Junghyun Kim of ROW DTLA on Life, Lessons & Legacy

Junghyun Kim shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Junghyun, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about your customers?
The most surprising thing I’ve learned is that my clients choose to carry my work on their bodies for life, and cherish it that deeply. It reminds me of how I first fell in love with tattooing and brings me back to my original passion.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is PittaKKM and I am a tattoo artist and visual artist working between Seoul and Los Angeles. My work reinterprets traditional Korean colors and patterns, especially dancheong, into a contemporary visual language on skin. I see the body as a living canvas and every tattoo becomes a permanent fragment of a story, a record, and a myth that travels with the person who wears it.

I run two studios, Mizangwon in Seoul and Nonfromseoul in Los Angeles, where I bridge cultures and introduce a new perspective on Korean aesthetics to a global audience. My focus now is building a long term artistic legacy, expanding beyond tattooing into exhibitions, objects, and a growing visual universe that future generations can look back on.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
It is still difficult for me to clearly define who I am. I become different versions of myself in front of different people, and I tend to adapt and change according to my environment and the world around me. Because of that, I feel that the people who are encountering me now, and communicating with me in this moment, are the ones who can see me most clearly.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Keep going. You are right.
Do more. In the end it will never feel like enough.
Do not stop. What you want is the feeling of never ending.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
There was a time when I believed that visual pleasure and beauty were the highest values. Now I think the narrative and the story that follows, or rather accompanies it, are just as important. People connect by immersing themselves in the story beyond what they see, and they project emotion and create a sense of belonging through it.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Being negative.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pittakkm.com
• Instagram: @pittakkm
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PittaKKM

Image Credits
PittaKKM