I read an interesting little blurb in the “USA Weekend” magazine in the Sunday paper.   Apparently, tattoos are increasingly popular among young people.

According to Pew Research, 36% of people in the 18-26 age bracket have tattoos, and   so do 40% of the people aged 26-40.   We over-40 oldsters have been slow to get with the program–only 10% of us are tattooed.   (Clearly, I need to start evangelizing my peer group.)  

The numbers are not as large for people who have dyed their hair an unconventional color or who have a piercing somewhere other than their ear lobes.   I’m not sure why that is.   Hair dye grows out, and body-jewelry holes close up (unless you’ve gone for the stretched-out style).   So that kind of alteration is undo-able, where tattoos generally are not (well, yeah, we all see the ads for the tat-removal places, but getting a tattoo removed is more painful and more expensive than getting it applied in the first place).

I must admit to being surprised that the numbers for tattoos and piercings weren’t closer; I thought they tended to go together.     Maybe I’m just thinking of the tatto-expo crowd?

Here is a link to the Pew web site with the data. Do you think this survey was accurate? Or do you think they should have asked a different sample?

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