NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women are more likely than men to see a dermatologist to have a tattoo removed and their motivation may be the social stigma associated with tattoos and negative comments by others, suggest the results of a survey conducted in 2006 released today.
Reporting in the Archives of Dermatology, Myrna L. Armstrong of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Marble Falls, and associates note that about one quarter of 18- to 30-year olds have tattoos. And while the vast majority of tattooed individuals are pleased with their body art, about one fifth is not, although only about 6 percent seek tattoo removal.
In the survey of 66 men and 130 women who sought tattoo removal from a dermatologist, Armstrong and colleagues found that 44 percent said they originally got tattooed to feel unique, 33 percent to feel independent and 28 percent to make life experiences stand out.
When asked why they decided to get the tattoo removed, 58 percent said they just decided one day to get rid of it and 57 percent sited tattoo embarrassment as the reason. Other reasons for tattoo removal included "lowering of body image (38 percent), getting a new job or career (38 percent), having problems with clothes (37 percent), experiencing stigma (25 percent) or marking an occasion, such as a birthday, marriage or newly found independence (21 percent)."
In this survey and a similar survey conducted in 1996, "a shift in identity occurred, and removal centered around dissociating from the past," Armstrong and colleagues report.
In contrast to the 1996 survey, women in the current survey were more apt to seek tattoo removal than men (69 percent vs. 31 percent). These women were most often white, single, college-educated and between the ages of 24 and 39 years old.
While the women said they were pleased with their tattoos when they got them, often around the age of 20, they reported changes in their feelings over time.
"While men also reported some of these same tattoo problems leading to removal, there seemed to be more societal fallout for women with tattoos, as the tattoos began to cause embarrassment, negative comments and clothes problems and no longer satisfied the need for uniqueness," Armstrong and colleagues report.
"Societal support for women with tattoos may not be as strong as for men," they conclude. "Rather than having visible tattoos, women may still want to choose self-controlled body site placement, even in our contemporary society."
SOURCE: Archives of Dermatology, July 2008.
