The art of tattooing can be traced back for thousands of years; the oldest body ever found with tattoos on it was five thousand years old found atop a mountain between Italy and Austria in 1991. Most of the tattoos on the body consisted of crosses and thick lines. Many cultures from the past and present find this kind of body modification very appealing while others find it appalling. I know many people with tattoos and find the art intriguing. I just wished people knew more about the risks and the benefits before they get a tattoo. Look around you, there has to be at least one person in the room with a tattoo, teachers, parents, siblings, relatives, and friends. In April 2000 The Pew Research Center stated that about 15% of people in the United States have a tattoo; that’s about forty million people all together; think how much that might have changed over the course of ten years! The opinions people make about tattoos can come from many environments; I’m going to look at three of them. Different cultures and their interpretation of tattooing, risks with getting a tattoo, and additional opinions about tattoos arranged into survey results.

There are many different cultures in the world and each one has its own unique history and viewpoint on the practice of tattooing on human tissues. In ancient times tattoos were mainly used to treat or heal wounds and ailment. For example if someone had arthritis in a limb the village leader might tattoo a god or a sturdy animal on that area to make it regain its strength. Another reason for tattoos was as a marking of status. The Egyptians pharaohs would be marked with pictures and symbols of the gods. The history of tattooing has also taken another route of darkness and death. The Nazis would tattoo numbers on the arms of people when they entered a concentration camp. Preceding the twenty-century, people did not use adequate utensils to carve the tattoo into the flesh; they would use dirty needles and unsanitary ink. Because of this lack of hygiene many people died from infection and diseases caused by the tattoos. Using contaminated equipment would not be acceptable in the present day. Even with all of this information against tattoos, people still get them.

Tattoos are indeed funky and can be a great attention grabber, but they can also harm a body if not taken care of properly or if the artist is careless. Some of the many diseases the public can catch while getting a tattoo are AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, tetanus, syphilis and several other blood born pathogens states the Everyday Health web page. A contaminated needle can transfer these, or an open wound caused by the tattoo artist. In fact “you are twice as likely to get hepatitis C from a commercial tattoo parlor than from shooting dope”, this was from Dr. Haley of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. The FDA’s Arkansas based National Center for Toxicological and a team led by chemist Paul Howard, PhD found many interesting details about what a tattoo could do to the human body. They learned that some of the inks could shut down a person’s metabolism, making it hard for a body to absorb the nutrients from food. Several inks used in a tattoo may react with the waves in an MRI, which can cause burning or swelling. There are also instances of tattoos leaving permanent scars tissue, or the tattoo may form Granulomas, which are small knots or bumps that form from particle in the inks. Any of these serious infections could cause you to lose a limb if not taken care of. In fact the New York City
Department of Health states that:

“Tattooing is an invasive procedure that can result in serious skin and blood infections. Where procedures involving penetration of the skin are not performed correctly, they can mean of transmitting organisms that cause diseases like AIDS, Hepatitis B and C. In New York State, it is against the law to tattoo any person under the age of 18 years. Parental consent for tattooing persons under the age of 18 is not allowable.”
Regardless of these warnings, in March 2002 one in every eight Americans had a tattoo. In contrast a Life magazine article from 1936 estimated that ten million Americans or about 6% of the population had a tattoo. In 2006 the results from the Harris Poll found 36% of people that have tattoos are ages 18 to 25. They also discovered that 18% of Democrats were likely to have a tattoo while only 14% of Republicans would have one. 34% of Americans with tattoos said that it made them feel more sexy, 29% more rebellious, 26% more attractive, 4% healthier, and 3% more athletic. On the other hand 42% of Americas without tattoos said that tattoos are less attractive, 36% think its less sexy, 31% less intelligent. Of all the people that have tattoos 83% of them do not regret it and 17% do. Some of the regrets are because of the name on the tattoo, the way it looks, its faded, looks “stupid” or its visible where the person does not want it.

Despite all the pros and cons of getting a tattoos the most important one is your own personally preference. Maybe you want a tattoo because of your culture or maybe you don’t because of all the risks. Perhaps you’re undecided and just want some more information about tattoos; it’s up to you. Out of the forty million plus people that have tattoos I wonder how many of them realized all the possible consequences of getting a tattoo. I’m all for body art and not just tattooing, but there’s always a fine line between what reasonable and what’s not. Usually it’s on someone else body