Whereas in South Korea only licensed medical professionals are allowed to open tattoo parlors:

> The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare considers the act of tattooing similar to medical procedures and deemed they should therefore only be performed by a professional with a medical license.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattooing_in_South_Korea

The FDA is not empowered to regulate medical procedures. Those are regulated by state laws and agencies. So even if tattooing was considered a medical procedure the FDA would not be able to regulate them.

They’re empowered to regulate the instruments and compounds used within medical procedures though.

Even if they don't serve a medical purpose?

https://theworld.org/stories/2019/10/24/south-koreas-imperil... good read. I live in Korea and have had a lot of my tats done here, people seem to not care much about the tattoo shops, at least the artists I'm friends with said they have no fear of prosecution.

I mean, I’m glad that’s not the case

Given the awful nature of doctors handwriting?

It seems quite contrary to the current tattoo vibe if you had to get it by a doctor.

Government agencies are not restricted to only regulating the words in their names, and the FDA was named 118 years ago. It was given the authority to regulate cosmetics in 1938: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Food,_Drug,_and_Cosm...