Do Tattoos Signify Mental Disorders?
In a recent study, children were interviewed about their personal knowledge and opinions of tattoos (Houghton, S. & others, 1995). A five year old was asked the question, “If you were out shopping with your mom, what would she say if she saw someone with a tattoo?” He reportedly answered, “…only people like bikies or gangsters get tattoos.” When an even younger child was asked his opinion, he said, “That’s what some people do [have a tattoo] if they think they are really tough.”
Tattooed individuals are much more likely to have school problems compared to their nontattooed peers. Those with amateur tattoos are even more likely to struggle, reporting much lower academic grades. Surprisingly, recent studies have shown that gender, ethnicity, and neighborhood type are not necessarily associated with tattooing (Roberts, T.A., Ryan, S.A., 2002). However, adolescents whose parents had a highschool education or less were more likely to be tattooed, and adolescents whose parents had a college education or more were much less likely to be tattooed. Tattooed individuals are much more likely to attend juvenile detention centers, and inversely, those adolescents in juvenile detention centers are much more likely to walk out with an amateur tattoo that they did not walk in with.
Tattooed adolescents are also much more likely to engage in personally harmful forms of rebellion as compared to their unmarked peers. Sexual promiscuity has a very high correlation with tattooing. A whopping 83% of young people with tattoos report a history of sexual intercourse compared with a measly 36% of nontattooed adolescents. Tattooed adolescents are four times as likely to have lost their virginity than nontattooed adolescents.
