College freshmen aren’t particularly modest in their dress, especially in their dorms. I just don’t see them. Not on the girl’s ankles or shoulders, and the “tramp stamp” is a cliche that makes young kids roll their eyes. There is a quad in front of her dorm where guys are shirtless playing frisbee. Very few tattoos. Maybe it’s just the University of Colorado, but ten years ago it was completely different.
If I think of all the kids my daughter went to high school with, only one has a tattoo that I know of, and I’ve seen them in bikinis. That girl is a proud hippie who goes to Humbolt State in California.
It’s been a noticible change in the last four or five years, at least around here.
I’d restate the op question as “Do teenage girls still think tattoos are kewl?” I can’t answer that, I only know one teenage girl. I could ask her opinion, I guess.
As far as tattoos in the general population, definitely I think they’ve peaked, volume-wise, but they’ve been around as long as man, and I see no reason to believe they would ever completely go away.
Tattoo parlours galore here and they used to be a rarity, especially in suburbs and provincial cities. Both women and men of various ages seem to have them nowadays. Mothers and daughters get corresponding tats etc.
Ah yes, and more anecdata from me: there are at least six places I could get a tattoo within walking distance of my apartment.
To answer the OP, no.
Now that it’s hot here in NYC and people are wearing shorts & t-shirts, every day I see a large percentage of people with tattoos. Sometimes it seems like more than half.
No offense, but since when is University of Colorado considered “on the leading edge of trends,” any more than some other large state school?
I was at a large music fest recently (over 75,000 people) and I saw lots and lots of tattoos. Probably at least 6 out of every 10 people. I’d say the crowd definitely skewed young (low to mid 20s) and I’d bet there was more skin on display than in a university dorm. I’d guess this type of event attracts people more likely to get a tattoo, but the trend does not seem to be slowing, imho.
My job requires me to travel to Colleges and Universities all over the country. If you think that they’re all on the same time frame, you have no clue. What is a tired old cliche in some schools is cutting edge in others. It is still true that trends move west to east, and a few years later to the southeast. Example: jorts.
My answer to the OP is “I certainly hope so!”
I know more lawyers hurting for work than I do tattoo artists who are. Several of my close friends are established, high demand artists - they’re generally booked for months in advance.
I honestly don’t recall seeing a whole lot of tattoos in playboy, or any actually.
Some people are pointing out that they still see a lot people with tattoos. Well obviously. A lot of people have been tattooed and most of them are going to stay that way for the rest of their life.
But are the number of people getting tattoos declining? Anyone have any data on how many tattooings are performed each year?
There have been in the past few years.
I’m guessing future sociologists will consider Playboy publications as a useful resource to study trends in things like tattoos, body piercings, and pubic shaving.
Sure hope they’re on their way out. I’ve never cared much for them.
Ok, here’s a story about the tattoo as a cultural phonomenon, though the souce clearly has a bias. There is one reference stat that tattooing of women quadrupled between approx 1976 and 1996. There are other claims in the story that more tattoos are applied to women than men.
Here’s another reference to a 2001 story in American Demographics magazine saying women aged 40-64 are now more likely than men the same age to have a tattoo.
More tattoo stats.
According to WebMD, both getting them and having them removed are growing trends. This article mentions another thing I’d forgotten 'cause I’ve never seen them, but there have been at least two TV shows about tattoo shops in the last couple of years.
So I would bet tattoos are bigger than ever.
I do, but it was back in the early seventies. They did an article about the new trend of women getting tattoos, with many pictures of naked ladies with a little rose tattooed on the ankle, or some such. That trend didn’t really catch fire back then.
According to a Pew Research report from 2006, 24 percent of American adults under 64 have one or more tattoos. It’s a lot more common in people under 40: 36 percent of people age 18-25 had one and 40 percent of people age 26 to 40 had one. For people older than 40, it was 10 percent. Here’s a PDF of the report. The tattoo statistics are on page 21, along with survey questions about piercings and hair dyeing. There’s a different breakdown on page 58.
I suspect it is simply because there is a saturation point. A certain number of people will get multiple tats, and a certain number will never get any. Twenty years ago or so it mainstreamed - so now you ‘normal middle class suburban soccer moms’ with a tat. Those types will very likely get a single one - maybe two. Once those people reach saturation (and they have), then what you have left is those that will get multiple tattoos and the new young adults. For the new young adults, something your mother has is not edgy and therefore there isn’t the rush to get yourself inked.
Opening up a tattoo parlor is a pretty low barrier to entry business and my guess would be a lot of them are “hobby businesses.” The tattoo artist is actually supported by other means. Of course, some parlours are very profitable businesses.
More anecdata, while other businesses in my area seem to be wilting from the recession the local tattoo parlour staff told me they’re booked solid for weeks and months at a time, one of the chaps who worked there has opened up his own parlour full-time in a regional city. They do have the advantage of being able to have a tiny square footage and minimal stock.
You too? Its my primary course of study!
Marley kind of pooh-poohed this idea in post #7, but I still wonder if there is something to the “my PARENTS did it :rolleyes:” thing. Clothes and music absolutely fall into that category, and thus changes happen fast. Does tattoing, overall, get affected by that same thing? Or is that tattooing has styles and fashions within the subculture that affect what young people get today?
An example would be a 19-year-old woman specifically avoiding the tramp stamp or ankle tattoo her Mom’s got, but instead going for some other kind of currently-trendy tattoo.