With the social stigma in South Korea, which associates tattooing with the gangster and criminal community, tattooing there is a challenge that Apro Lee had to overcome to become one of the most well-known South Korean tattoo artist” in the world. He is invited to every tattoo convention and part of most qualitative art shows. When he started tattooing back in 2005 in Seoul, and even if tattoos aren't illegal, getting tattooed is forbidden under Korean Law. However, tattooing is only allowed as a medical practice which drives artists to operate underground or under private shop studio only.
However, if South Korea doesn't have a proper tattoo history or culture, tattooing was practiced in the ancient time. “Tattooing was like a punishment that marks criminals and slaves”, told Apro. In fact, going back to the 4th century, fishermen from the country’s coastal regions were using tattoos as an amulet to ward off evil spirits and bring them good luck. Then, during the Joseon dynasty and the 19th century it became associated with crime but also theft including adultery. Slaves were marked with their master's name. It's commonly considered to go against Confucian's values, and became an association with criminal gangs in the 20th century.
Passionate about drawing, 15 years ago Apro started as a self-taught artist, without Youtube or Instagram. “I just have to taught myself; watching and looking at photos and trying to visualize how they made it. I tried to copy and to practice on my friend. Just like that.” Initiator of a tattoo in gray, detailed, using tiger motifs, Minwah, the Korean folk art, he redefines the contour of this modern South Korean tattoo culture. After years on the road, the artist finally settled at home, in Seoul, after ten years of formative travels.
“I knew I would just be drawing or painting for my life since I was young.” His style, that got him inspired 6 years ago, is deeply rooted in his culture, and takes a unique form of architecture mixed with popular, anonymous and traditional paintings. Yet Apro grows up with a modern inspiration coming from comics and animation culture such as Dragon Ball. “I always wanted to be a cartoonist, so I always read a lot of comic books, watching animation movies, manga’s and I draw, probably since I was little, since I was 6 years old.”
At the time, becoming a tattoo artist was not fashionable. Apro didn’t see a tattoo before the age of 25, “None of my friends had any tattoos back then and it wasn't in my life at all. So, when I was 23 years old, I saw there was some kind of criminary news from the internet and they used some tattoo photos for the article as references. I was absolutely shocked because it was a Kurt Cobain portrait and I didn't know someone's portrait could be tattooed!”. As the tattooist did not study after his "Major Duty", he didn’t have any real prospects. So the tattoo, why not give it a try. “But the reality is that, it is because I had nothing else to do.”
During his first 7 or 8 years of tattooing, Apro thought about ruining people's skin and lives. “People who are creating in whatever form of art, think they know but sometimes they don't know. I was that person.” Since he has a singular repertoire; his signature, Apro can really confess about being confident in his work.
His practice evolved little in South Korea, he worked in his room and created his own studio. Tattooing is still "illegal" there and 15 years ago it wasn't even fashionable. “It wasn't even a culture back then, it was way more underground and kind of ghetto at that time, so I was really struggling with the money for the rent so I had to survive and I didn't know how. I thought then there was no future for me as a tattoo artist in South Korean and the pressure was very extreme”
Difficulties were weighing down and Apro was struggling to find money. He goes with it to a monk. “I went to meet a monk and I asked him If I could be a monk. He said; “Oh no because you are tattooed.” I thought: What the f*ck. I replied: “You should care more about the soul inside than the outside and not the aesthetic on our skin”. He said, “that's the rule”. So I couldn't be a monk as well.
He realized that his only way out is to leave the country. “It was my first time going out of my country for a long time. What I did is that I printed out a world map and I closed my eyes and pointed some random places on that map and just went there!”
It points to Brisbane, Australia. A 12-hour flight later, he arrives and walks into several tattoo parlors that had a room. He gets a tattoo in a salon and the owner and the artist there became his mentors. At Matthew Cunnington's Westside Tattoo, his 3 or 4 years of experience counted, and he tattooed right away. He likes the city, surrounded by nature. He stayed there for 1.5 years and practices all styles, but especially black and grey, portrait, realism and a lot of tattoos "all coming" like Southern Cross, lettering and stars. But always only black and no color.
“I mostly like black because I realized it is the most beautiful color to me. Recently I am more into pink color and I think pink is the master of a very top color. It seems that pink is a color that seems to settle down everything. After trying everything, I found out it is a color that calms you down, in my personal opinion. Pink is a strong and chill color at the same time which is what I like the most.” Naturally, his sensitivity for dark colors persists, but also for those that are extremely bright but always sliced to the left or to the right, with no in-betweens.
During the Joseon Dynasty and long before; tattooed people were considered as criminals. As a Korean tattooist, when he talks to other tattoo artists, traditional styles, Old School, Irezumi or even Indian or Thai tattoos are discussed, but he could never talk about the South Korean style because there was none. "I really wanted to talk about South Korean art as an artist from there. I tried to use South Korean folk paintings in my process and used them for my tattoos. That's how I started, putting my ideas into practice and then into tattooing, about 6 years ago."
His first tiger? A painting, which becomes the spearhead of his line. The snowball effect takes, he tattooed his tigers first occasionally, then part-time and then slowly made more and more patterns. And from the same, naturally, he deepens his interest in traditional South Korean art a little more. "Now, I've made it my main activity in my predominant style and profession."
His first tiger? A painting, which becomes the spearhead of his line. The snowball effect takes, he tattooed his tigers first occasionally, then part-time and then slowly made more and more patterns. And from the same, naturally, he deepens his interest in traditional South Korean art a little more. "Now, I've made it my main activity in my predominant style and profession."
These images, typical of the Korean identity, bring together animals, nature, flowers, old engravings, with a spirit of Chinese silk painting dating from before our era. The feline especially, cats and tigers are predominant, but we find themes related to popular beliefs or religion. The tiger in Kkachi Horangi paintings is intentionally depicted as stupid or foolish. It represents the aristocracy. A caricature style associated with the magpie, representing the people, becomes a satyr of the feudal society of the Joseon (or Chosun) dynasty period. The period from which he draws inspiration especially today in his work.
“I got inspired on that from temples or palace in South Korea. But also, various books or traditional painting books and museums. My interest was especially picked by the Joseon dynasty, that is my favorite kind of art.”
At this time the drawings are influenced by tiger hunting and the way they draw or paint the motifs intrigues him. On the temples they are called "Tan Chung". It generally represents everything about the temples. The artist looks at these Tan Chung drawings and rethinks the palace in all its architecture by imagining it as a human body. The roof becomes the human head, then the parts of the palace, he transposes them according to the parts of the human body. He uses the paintings of the pillars to draw inspiration on arms and hands and the walls to create a background or a chest-like room. Just like an architect, he recreates Tan Chung on someone's body and spends a lot of time researching and finding the meaning of these paintings. “But I only use it as a reference, and I don't copy it. I change it following my style and I draw my own patterns.”
While tattooing is a real community, very much connected to each other all over Europe or the United States, Apro doesn't frequent other tattoo artists in South Korea and prefers to concentrate on his work. It has to be said that if tattooing is more accepted and people denounce tattoo artists less, the tattoo artists act like this among themselves. “It's a competition for a territory. South Korean suppliers are also doing it; they send police to another supplier, because there is a lot of competition. It is one small reason why I'm not meeting other tattooist in South Korea, but the most important reason to me is I don't know any. I have no interest in meeting anyone, because all of my free time I just really focus on my work.” @apro_lee aprotattoo@gmail.com
