32% of Americans have a tattoo, including 22% who have more than one
pewresearch.org
pewresearch.org
Wondering why people do it, art or what are we missing?
* Blood type, DNR, med info, service ID, etc,
* Name &/or death date of loved one,
* moment of youthful|drunken excess
tattoos.
I plan to have more eventually but I'm not in any hurry. I've found a few great artists but the biggest problem is actually getting time in their calendar.
But my point is: now that tattoos are becoming more popular, there will be more 'beginners' like me.
The main point of my comment above was to point out the obvious, that not everybody with a tattoo is into tattoos for the same reasons .. and a number of people with tattoos aren't neccesarily even into tattoos per se.
It's a trite point for a HN crowd - no one should assume the analytics on a group are homogenous.
You left important passwords off the list. I feel invisible now. :(
The linked article states that 69% of people that got a tattoo did so to honor or remember someone or something, 47% did so to make a statement, and 32% to improve their appearance.
I think around here with my demographic, I might be in the minority with no tattoos. Makes me feel rather countercultural.
You can consider those things unimportant, but society as a whole does not agree with you.
My first name was a common baby name when I was born, and as far as I can tell has no connection with my family history or anything else. Probably my parents just liked the sound of it.
Oh wow so you're just going to stand by this outrageous statement then
We just don't have as much reefer-madness level of propaganda brainwashing the public into associating tattoos with motorcycle gangs that tear through town and rape your daughters.
I think the criminal association threshold has moved to facial tattoos having offensive content, suggesting incarceration.
You feel good at first, more aligned with your mind, then you realize you could have just put a poster on the wall that doesn't come with the risk of cancer or autoimmune disease.
Not to be unkind, but I believe this is very similar to other irreversible decisions folks make. We're all suckers, trying to make ourselves feel better through deals with the devil.
I would think that if a third of the population has a tattoo, we'd actually know with almost certainty what the effects are.
I wouldn't count on it. It took us 100 years to find out smoking was extremely bad, even though the majority of the population was doing it.
> FDA considers the inks used in intradermal tattoos, including permanent makeup, to be cosmetics. When we identify a safety problem associated with a cosmetic, including a tattoo ink, we investigate and take action, as appropriate, to prevent consumer illness or injury. The pigments used in the inks are color additives, which are subject to premarket approval under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. However, because of other competing public health priorities and a previous lack of evidence of safety problems specifically associated with these pigments, FDA traditionally has not exercised regulatory authority for color additives on the pigments used in tattoo inks. The actual practice of tattooing is regulated by local jurisdictions.
As regards long term population studies... we'd also need to know if what's in tattoo inks has changed over time, which seems plausible?
[1] https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-products/tattoos-perm...
I’d say the known risks - infection, although only a small risk, are much more likely than things like cancer.
And feeling better is also important. Stress can also cause major health issues, and it interferes with the enjoyment of life.
>A neck tattoo used to say "Watch out, motherfucker." Now it says "I'd love to read you a poem about my vegan bicycle!"
https://twitter.com/robdelaney/status/64775497468485632?lang...
Though now I think even that hipster association is gone, tattoos are just another aspect of fashion these days.
formally educated people with the associated support system to get the degree are the least likely to have tattoos
while all their bastards and the alt single parent that both get ignored forever get and have tattoos, should be a much larger population, which tracks