inkbluesky

nell mcandrew’s wolf tattoo

Click for a larger version.

Survey: 24% between 18-50 tattooed

The study, scheduled to appear Monday on the website of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, provides perhaps the most in-depth look at tattoos since their popularity exploded in the early 1990s.

The results suggest that 24% of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed; that’s almost one in four. Two surveys from 2003 suggested just 15% to 16% of U.S. adults had a tattoo.

“Really, nowadays, the people who don’t have them are becoming the unique ones,” said Chris Keaton, a tattoo artist and president of the Baltimore Tattoo Museum.

But body art is more than just tattoos.

About one in seven people surveyed reported having a piercing anywhere other than in the soft lobe of the ear, according to the study. That total rises to nearly one in three for the 18-to-29 set. Just about half — 48% — in that age category had either a tattoo or piercing.

Given their youth, that suggests the percentage of people with body art will continue to grow, said study co-author Anne Laumann, a Northwestern University dermatologist.

“They haven’t had time to get their body piercing. They haven’t had time to get their tattoo. They are just beginning to get into it and the number is already big,” Laumann said.

So why has body art become so popular?

Laumann and others believe it allows people to broadcast to the world what they are all about. Others call it sign of rebellion or a rite of passage. The survey found nearly three-fourths of the pierced and nearly two-thirds of the tattooed made the leap before 24.

I don’t know that we’ve reached the saturation point yet for tattoos, that may be years off, but Lauman may be mistaken in thinking that there is some nice linear curve for tattoos. If it reaches the point where let’s say half the population has them, then you have also reached the point where you’re not making much of a statement anymore.The tattoo itself may say something marginally unique, but the act of getting a tattoo will have lost its iconoclast status. One thing we’re seeing now is the decline of the big  back/top of the buttock tattoo which might be a boom for those that perform tattoo laser removal.

Speaking of storms, A Governing Philosophy Rebuffed – Ruling Emphasizes Constitutional Boundaries

Consultant Breached FBI’s Computers  Frustrated by Bureaucracy, Hacker Says Agents Approved and Aided Break-Ins

Agent One: I didn’t tell him he could break in, did you.

Agent Two: No I told him to “take a break”.

Agent One: Geeks!!