# Ink free zones **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 11, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ink-free-zones/796062 "2017-09-11T13:55:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ink-free-zones/796062/1 "2017-09-11T13:55:47Z")
Last night I played at a squaredance. Was really fun seeing so many people of various ages interacting and having so much fun. Many of the folk were in their 20s-30s, but they ranged from kids to elderly. At some point, I realized that there was not a single visible tattoo. Just struck me as a little diffferent from just about every other social environment - especially with folk of that age demographic. In contrast, my most recent thought about tats was at the farmer’s market where I play regularly, and had noticed an apparent increase in visible chest ink on women. I guess I should note that the dance was hosted by a folk dance society and was held in a barn at Fermilab - so maybe “physics-types” might affect the prevalence of tats. Wondered if you’ve been in social situations where you noticed a lack of visible ink. Only other one I recall is at a modern dance performance, where my wife and I noticed no ink on the performers. Of course, they may have been using makeup. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ink-free-zones/796062/2 "2017-09-19T21:42:53Z")
Don’t mind me. I’m just chuckling at the pun which is a barn dance at Fermilab. Speaking of, maybe enough of them work in close enough proximity to high-end electromagnets that ink would be a bad idea, especially given how many tattoo inks seem to contain iron. Tattooed people have the same problem with MRIs. (Adorable side note: My three-and-a-half-year-old niece is, of course, being raised by my brother and his wife, both of whom are my age: Early thirties, the prime tattoo demographic for men and women around here. And so she’s familiar with her parents having a fair amount of ink, and all their friends have some tattoos, and most of her relatives. Her dad draws little “tattoos” on her in marker sometimes. Anyway, she was shocked and amazed that her favorite grandma, my and her dad’s mom, only has one tattoo: corgis she’s owned, on her right shoulder. I doubt she even knows that one of her uncles, me, doesn’t have any tattoos at all.) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ink-free-zones/796062/3 "2017-09-19T22:58:00Z")
I play Bridge and that is largely tattoo-free. I think there’s only one player with visible tattoos. And she often covers them up. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ink-free-zones/796062/4 "2017-09-19T23:05:12Z")
My family is largely tats free. I even escaped the Navy without getting drunk and tattooed. My niece is I think the only one with tats. My wife’s family is also tattoo free. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ink-free-zones/796062/5 "2017-09-20T00:06:33Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Don’t mind me. I’m just chuckling at the pun which is a barn dance at Fermilab. > > \ Now that is what I call an intimate dance! 🙂 > **[Barn (unit)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_(unit))** > > A barn (symbol: b) is a metric unit of area equal to 10−28 m2 (100 fm2). Originally used in nuclear physics for expressing the cross sectional area of nuclei and nuclear reactions, today it is also used in all fields of high-energy physics to express the cross sections of any scattering process, and is best understood as a measure of the probability of interaction between small particles. A barn is approximately the cross-sectional area of a uranium nucleus. The barn is also the unit of area used...