Why Are So Many Gen Z Women Getting Tattoos?

A majority of young women now have tattoos, but is this something new?

I recently came across a fascinating study by the Pew Research Center which showed that roughly one in three Americans reported having a tattoo in 2023. More than one in five had multiple. But the real story isn’t how many tattoos we’re getting, but who is getting them. In the write-up, Pew helpfully breaks down the results by various demographic groups. Who’s inked up? Younger Americans, those with less formal education, Americans with lower incomes, and women. Especially young women. An astounding 56 percent of women ages 18 to 29 report having a tattoo. (I should note that this was only surprising to me. My 20-something-year-old research assistants were not terribly surprised by this fact.)

Even if this does not seem high, it certainly seems higher than it once was. What do we know about how things have changed? It turns out this is not the first time Pew has asked about tattoos. And the results are very different. Young women were far less likely to report having a tattoo in 2010 than in 2023. Young men, in comparison, showed a slight decline in the share who reported having a tattoo. But the story is somewhat more complicated than it appears.

A Dramatic Increase or Methodological Illusion?

In 2010, Pew included a very similar question to the one administered in the 2023 study. However, in the more recent analysis, Pew states that the results are not directly comparable due to a methodological change in the firm’s polling practices (a shift that mirrored a broader evolution in how surveys were conducted). The most recent study was conducted online through a self-administered design. The earlier version was conducted over the phone with a live interviewer. Why does this matter? The concern is that respondents might be less willing to reveal that they have a tattoo to a stranger over the phone, which would lead to underreporting in the 2010 survey.

When I reached out to Pew, John Gramlich, an Associate Director, was nice enough to share Pew’s thinking on the reason they felt uncomfortable making a direct comparison, writing:

“On a topic like personal tattoos, it could be that our respondents feel more comfortable filling out a self-administered online survey (as they did in 2023) than talking to a stranger on the phone (as they did in 2010). It has to do with social desirability bias, which is often more likely to arise in a phone survey with a live interviewer.”

He’s absolutely right. The issue of social desirability is more pronounced when dealing with sensitive subjects and questions that might possibly reflect poorly (or positively) on the respondent. But is that it? Is there nothing more we can say about this?

I think it’s worth interrogating a bit further. If social desirability bias is an issue, having a tattoo is something that respondents would hesitate to admit out of fear of social judgment. If we found that Americans had negative views about tattoos, then that would provide some support.

So, what did people think about tattoos in 2010? As it turns out, views weren’t especially negative. In a 2009 survey, Pew asked whether the increasing number of people getting tattoos was a positive or negative development, or whether it did not signal either. Most Americans said it represented a positive or neutral change. Four in ten Americans said that more people getting tattoos was a change for the worse. Among young adults, views were even more positive—only 22 percent said the rising popularity of body art represented a negative societal trend.

Another approach would be to confirm the trend using surveys that did not have the same methodological issues as the Pew data. There is not a lot of public polling that has been conducted on the prevalence of tattoos. However, Ipsos conducted a survey in 2012 and again in 2019 that asked about having a tattoo. The rate of increase closely tracks Pew’s findings, increasing from 21 percent in 2012 to 30 percent in 2019.

Still, we don’t know exactly how the change in mode may have affected the results, and I would not be surprised if the exact rate was smaller than that shown in the chart above. That said, I think it’s likely there has been an increase in the prevalence of tattoos, and there’s good reason to believe that the increase has been more pronounced among young women.

The Gender Gap in Body Art

Even if there is some uncertainty about the trend, the gender gap between young men and women in the 2023 study is eye-popping. Fifty-six percent of young women report having a tattoo compared to only 26 percent of young men. What accounts for the massive difference in tattoos? Let’s run through a few possible explanations.

First, getting a tattoo could represent an expression of female empowerment—a way to make a statement that women can do whatever they want with their bodies. Left-leaning women, who care more about reproductive rights and express greater fear about sexual harassment and assault, are also more likely to have tattoos. The Pew survey found that more than half (53 percent) of tattooed young women said that making a statement about what they believe in was at least a minor part of their reasoning for getting their tattoo.

Another reason may have to do with the decline in social stigma, which might have a larger impact on young women’s decisions. As more young people get tattoos—not to mention popular influencers and celebrities—the stigma surrounding them disappears. There are also signs that it has become less transgressive in the process, perhaps limiting their appeal to young men (a tattoo is no longer an act of rebellion but an act of aesthetic expression). In that same 2023 Pew study, 80 percent of Americans said that people have become more accepting of tattoos in the last 20 years.

It also may be connected to rising LGBTQ identity. The 2023 Pew results found that straight people were far less likely to have a tattoo than those who identify as LGBTQ—more than half have a tattoo. Given the sharp rise in LGBTQ identity among young women, these two trends are possibly related. The percentage of young women who identified as LGBTQ nearly quadrupled from 2012 to 2024.

More generally, getting a tattoo may serve as a critical part of young women’s identity formation, providing a visual showcase of personal interests or experiences. A 2025 YouGov survey found that the most popular tattoos include: “a favorite animal, flower, or symbol,” “something I just liked the look of,” “my past experiences or life story,” or “a family member who died.” People get tattoos of things that they like or that are personally meaningful to them. Other studies also point to tattoos as outlets for self-expression. A 2024 study titled, “(Tat)who Am I? Tattoos as an Expression of Narrative Identity,” found that tattoos often served as expressions of agency and individuality.

In an interview with Izzy, a 25-year-old college student with multiple tattoos, individuality was something that came up almost immediately. She reflected: “It was like my first form of freedom. ... I think just being a different type of person than you might always see on the streets is how I’ve always wanted to be. ... I don’t want to look like everyone else. I don’t think there’s only one way to be.”

In this way, rising interest in tattoos may simply serve as an extension of our increasingly individualistic culture that prioritizes the creation and consumption of individuals as personal products. Through social media, young people learn from an early age that they can generate attention and attract followers by constructing a compelling personal brand. Getting a tattoo can serve as part of this process. What was once considered countercultural has perhaps shifted to something more reflective of the culturally mainstream, but its appeal varies dramatically.