From the local (UK) beach I would definitely say yes for women below 30. The only thing I could find from google was that more women entering the US army had tattoos than men (46% vs 28%), though that is hardly a random sample http://www.stfm.org/fmhub/fm2003/jan03/cram.pdf
any tattooists out there?
Great question - I have wondered the same thing, so many young women I know wanting tatoos these days!
Maybe there are some police arrest records or prison statistics?.. they keep track of identifying marks like scars and tatoos. Police arrest records are much more representative of the general populace, since almost anyone can be arrested, regardless of whether or not the person is innocent or guilty. That is probably the only place where you will find such statistics, and ages are also kept by police so we can see how tatooing changed from being a masculine trait to a feminine trait.
From personal obervation, among the many younger people I know, tatoos are much more proportionate among young women than men than the 46-28 percentages of the army suggest. I find young men rarely have or want tatoos(much less than 28%), but they are very common among young women, who either have them, or want one(more than 48%).
When I was young, tatoos on men seemed to be so masculine, now they seem kind of sissy on them.
I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement.