Why Do People Get Tattoos and Piercings?

From news.com.au, an Australian news site

I know people with tattoos, as well I might: 20% of Americans have at least one. And I know a few with piercings.

While I admire the artistry in some of my friends’ tattoos … I remain uneasy about them being tattoos.



Most often, the people I know in real life, as well as online, say tattooing and piercing are simply ways to decorate yourself, like clothes or haircuts.

I prefer painless, nonpermanent hennas.
Done by Soniya Gheewala Ekici

They skip right over the parts about pain and permanence.

I realize I am dating myself.

Then again, there’s evidence that tattoos and piercings will eventually date you as well, like those old women who have to draw in their eyebrows because, when they were young, they copied Joan Crawford, who had shaved hers – only to have them never grow back.

Even now, those statistics show the age group most likely to have a tattoo is 30-39.

Scroobius Pip, a British hipster, sees two possibilities: that it will either become cool and daring to not have tattoos (what I’m hoping for when it comes to my kids) or that, seeking to push the shock envelope, younger people will do more extreme things, such as scarification and nose gauges. (Don’t click unless you’re prepared to be grossed out. The first comment on the scarification video is, “this is the only video ive seen on youtube that has made me physically puke,” while putting a large gauge in the side of your nose creates an ant-farm-like display of the inner workings of your sinuses.)

I tell my kids two things: (1) There’s a difference between good attention (“Look at the cool thing that person can do!”) and bad attention (“What the hell is that?”) and (2) If people realize your only goal is to shock, they won’t find you shocking, just pathetic.