A Body Art Guide for Parents of Teens Who Want Piercings and Tattoos

I’m a 27-year old mother of a beautiful little girl. I have a bachelor’s degree in graphic and multimedia design, have taught on a professional level, and have been writing since … well, I was first published at age 11. Many people who know these things about me are shocked to then discover that I love body art; right down to my pierced tongue, nipples, 6 holes in my ears and my first tattoo (it won’t be the last), there is nothing about body art which fails to fascinate me.

So, perhaps, I can represent a more-mature voice in the quest many teens go through in order to have their bodies made different … honestly, that’s what body art and body “modification” usually comes down to. Far from being a pathological problem, studies show that young people indulge in body art for the same reasons that adults dye their hair or tout daring fashion styles: to differentiate themselves from the crowd.

Being the parent of a teen who wants to get body art can be like walking a mine field. It is perfectly normal to feel like you’ve been left out of the decision-making process, and completely at odds with your own child.

Doesn’t That Hurt?

Tattoos and body piercing are far more mainstream than many parents (or the average adult) realize. The thought that your kid wants to shove a huge needle through their tongue or bellybutton might be shocking… but there are more extreme forms of body modification out there. For instance, branding (yup – the same thing that cowboys do to livestock), scarification (a form of “tattoo” that is made from cuts to the skin), and stretched earlobes are far from uncommon.

Texas Tech University School of Nursing performed a study of more than 2100 adolescents in schools from eight different states. Professor Myrna Armstrong found that 1 in 10 of these students had a tattoo, and that more than half were interested in getting one. This interest spanned all income levels and ethnic groups. The one rather eye-opening fact was that most of the students interested in body art were A and B students.