“So What?” This is the phrase I had permanently etched onto my right rib cage last summer. Visible with certain shirts but otherwise reserved for privacy, my tattoo serves as a personal reminder to stress less. Since getting my first tattoo, I have become completely obsessed with the art form (to the dismay of my parents), and after discovering the plethora of tattoo shops in New Haven, I became even more interested in the meaning of tattoos, particularly the meaning held by college students.
Perhaps what makes tattoos unique as an art form is not only their permanence but also that they hold profoundly different meanings for different people. Rather than just being seen as a material object, the tattoo elicits emotional, physical, and spiritual responses. The transitional period between childhood and adulthood is complex. The individual is often subject to social expectations and norms. For many, the act of getting tattoos offers an alluring promise of catharsis, and I was excited to explore what exactly young people felt about tattoos. The tattoo lives across bounds, from spiritual tradition to connoted meanings to badges of pain or survival; it is a dynamic object that glorifies individuality and as such is the physical representation of the iconic act of getting a tattoo.
In an attempt to answer the question on the meaning of tattoos for people at such a transformative time in their lives, I conducted a survey across 300 Yale undergraduate and graduate students, both with and without tattoos.
When asked broadly, “What do you think is the meaning of tattoos?,” one 19-year-old wrote: “My first tattoo was a stick-and-poke I did with a sewing needle as a form of harm-reduction because I had been dealing with intense self-harm episodes. To me, I wanted a piece of art on my body over just another scar.” He went on to describe, “I am creating a home in this body of mine, decorating it with art as a form of joy and comfort.” This student saw tattoos as far more than just a physical image; his tattoos are symbolic. His personal story and evolution with tattoos encompasses what it means for a piece of art to be individualized and represent the aesthetics of spirituality. These aesthetics of spirituality are methods by which individuals can reveal internal growth or change via an external or tangible object.
In a recent survey by Statista, 41% of people aged 27 to 41 years old and 23% of people aged 18 to 26 were found to have at least one tattoo as of 2021. Echoing this national trend, on Yale’s campus, 14.7% of students have at least one tattoo. My survey revealed that nearly all students had a meaning behind their tattoo that was personal to them, unrelated to social praise or social image. When asked about the emotional response to tattoos, one student wrote that “tattoos are seen as an expression of individuality and a physical embodiment of something highly significant.” When asked about the meaning students think tattoos hold, a mere 17.6% of tattooed students believe tattoos are rebellious. Interestingly, this survey found that a much greater 41% of non-tattooed students thought that tattoos are meant to be rebellious. In both groups, to my surprise, only a minority found tattoos to be rebellious or emblematic of the youthful, free-spirited, defiant personality, hence changing the narrative that older generations have long assumed.
More notably, the findings from the survey reveal that 49% of non-tattooed students and 70.6% of tattooed students agreed with the statement, “tattoos are a spiritual symbol or marker for a transformation in one’s identity.” In essence, one’s spiritual attachment to their tattoos makes them feel liberated, encouraging an internalization of the feeling produced by an object. Of tattooed students, one student described how their tattoos “were done during an important time of transition and self-exploration in my life. Each symbol I chose to receive from him represented an important discovery I had made about myself.” Other students described how tattoos were the epitome of family lineage or long matrilineal lines and even a symbol of pain and endurance. When asked about the relationship between tattoo artist and tattooed, one student wrote that “the tattoo artist facilitates the spiritual, transformative experience I assume one feels when getting the tattoo (which the pain and long hours are a part of—no pain, no gain).” More than a few students wrote that tattoos are a form of self-expression, holding different meanings for different people. One student wrote, “It’s a way to carry art, memory, identity, and value with you in a physical expression.”
While some describe the tattoo as “a monument,” “self-expression,” or “a part of the body with a story,” others see it as inscribed art. Students without tattoos were split nearly evenly between viewing tattoos as symbolic and nonsymbolic. 200 respondents expressed that they see tattoos as a decoration or a form of art that someone likes enough to place on their body. One student even wrote that the reason she has so many tattoos is that she does not want a “boring job,” and this is her effort to ensure she will not be hired by a boring employer. She wrote, “Tattoos are whatever you want them to be. I have a friend who says the reason she has so many tattoos is that she doesn’t want to ever end up with a boring job, and this way, they won’t hire her.”
Studying the contrast in responses (49% of non-tattooed surveyed students versus 70.6% of tattooed surveyed students) reveals how one’s past experiences greatly shape their perception of tattoos. Of 300 responses by Yale college students, only one response—by an Indigenous woman—expressed that tattoos take on a cohesive or societal meaning, writing that, “Our markings tell stories and protect us as we walk in the world from bad spirits.” As such, one could state that body modifications are not simply an alteration or amplification of individuality but rather act as a uniting force between tattooed individuals, relating history and religion to stories and relationships. For the great majority of responses, though—all but this one—respondents expressed that, for them, tattoos do not bind society together as an emblematic object but rather represent either the cultural, spiritual, emotional, or sometimes purely aesthetic desires of an individual.
Beyond just the meaning college students attach to their own tattoos, I was interested in interpreting the lens by which they analyze others’ tattoos, particularly of celebrities and media icons. To illustrate, when given one photograph of Angelina Jolie with her tattoos covered by a dress and another photograph with her back tattoos on display, 64.7% of tattooed students and 43.8% of non-tattooed students saw greater beauty when her tattoos were visible. Jolie’s Cambodian Sak Yant Tattoo represents protection from hidden enemies, symbolic of a Tiger watching one’s back. To Jolie, this Cambodian symbol is meant to protect her family and children from threats, hence embodying a spiritual meaning. Across multiple photo comparisons, an average of 66.15% of surveyed tattooed students and 43.2% of students without tattoos described the images of celebrities with their tattoos on display as more iconic than a tattoo-free photograph of the celebrity.
Beyond the symbolic nature of tattoos held for the beholder and the onlooker, there also exists a relationship between the tattoo and the tattoo artist. The interview with Emily Gee from Ink Side Out Tattoo in Norwalk, CT, revealed that tattoos can equally be a marker for individuality as they can be a piece of beautiful or respectable art. Regardless of the intent of the tattoo, the choice to get a tattoo acts as a meaning of commitment to a cause. Emily described how tattoos have evolved from taboo to revolutionary, representing a sense of self-fulfillment and admiration for personal growth. Emily expressed how the tattoo embodied art exhibiting power, pertinacity, and individuality. She described the tattoo as a reminder of a moment in time that is forever etched onto the skin.
After conducting this interview and exploring the personal anecdotes of Yale college students, I was left with the impression that tattoos embody much more than just a mark on one’s body. The survey discovered that college students view tattoos as the ultimate art form to be introspective and use them to represent personal evolution, rather than using them as a social symbol or beautification process. College students take the time to consider a meaning and emotion to fuel their tattoo, shaping their tattoo into an object that is iconic for the individual. As such, the tattoo is an object that, rather than being a symbol of permanency in the eyes of college students, represents the fleeting nature of life, the creation of sacralization, and the space for raw meaning to exist.