Tattoos, childhood sexual abuse and adult psychiatric disorder in women

Speaking Through the Body: The Incidence of Self‐Injury, Piercing, and Tattooing Among College Students

“…Similar results have been reported elsewhere (Levitt et al, 2004;Romans, Martin, Morris, & Harrison, 1998). The lowest incidence of sexual or physical abuse, or of anorexia or bulimia occurred among those students who tattooed, whereas the highest was found among students who self-injured.…”

Understanding Differences in Mental Health History and Behavioral Choices in a Community Sample of Individuals with and without Body Modifications

“…al. 1999;Roberts and Ryan 2002;Romans et al 1998;Suris et al 2007). Participants were members of a moderately-sized southwestern city with both a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Airforce base and mid-sized state university.…”

“…This study found that individuals with body modifications were more likely to engage in positive social and health behaviors including volunteer work, voting, involvement in community organizations, donating to charities, maintaining a healthy weight-to-height ratio, eating healthy, and engaging in regular physical activity. Engagement in social and health behaviors has not typically been studied in previous research on individuals with body modifications, regardless of the sample, and this restricted the understanding of body modification behaviors in typical populations (Birmingham et al 1999;Roberts and Ryan 2002;Romans et al 1998;Suris et al 2007). Our work indicated that middle class values, which include different meanings, motivations, and behaviors when compared to past body-modification samples, are being found more often among individuals with body modifications.…”

“…Clinically significant behaviors were noted among body-modified adolescents, particularly an increase in suicidal behavior, self-mutilating behaviors, and eating disorders (Braithwaite 2001;Carroll and Anderson 2002;Preti et al 2006;Romans et al 1998;Strin and Hinz 2008;Suris et al 2007). Claus, Vanderrychken, and Vertommen (2005) found that females in treatment for eating disorders and who had body modifications smoked more cigarettes, used more hard drugs, and displayed greater sexual promiscuity.…”

Tattoos: what is their significance?

“…Gittleson (1969) found only two female patients with tattoos among 938 female admissions to a psychiatric hospital, both exhibiting disturbed personalities. A study of a community sample of women (Romans 1998) found that being tattooed was associated with more psychiatric symptoms, borderline personality characteristics as well as increased alcohol use. Childhood sexual abuse was reported more often in women with tattoos.…”