Directions for Standardizing Tattooist Qualifications: A Text Mining Analysis of Research on Semi-permanent Makeup in Korea

This study conducted a multi-method text mining analysis of 172 Korean journal articles on semi-permanent makeup (SPM) published from 2003 to 2026, using KH Coder, VOSviewer, and Voyant Tools to achieve methodological triangulation. The corpus comprised 50,340 tokens and 3,771 types. Co-occurrence network analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward’s method, cosine distance), and correspondence analysis consistently revealed a consumer-behavior-dominated knowledge structure, with hygiene, education, and infection-related keywords occupying peripheral positions. Temporal trend analysis identified a tripartite trajectory from early procedural focus through mid-period consumer behavior dominance to recent thematic diversification. These findings acquire critical relevance given the Tattooist Act (2025), which mandates national licensing and hygiene training by 2027, underscoring the urgent need for expanded research on safety protocols, curriculum development, and post-regulatory industry restructuring.