100% behind this. Fingers cross Sol stays in business and its clientele un-arrested. Surely this is too adorable of a trend to end soon thanks to something pesky like law.
Image: soltattoo/Instagram
