More Women Getting Tattoos Removed

Women are getting as many tattoos as men nowdays but the fairer sex tends to regret it more often, suggests a new study. Women face more social stigma and negative remarks regarding their ‘body art’, which causes them to get rid of it after a few years.

Men can easily endorse body art with their macho image, but women sporting tattoos are accused of offending gender boundaries, said lead author of the study, Myrna L. Armstrong, a professor in the school of nursing at Texas Tech University’s Health Sciences Center, in Lubbock, Texas.

About 25 percent of the Americans in the age group 18 to 30 have at least one tattoo, and in the next few years the tattooed-segment is expected to jump to 40 percent, according to the study published in the July issue of ‘Archives of Dermatology.’

Previous studies have shown that an estimated 20 percent of people end up disappointed with their body art and 6 percent opt for their removal.

Researchers analyzed data from two different surveys with a decade’s gap.

The first survey, in 1996 revealed that more men than women sought tattoo removal. Probably not many women were getting tattoos, back then.

The more recent, 2006 survey showed that tattoos were causing more stigmas to women than men. About 40 percent of women said that tattoos brought them negative comments at work, in public or in school compared with 5 percent of the men. Also, 93 percent of women decided to remove the tattoos because they had to cover it on various occasions.

However, in both studies men and women said that with transformation of their identities they had grown to dislike tattoos, and wanted to remove them.

“You can’t go to a wedding these days without seeing one bridesmaid with a tattoo her back,” said Armstrong. But, she added that there are people who still object to it.

"Societal support for women with tattoos may not be as strong as for men," said the authors. "Rather than having visible tattoos, women may still want to choose self-controlled body site placement, even in our contemporary society."

The study also revealed that people got tattoos because they wanted:
• To feel unique (44 %)
• To feel independent (33%)
• To mark a particular life experience (28%)

Tattoos can be hard to remove sometimes, and repeated laser treatments might cause skin damage. Armstrong recommends those who are not ready to commit to a tattoo for a lifetime, to opt for tattoo ink that can easily be removed.