Inked Talk

Recent statistics have suggested that one in four adults aged 18-30 have a tattoo. As tattoos have become more mainstream, laser tattoo removal procedures have likewise made great strides, and the result is more people having tattoos removed now than ever before.

A study led by Myrna Armstrong of Texas Tech University suggests that women are more likely than men to undergo laser tattoo removal. Armstrong’s team visited tattoo removal clinics Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts and Texas to find out who was undergoing tattoo removal procedures, and why. Armstrong’s study consisted of just 196 people.

Above photo: tattoo removal in progress, courtesy of http://www.immortalimagestattoo.com

Sixty-six men and 130 women were interviewed for the study. In addition to demographic information, they answered questions about why they got the their tattoos, and why they were seeking removal. The most popular reasons for getting a tattoo were to commemorate an occasion and to feel “unique” and “independent.”

Women who were white, single, college-educated and between the ages of 24 and 39 were the most likely to seek removal of their tattoos. Their reasons for removal included suffering embarrassment from the tattoo, lowering of body image, getting a new job or career, having problems with clothes, and experiencing stigma. While men reported some of the same problems, they did not appear to suffer the same external pressure that women did. This led the researchers to conclude that society may be less supportive of women’s tattoos.

This author has to add her two cents to that conclusion. Anyone who has taken a basic statistics class knows the phrase “correlation does not equal causation.” In other words, an apparent correlation between two things does not suggest that one causes the other. My favorite pop culture example of this is the famous “Pirates vs. Global Warming” chart:

The chart shows that as the number of pirates has decreased, the average global temperature has increased. While the chart is comedic, it illustrates the point that just because two appear to have a correlation, you cannot conclude that one causes the other.

So what does this have to do with Armstrong’s study on tattoo removal?

The conclusion that societal pressures lead to women seeking tattoo removal more often than men is misplaced. Simply because more women cite societal pressure for tattoo removal doesn’t mean that societal pressure towards women is the cause. What about tattoo placement? Are women more likely to get a tattoo that isn’t easily concealed in the workplace? Or perhaps the societal pressure is equal among the sexes, but women are more likely to succumb to that pressure.

Or perhaps there is another explanation entirely.

While Armstrong’s sample size for this study may be too small to be conclusive, perhaps a more interesting study would have examined the correlation between the reason for initially getting the tattoo and its ultimate reason for removal. Perhaps women are more likely to get a tattoo that is relatively meaningless to them to start with, thus making the decision to have it removed less monumental and more akin to a change of wardrobe.

Armstrong’s study, while interesting, is just the beginning. A larger sample size and questions that examine the relationship between the reason for the tattoo in the first place and the reason for its removal may be more telling.