“Excuse me for a moment.”
He gently pressed his finger on the butterfly tattoo peeking from under her arm as she held the subway handrail. A hologram button labeled ‘Send Artist Info’ appeared above the tattoo. When he tapped the approval button, a cheerful ‘ding~’ sound played, followed by the brief appearance and disappearance of a message: [Tattoo Artist Information Sent].
“Thank you. Your tattoo is beautiful.” 😊
“Oh, yes. Thank you.”
Last month, after two years, the Tattoo Artist Sharing Law finally passed through Congress. This law, also known as the ‘Kim Soo-ran Law’, was proposed due to the tragic incident involving Kim Soo-ran, who leapt from Seongsu Bridge at the age of 21. Three years ago, she had been on a bus heading home when, as the bus paused at a stop near the bridge, she suddenly ran to the railing and jumped. Witnesses on the bus said it happened so quickly that no one could react in time. Her reason was as follows.
Just like everyone else on the bus, she stood quietly, gazing out the window. The streets were calm on that weekend morning, and the bus was as serene as Lourdes in France, a place where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. If you had asked the bus passengers for the most sacred spot at that moment, they might have pointed to that very bus. As it slowly moved along, a young man boarded at one of the stops. He walked confidently to her side, grabbing the handrail to steady himself. A unicorn tattoo peeked out from below his sleeve, catching everyone’s attention with its beauty. Even those who didn’t care for tattoos were mesmerized. Not just the elderly lady, but everyone on the bus couldn’t help but stare at the glowing tattoo on his arm. (Some even testified that it truly glowed.) In that magical moment, Soo-ran, standing beside him, spoke up.
“Where did you get that tattoo? It’s stunning.”
But he merely glanced at her before turning away, uninterested. Not everyone enjoys conversing with strangers, and truth be told, neither do I.
“Could you tell me where you got your tattoo?”
She asked again, but he remained unresponsive. Suddenly, she pressed her finger on the tattoo, and he turned to her in shock, yelling.
“What are you doing? Why should I tell you that?”
Quickly, she withdrew her finger, her face turning red with embarrassment. Just like the unicorn’s horn glistening gold, her flushed face seemed to radiate a red glow. A passenger, who specialized in interiors, estimated the luminance from her face to be at least 1 lux (five times brighter than a full moon), while another, who owned an orchard, likened it to the red hue of persimmons in November. As all eyes shifted from the tattoo to her face, it grew even redder. The bus stopped again, the back door opened, and in that instant, she dashed to the door and leapt over the Seongsu Bridge railing.
The incident, where she ended her life after feeling humiliated for being ignored when asking about a tattoo, led to public mourning and widespread discussions on social media. It was considered even more tragic than any previous suicide incident, and there was a strong consensus that it should never happen again.
Some called for an outright ban on tattoos, leading tattoo artists to protest with candlelight vigils in Gwanghwamun. Deaf communities nationwide also protested, arguing against the idea that they must always answer tattoo inquiries, as they didn’t want to expose their vulnerabilities to strangers. Despite the shared desire to prevent similar incidents, finding a viable solution proved difficult. Over a million people signed a national petition for preventive measures, but a month later, the government still had no answers. Some elderly citizens and flag sellers voiced their discontent, waving national flags in front of City Hall. As attention waned, a seemingly unemployed lawyer named Kim In-soo proposed an innovative idea.
Tattoo artists should leave a QR code pointing to their introduction webpage when they do a tattoo.
As the public revisited the case, this suggestion sparked interest. However, many opposed it, arguing that including an unintended QR code would diminish the tattoo’s artistic value. Some artists suggested designing with the code in mind, but most tattoo clients were against incorporating unintended symbols into their designs. Conspiracy theories even suggested it was a step towards a Big Brother era. ‘Tattoo Heaven’, a tattoo enthusiasts’ club with over 100,000 members, began circulating a petition against QR code tattoos, threatening to revoke membership from those who didn’t oppose it. With the petition surpassing 100,000 signatures, even tattoo artists who initially considered the QR code idea had to abandon it. Thus, the idle lawyer, Kim In-soo, came up with another strategy.
The government should have tattoo designs registered as patents and develop an app using deep learning to recognize unique registered designs, mapping them to the tattoo artist’s information page.
Tattoo artists felt pressured to create unique designs, fearing criticism if they couldn’t, yet clients were happy not to carry around visible QR codes. This suggestion seemed likely to pass Congress without major issues. However, objections arose about the social awkwardness of having to whip out an app to photograph strangers’ tattoos, which might be mistaken for voyeurism. This issue dominated news headlines, causing another nationwide uproar with no easy solution in sight. Undeterred, the ever-innovative Kim In-soo proposed using Microsoft’s newly released HoloLens, which was making waves.
The government should have tattoo designs registered as patents and allow unique registered designs to be recognized through deep learning. Wearing HoloLens, if you view a tattoo, an augmented reality button directly linking to the tattoo artist should appear on the tattoo. Touching it would send the artist’s info directly to the HoloLens user.
Upon proposing this, the government decided to subsidize half the cost of HoloLens for a limited time, easing the public’s burden. Microsoft also offered additional promotions to boost hardware distribution for metaverse preparations. In this environment, the Tattoo Artist Sharing Law swiftly passed Congress. The government collaborated with the Korea Copyright Commission to facilitate tattoo design registration through their copyright site. The remaining design information deep learning and augmented reality app development was rapidly executed and distributed with KAIST’s cooperation. This triumph occurred in less than a month after the law’s passage. Citizens could purchase HoloLens for a third of its original price, and tattoo artists began registering their designs through the copyright site. This process even inadvertently managed tattoo artists’ tattoo design copyrights, creating a synergy effect. The Tattoo Artist Sharing Law, or ‘Kim Soo-ran Law’, originating from South Korea, was shared worldwide via social media. It passed in countries like Italy and Sweden, known for having the most tattoos, driven by strong public support. Unintentionally, South Korea profited from exporting the system developed for this purpose.
However, half a year after the law’s enactment, a shocking video was uploaded to YouTube, causing worldwide astonishment. The video was posted by the mother of Kim Soo-ran, the first victim. Living in a remote area untouched by media and social networks, she was unaware of the events that unfolded after her daughter’s death. A chance visit to Seoul to see a friend revealed the truth to her, and with the help of her friend’s son, she decided to share her story on YouTube. She felt responsible for the situation her daughter’s passing had caused and chose to reveal the truth. In the video, she began her story with a solemn tone, without any requests for ‘likes’ or ‘subscriptions’.
“The day she took her life, I found a farewell letter, meticulously written over two pages, in her desk. She had been persuaded by her boss at work to invest 50 million won, saved over ten years, into coins, hoping to make a fortune. But the coins plummeted 80% after a certain American entrepreneur retracted his statement about allowing his products to be purchased with coins, leaving her with no will to live.”
At the end, she added one final remark before the video concluded.
“She wasn’t the type to end her life over a few harsh words. She was quite a tough one, you know…”
Leave a Reply