Almost a third of people with tattoos regretted the decision to get body art, particularly men who obtained tattoos at a young age, a survey of more than 500 tattoo owners showed.
Overall, 31% of survey respondents expressed regret about their tattoos. Men were almost twice as likely as women to regret their tattoo decisions, and the proportion of men with regrets was three times higher among those who got their first tattoo before age 16.
Women, who accounted for almost half of the survey population, consistently expressed less regret, particularly women who got their first tattoo after age 21, Arif Aslam, MBBCh, and Caroline Owen, MBChB, reported in a poster presentation at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting.
“A significant number of people regret having a tattoo, and the longer they have had one, the more likely this becomes,” concluded Aslam and Owen, of the Royal Blackburn Hospital in Blackburn, England.
“We feel that this should become an important health message, as tattoo removal is not freely available, and unwanted tattoos can affect life chances and cause significant psychological morbidity.”
Interestingly, only about half of people who regretted their tattoos said they would have the art removed if they could, Aslam and Owen added.
The popularity of tattoos and other forms of body art has grown dramatically in
Read the rest of this article on MedPage Today: Tattoo Me: Tales of Regret and No Regrets
