In some studies, tattooing and body piercing have been associated with
risk-taking behaviors, including sexual intercourse, binge drinking, and substance
use (cigarette smoking, marijuana, and other drugs). Other noted associations
have included physical fights, violence, gang membership, truancy,
delinquency, negative feeling toward the body, anger, disordered eating, low
self-esteem, impulsive decision making, aggressive impulses, arrests, depression,
and suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Risk-taking
seems to be increased when the tattoo is obtained at earlier ages.
These associations are not universal, and other studies have not found
evidence of rebellion or deviancy. In the study by Armstrong and associates of college students, the major reason given for piercing was ‘‘uniqueness’’
and to ‘‘be myself, I don’t need to impress anyone anymore.’’ Although studies
in college students have shown that those with tattoos and body piercing
engaged in more risk-taking behaviors, such as sexual activity and substance
use, they are similar to peers without body art in terms of parental education,
positive family relationships, and religious involvement and attitudes. The
study of high school students by Armstrong and Murphy also found that
more than one half of the sample was academically successful with consistent
grades in the A and B range. In the emergency department study by Rooks
and colleagues, there was no difference between subjects with tattoos
and those without them in terms of a presenting complaint of injury, illness,
psychiatric problem, or chemical dependency. Finally, Martin, a child
psychiatrist, illustrated through case vignettes that body decoration and specifically
tattoos frequently can be understood in terms of self-constructive
forms of adornment, rather than as mutilation or destructive.
