People get tattoos for all sorts of reasons. Some tattoos give a person a sense of freedom, while other tattoos may have a deeper meaning or sentimental value to them. Therefore, in today’s generation body art should not be judged because it is seen on all types of people, for all types of reasons. A study done by Liu and Lester (2012) conducted a survey, to see in what location people got a tattoo and why. Liu and Lester (2012) states “Out of the 4,690 responses (2,078 men, 2,581 women, and 31 “other”), 18.6% were 18 years old or younger, 70.8% were between 19 and 30, and 10.6% were older than 30” (p. 22). After conducting the survey, results show “More body modifications on females were associated with the four types of self-reported abuse… For males, having “other” piercings and scarifications on the lower arm was associated with all four types of self-reported abuse” (p. 24-26). This evidence proves that people get tattoos for many different reasons. According to Liu and Lester (2012) “This study indicates that statistically significant relationships exist between piercings, tattoos, and scarifications and self-reports of emotional abandonment and physical, sexual, and mental abuse” (p. 28). Therefore, people not only get tattoos; they get a piece that shows sentimental value or has some sort of meaning to them.
