Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1163844
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 MALTATODAY SURVEY The first MaltaToday survey focused exclusively on tattoos shows greater social acceptance and reveals differences between men and women. KURT SANSONE reports Tattoos: Women want them on their legs, men on their arms THE number of people with inked bodies has remained unchanged in four years, despite a proliferation of tat- too parlours, a MaltaToday survey has found. The survey, which is the first to focus exclusively on tattoos, found that 15% of people admitted to having a tattoo. The figure has not changed since 2015 when a MaltaToday survey on fitness and looks also asked whether respondents had a tattoo. In the latest survey, 13.6% of women and 16.5% of men said they had a tattoo, with the survey showing some marked differences between the pref- erences of both sexes. The survey also suggests that tattoos are more so- cially accept- able with only 1.6% of those with inked bodies admitting to having experi- enced problems because of their tattoos. And in the wake of the summer frenzy caused by the appearance of a tattoo on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's bicep, 52.8% of people said it was acceptable for them to have politicians and public officials with vis- ible tattoos. However, for 40.6% of the population visi- ble tattoos on public officials were unacceptable. The survey provided some insight into the different preferences of women and men. Wom- en prefer to have tattoos on their legs (40.4%) and back (26.4%), while the over- whelming choice for men is their arms (68.1%). Women are also more likely to have tattoos in discrete parts of the body, other than those indicated by the survey question. Of the female respondents, 12.7% said they had a tattoo other than on their arms, back, chest, legs and from the neck up. On the flipside, only 1.4% of men admitted having a tattoo on some other body part. But over- all, arms were the preferred option of 43.4% of people with a tattoo, fol- lowed by the legs (27.9%). The head, neck and face – considered to be sensitive areas because of their ines- capable visibility – were the preferred choice of 4%. Women are also more likely to have fewer tattoos than men. Overall, 78.4% of people with a tattoo had between one and three, fol- lowed by 15.8% who admit- ted having between four and seven tattoos. Only 5.8% said they had more than seven tattoos. However, when the figures are broken down by gender, only 1.8% of women said they had more than seven tattoos, as opposed to 9.1% of men. Significantly, 14.9% of peo- ple with a tattoo spent more than €1,000 to ink their body and a quarter spent between €51 and €100. Only 10.8% regret making a tattoo with women more likely than men to have sec- ond thoughts about their ink. Almost eight in 10 peo- ple who do not have a tat- too either do not like them or were never interested in them. But 16.1% of people admitted liking tattoos but never got one because they fear the permanency. Do you have a tattoo? How many tattoos do you have? Any regrets? Yes 15% No 85% (8-10) 5.8% (1-3) 78.4% (4-7) 15.8% Yes 10.8% No 89.2% Television shows such as Miami Ink and celebrities like Kat Von D (pictured) helped mainstream the acceptability of audacious tattooing