Family Fact: Tats Stats

Family Quote: Addicted to Tattoos?

Family Research Abstract: Marked for Trouble

"In a 2002 scientific study of 454 university students, more than one-half said they had a body piercing and about a quarter said they had a tattoo. Of those students with piercings, nearly one in five reported a medical complication due to the procedure itself or how they cared for the piercing afterward. Their medical complications included bacterial infection, bleeding, and injury or tearing at the site."

(Source: "Body piercing and tattoos: More than skin deep," Mayo Clinic, MC00020, April 04, 2002; http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=MC00020.)

“I’ve got tattoos all over my body. My sister’s husband got me into it—he’s tattooed up all the way. Now I’ve got some tribal symbols, a few skulls, there’s a dragon on one of my arms—you might say I’ve got issues. It’s incredibly addictive and I plan on getting more. The designs I’ve picked have been drawn specifically for me, though, because once you get one, you’re stuck with it for life—so you’d better pick something good.”

(Source: Jason Giambi [New York Yankees baseball player], Spin, August 2003, p. 54, quoted in Youth Culture E-Update, The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, Edition #41: July 30, 2003, http://www.cpyu.org/culture.htm.

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 is ... increasing in frequency and acceptance."