The Rise of a Foreign Influencer in Korea
Swiss-Turkish digital creator Mehtap Oezkan (@mehtapisme) has built a name for herself in Seoul with short, comedic skits about everyday life in Korea. With 235K Instagram followers and nearly 400K on TikTok, she’s one of those influencers you’ve definitely scrolled past without even realizing it.
Arriving in Korea as an exchange student in 2017, she later returned to open a branch of her company and now juggles a corporate day job with late-night content creation. Sounds wholesome, right? Well, the picture-perfect story hides a streak of online drama, shady deletions, and clickbait chaos.
The “Controversy” Question
When searching her name, “Mehtapisme controversy” pops up. Her response? She insists she hasn’t had a real controversy, yet. Laughing, she admits: “Someday I will have a controversy. It’s bound to happen. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
That coy acknowledgment only fuels gossip more.
Clickbait Queen? Deleted Posts & Silent Cleanups
Although Mehtap claims she has not been involved in a controversy, followers have accused Mehtap of misleading titles and clickbaity captions, with some claiming she’s quick to delete posts when the backlash gets too loud.
At first, she allegedly scrubbed anything negative, but fans noticed. These days, she lets the comment section burn itself out while she sits back and watches the engagement skyrocket. A calculated move? Many think so.
The Boyfriend Saga: Who Is @mehtapisme Dating?
Of course, no influencer career is complete without messy relationship tea. Enter “SB,” Mehtap’s boyfriend. They met during her exchange student days in 2018. He sometimes appears in her videos but is never pressured to appear, according to Mehtap.
Some of Mehtap’s most-watched videos feature her boyfriend including lighthearted skits, day-in-the-life vlogs, and romantic snippets that fans swoon over. But not everyone is impressed.
A corner of TikTok and Instagram has started calling her a “Koreaboo,” a term for foreigners who are seen as obsessed with Korean culture, sometimes to a cringeworthy degree. The criticism centers on her video titles and framing, which often highlight her life in Korea or her relationship with a Korean man.
Fans argue that she’s just sharing her authentic life, while detractors accuse her of leaning on cultural fetishization for clicks. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle: she’s marketing savvy enough to know what titles and tropes pull views, even if it means inviting that label.
“Is Mehtap engaged?” That’s one of the most searched questions. While she shows off rings gifted by her boyfriend (and one from her mother), she dodges the engagement talk with a cheeky line: “If there is an announcement to make, I will get to it.”
Mehtap’s “Secret” Korean Actor Collabs: From Drama Sets to Idol Run-Ins
As a TikTok Korea Ambassador, Mehtap’s influencer career has opened unexpected doors: collaborations with K-Drama actors, official events in Busan, and access to an insider influencer community.
As it turns out, Mehtap isn’t just a social media girlie. She’s been brushing elbows with some of Korea’s biggest names. In her own words, she’s already worked with MBC to promote not one, but two K-dramas, even briefing the main cast on what to do in promotional clips.
Five minutes with A-list actors? She made it sound like a quick workday, but fans are buzzing: who exactly were these mystery stars?
And that’s not all. At a fashion event, Mehtap unexpectedly crossed paths with rising idol group TRI.BE, thanks to a shared designer look.
While she insists she was too hungry to make much of the encounter (“I didn’t even properly say hi,” she confessed), the selfies prove she’s more connected to the K-pop world than she lets on.
Even juicier: Mehtap admitted she’s done acting on stage in Seoul but keeps it quiet. Why? Because she doesn’t want her social media followers showing up and crossing her two worlds. Secret drama gigs? Stage life on the down-low? Fans are already speculating about what she’s hiding.
Haters, Body-Shaming & Double Standards
Like many female creators, Mehtap hasn’t escaped the trolls. She’s been hit with fat-shaming and skinny-shaming, sometimes in the same week. Online critics pick apart her looks and personality, but her supporters clap back just as hard.
She refuses to reveal her weight, citing responsibility: she doesn’t want her audience to obsess over digits that mean nothing about health or beauty.
But she does address a circulating rumor that she weighs 45 kilos (99 lbs). She firmly denies it, calling it unrealistic and unhealthy for her 173 cm frame. Instead, she admits to natural fluctuations, including a 15-kilo gain in 2022, which coincided with her early TikTok growth.
For every hater calling her “cringe,” there’s a fan praising her for staying unbothered and continuing to post.
Authentic or Just Another Clout-Chaser?
Some viewers argue she’s just another foreigner chasing clout in Korea, pointing out her occasional use of clickbait and “drama content.” Others defend her as a hardworking creator balancing a corporate job with a booming influencer career.
Mehtap once laughed about the inevitability of controversy: “Someday I will have a controversy. It’s bound to happen.” What she doesn’t realize is she might already be living it. Between her secret stage performances, collabs with K-drama actors, fashion run-ins with K-pop idols, and the never-ending scrutiny over her love life and body, Mehtap has become both the influencer and the story.
In the fast-moving world of TikTok Korea, drama finds her even when she isn’t looking and she knows exactly how to turn it into views. The real question isn’t whether she’ll create controversy; it’s whether the controversy will ever let her go.
Leave a Reply