A study by the University of Alabama says Americans are approximately 10 times more likely to consider getting a tattoo over the summer months. Online searches for "tattoos" and tattoo-related services regularly increased nationwide in July and decreased to their lowest point in November.
Researchers also identified a generalized, stable climb in local searches like "tattoo shops near me" over the past 14 years. This shift is consistent with other surveys documenting the gradually declining stigma around tattoos in the United States, which were once considered a taboo form of body modification.
A 2019 Ipsos poll showed 30% of Americans now sport at least one piece of body art, compared to the 21% who wore ink in 2012. Not only are there more tattooed Americans than ever before, but nearly all of them also reported feeling no regrets over their decision to get inked (92%).
Who Is Most Likely To Be Tattooed?
Over a decade ago, the Pew Research Center identified millennials – people born between 1981 and 1996 – as the generation leading the way toward destigmatizing body art. In 2010, 40% of millennials wore tattoos — half of them reported wearing two to five pieces of body art, and 18% had six or more. Back then, the persistent shame surrounding tattoos and fear of workplace discrimination meant that 70% of millennials hid their ink underneath their clothing.
A more recent follow-up to that study, published just last week finds the numbers have increased slightly. Nearly half of all Americans under 50 have one or more tattoos. Surprisingly, 38% of women have a tattoo, compared to 27% of men.
Most younger and middle-aged adult Americans are "twice as likely" to wear at least one tattoo, contrasting with the generations before them. Only 16% of adults 55 years or older reported having body art, in comparison to 40% of those aged 18-34 and 36% of 35 to 54-year-olds.
In terms of the most tattooed generations, millennials are still ahead of the rest, while Generation X follows close behind at 32%. Only 23% of their successors, Generation Z, wear body art. Since the younger half of Gen Z is still under 18, the current trends suggest this percentage will increase as they reach the legal minimum age for getting tattooed without parental consent.
What Are The Most Popular Types of Language Tattoos?
The most popular types of language tattoos might surprise you. The research, conducted in July by TPR Teaching, used Ahrefs Data to uncover the most popular tattoo types around the U.S.
When measured by the volume of Google searches, the most common type of tattoo in the United States is a Bible verse or scripture — nearly 18,500 searches per month. Almost 63% percent of Americans identify as some denomination of Christianity, the Pew Research Center reported in 2021.
Word tattoos come in second place, with 14,200 Google searches monthly, and almost double the number of searches for quote-inspired tattoos. Many choose meaningful phrases and words representing their values, ideas, or the most crucial moments in their lives.
Similarly, people select body art incorporating the names of those they love and significant dates in their personal history, which come in at 4,500 and 4,300 searches, respectively.
However, tattoo artists and historians caution against getting any permanent ink dedicated to a romantic partner. According to Stephen Crabbe, a linguistics professor at the University of Portsmouth, tattooing a lover's name can be traced back to 18th-century Japan. There is an equally long history of those who then attempt to remove the ink after a romantic disappointment.
In popularity, tattoos of symbols follow closely behind, with 4,200 monthly Google searches. Whether small or large, symbols often represent greater, complex concepts. Celebrities like Selena Gomez have used symbols to raise awareness through their own ink. She wears a tiny semicolon on her wrist, representing her struggle with mental illness.
Most Common Foreign Languages for Tattoos
Excluding English, the most commonly-searched language for tattoos in the United States is Japanese, with approximately 38,200 Google searches monthly. Since Japanese is a sophisticated combination of three different writing systems — hiragana, katakana, and kanji — it is recommended consumers double-check the spelling with a fluent translator.
The second modern language with the most online searches is Greek. Results yield images of tattoos referencing Ancient Greek myths, motifs, and characters, as well as the words of venerated philosophers like Socrates and Plato.
Chinese is the third most-researched modern language for tattoos and the third largest language group in the country, behind Spanish. In the United States, there are currently 3.4 million Chinese speakers, with dialects including Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, and others. Other Asian languages in the top 10 are Tagalog, Korean, and Thai.
Although not a modern language, Ancient Egyptian is technically the first runner-up in most Google searches (with 19,200 monthly searches). The pharaohs' ancient language used pictorial symbols known as hieroglyphs, representing literal or abstract concepts.
When Should You Get a Tattoo?
Although summer might be the most popular season for getting body art, tattoo artists warn that hot temperatures and exposed skin are not conducive to the best healing process.
For Dan Hunter, an artist with a decade of experience and owner of Authority Tattoo, "getting a tattoo in the fall, which lasts from September to December, is the best time to get tattooed."
Since these colder months usually require more clothing but not too many layers, Hunter believes it is the ideal time to care for a healing tattoo.
"To heal a fresh tattoo as quickly as possible, keep it out of the sun and avoid soaking, which is much more difficult in the summer than it is during the colder months of autumn and winter," was Hunter's expert advice. "Enjoying the wonderful outdoors is still possible without burning your skin and [causing] dryness and dehydration."
