Women Get More Tattoos Than Men

By Catherine Q. O'Neill, Allure magazine



When I turned 18, I was dead set on getting a tattoo. I had the brilliant idea of spelling out a Greek word on my side, but thankfully my older sister (who'd had her own experience with bilingual ink) stepped in. "Wait two years," she told me. "If you still want it after that time, get it." Sure enough, two years passed and I couldn't believe I'd ever considered a four-inch tattoo (in a language I don't even speak, by the way). My sister wasn't so lucky: It took her multiple, painful laser surgeries to remove the two Japanese symbols on her back and neck. But according to an Oxygen media poll conducted by Lightspeed Research, we're not the only girls piqued by the idea.



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59 percent of tattoos in the United States belong to women, with 68 percent attributing beauty to their motivation for getting inked-as opposed to cultural, religious, or loyalty reasons (guess we've learned our lesson about tattooing our boyfriend's name on our wrist). The top two designs were angels and hearts-not my first choice, but hey, at least we're moving away from the insect family. And in one small step for (wo)man, the upper back and shoulder beat out the lower back-a.k.a. "tramp stamp"-by 7 percent for the most popular spot.



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Although Megan Fox has been outspoken about removing her Marilyn Monroe tattoo from her wrist, she's apparently in the minority. Only 12 percent of both sexes wish they could take back their decision to get a tattoo. The study was conducted for the premier of Best Ink, a show that certainly beats out the Bachelor in the long-term commitment department. Starting March 27 at 10 PM, tattoo artists will be pitted against each other to win $100,000 and a cover story in Tattoo magazine. We just hope that ink is temporary. Can you imagine going home with the losing design? I bet there's a great Greek word for that feeling.


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Do you have a tattoo? Are you still happy with your decision?


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