Anyone who shops tattoo supplies for tattoo needles, inks and rotary tatoo machine knows tattoos. Still, there is always more to learn. There are many fascinating facts and statistics about tattooing:
• 36% of people between the ages of 18 and 25 years have one or more tattoos and 40% of people between the ages of 26 and 40 have one or more tattoos (source: The Pew Research Center)
• Across the US, over 45 million people have one or more tattoos (The U.S. Food And Drug Administration)
• 60% of people in the same age group (18-25) believe that the rise in popularity of tattoos has had no impact, while another 15% believe it has had a positive impact.
• Of those who have a tattoo, 5% have covered it with a different tatoo machine and tattoo ink design while 17% have considered tattoo removal (source: The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, March 2005)
• According to a 2004 Flash2xs.com poll, 19% of people polled claimed they chose to get a tattoo because they liked the design. 32% of poll respondents said they made the decision because they are addicted to tattoo ink. 43% said they wanted to symbolize something special and chose a tattoo to do so. Only 4% stated that they got a tattoo because they liked the feeling of the tattoo process and tattoo needles. (source: Flash2xs.com)
• Between 1960 and 1980, the number of women in Canada who had tattoos quadrupled. (source: Health Canada)
• About 90% of people polled claimed it is very important for them to see new tattoo flash in a tattoo studio (source: Flash2xs.com)
• In 1936, only about 6% of the US population (about 10 million people) had one or more tattoos (source: Life Magazine, 1936)
• In 2005, only about 6% of all light therapy and laser treatments were for tattoo removal (source: The American Society of Dermatological Surgery)
• In the 1990s, tattooing was the sixth largest growing business. A new tattoo establishment is opened for business in the US every day, on average. (source:
• U.S. News & World Report)
• Interest in tattoos is high. According to Lycos, the keyword “tattoo” has been in the top 50 search terms every week since Lycos started keeping track. Only seven keywords have this distinction. In some years, tattoo was among the top three most popular search terms and in most weeks it was among the top ten keywords searched by Internet users. (source: Lycos)