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| margaret cho tattoos |
In a candid essay for Jezebel, the 44-year-old, who has won awards for her humanitarian efforts surrounding race and sexuality, explained how she was told her 'taboo' tattoos were not welcome at Aroma Spa.
'[The manager] asked if I could please wear something, anything -– a towel or something –- and cover myself so that I wouldn't frighten anyone with my body,' said the actress, who was part of the Lifetime television series, Drop Dead Diva.
'Perhaps I do get stared at a lot because I am a heavily tattooed woman, but I am also a Korean woman, and I feel I have the right to be naked in the Korean spa with other Korean women,' she added.
'I don't feel shame that my skin is decorated. My tattoos are my glory. I am happy in my skin and I am not sure what to say when others are not happy with my skin.'
While walking around Aroma Spa, where 'everyone is naked,' Ms Cho said she kept getting 'dirty looks from the ladies there,' who 'would talk about me very negatively in Korean.'
It was after she entered the sauna that the spa's manager asked her to 'come outside' for a moment.
'My tattoos are my glory. I am happy in my skin'
Ms Cho recalled: 'She sat me down on the wet bench and tried to tell me, very apologetically that I was making the women there upset with my heavily tattooed body.'
While she initially 'felt bad,' Ms Cho admitted she was 'actually enraged.'
'She apologized even more profusely and tried to explain that in Korean culture, tattoos are very taboo and my body was upsetting everyone there,' the comedian explained.
'I told her I was aware of that, but that I really wanted to enjoy the spa and my treatments and I was going to pay for them, just like everyone else there (it's pricey, by the way).
Read more: dailymail
