Adolescent health briefBody Art (Body Piercing and Tattooing) among Undergraduate University Students: “Then and Now”
Section snippets
Subjects and Methods
Our survey questionnaire was offered on a voluntary anonymous basis to undergraduate students during various classes and athletic team meetings. To assure a high response rate, the survey was brief and nonintrusive concerning personal information, easy to complete (requiring less than 3 minutes), and administered at the beginning of class or team meeting sessions with institutional review board approval.
Survey results were entered into a statistical program. When a subject omitted a response
Results
Among 661 students, comprising 18.8% of total campus enrollment, 98.3% completed the survey. Forty-one percent were male and 59% female, reflecting the gender proportion among our students (43.7% male, 56.3% female). We compared subjects by age, height, weight, and body mass index. No significant changes were found in distribution of student demographic variables between 2001 and 2006 (Table 1).
Ninety-six of 266 (36%) male students and 238 of 384 (62%) female students were ever pierced (p =
Discussion
Our 2001 survey of body art prevalence found 51% of students pierced and 23% tattooed. Body art application was consistent in the five class years of students studied, and we concluded that piercing and tattooing were “mainstream” among the 18–23-year-old population [1]. Our current survey reports quite similar results. Since 2001, several published reports of body art prevalence [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] generally confirm our findings.
Although there are numerous anecdotal reports of medical
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Prevalence of body art (body piercing and tattooing) in university undergraduates and incidence of medical complications
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