How many students in high school actually have tattoos? Stick and pokes, professionally done tattoos, friends tattooing friends, how many students fall into that category?

If the students do have tattoos, what are their reasons and if they do not, what are theirs? From my knowledge, very few students have real tattoos because many are under the age of 18. However, a few have a stick and pokes that they have given themselves.  

The students with tattoos in Davis are a small population, I am one of the few included. The percent of students with tattoos at Davis High were hard to find, but I asked as many people as I could.

I asked friends, friends asked their friends, and found that the population of people tattooed is around 2%. These students didn’t surprise me when they said they had a tattoo, but none the less, they were all good students.

Almost all the students asked were seniors, few grades below 12th had any. The students without tattoos often come from religious backgrounds or their age has stopped them from doing so. I have also had students say that they were planning on getting a tattoo, or many, as soon as they were 18 or graduated.

A student who wished to stay anonymous said: 

“I have a tattoo because I really wanted to express myself. I think other students don’t have tattoos because they are seen as rebellious if they do. The culture at Davis, in my opinion, stops students from expressing themselves and getting tattoos. I feel like students that are 18 want to get tattoos the second they are old enough because they have a new sense of freedom. But I feel like adults also tell you that you’ll regret it later and it makes students think twice about going through with it.” 

Students all over Utah have tattoos, the percentage is too hard to figure out among the region because I seem to be the only one with the question. The areas where tattoos are most popular among high school students is difficult to determine, but areas with more gang affiliation could have students with more tattoos.

Before, you could often connect lower income and the lower class to tattoos among students and others, but now they seem to be so widespread among everyone that there is no association. 

The tattoo percentages among the students in Utah are low, but still there. In a review of 2180 students in Canada, only 8% had tattoos. One could compare this information to Utah or maybe the United States. It was also discovered that the U.S. has not done as many studies on high school students and tattoos as one would imagine they would have.