According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "during 1991--2001, the prevalence of sexual experience decreased 16% among high school students."  In the United States, 57.1 percent of high school girls, and 51.5 percent of boys have never had sexual intercourse.

(Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Trends in Sexual Risk Behaviors High School Students-United States, 1991-2001," MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 26, 2002, 51(38), 856-859; http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5138a2.htm.) 

"Whether they are influenced by the trickle-down effects of feminism, which has taught girls to be assertive in all areas of life, or have internalized the images of sexually powerful women in popular culture, American girls are more daring than ever. 'The teenage boys I see often say the girls push them for sex and expect them to ask them for sex and will bring it up if the boys don't ask,' said Tabi Upton, a counselor at the Johnson Mental Health Center in Chattanooga, Tenn., who consults with 20 to 30 teenagers a month. 'There has been a shift where girls now see themselves as sexualized and approach men with pretty much the attitude, This is all I have to offer.'"

(Source: Alex Kuczynski, "She's Got to Be a Macho Girl," The New York Times, November 3, 2002, p. 9-1; http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/03/fashion/03TEEN.html.)

Teens who have their bodies tattooed or pierced are especially likely to reject those principles of sexual restraint that have traditionally protected marriage and family life.  What is more, teens with tattoos and body piercings are often engaged in illicit drug use, frequently manifest disordered eating behaviors, and are all too often at risk for suicide.

The evidence linking tattoos and body piercings (other than in the ear lobes) to problematic adolescent behavior appears in an article recently published in Pediatrics by a team of researchers from the Rochester School of Medicine and the Naval Medical Center in San Diego.  Survey data collected from 484 adolescent patients at the Naval Medical Center revealed what the researchers characterize as "clear differences" separating teens with tattoos and body piercings from those without.  These differences indicate a much higher prevalence of "risk-taking behaviors" among those with tattoos and body piercings than among those without.  This risk-taking often shreds traditional standards of chastity or continence: "adolescents with at least 1 T[attoo]/P[iercing] were more sexually active and at greater risk sexually than adolescents without T/P" (p < .001 for both tattoos and for body piercings and for both males and females).  This risk-taking also translates into significantly elevated rates of "gateway drug use" (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana), hard drug use (cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and Ecstasy), disordered eating behavior, and suicide for both tattoos and body-piercings.  (In contrasting adolescents with at least one tattoo or body piercing with peers without, the researchers calculate the following scores of statistical significance: for gateway drug use, p < .001; for hard drug use, p < .001; for disordered eating behavior, p = .003; for suicide, p = .028.) 

Given the troubling findings of this survey, it comes as no good news that "Ten to 13% of adolescents age 12 to 18 [now] have tattoos" and that "body piercing at locations other than the ear lobes ... also . . . increasing in frequency and acceptance."