245 The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 3 Mental Health and Tattoos Although early studies (e.g., Grumet, 1983) concluded that tattoos were a sign of maladjustment, contemporary research indicates that tattooed people are as healthy as nontattooed people (Mortensen et al., 2019; Pajor et al., 2015). In general, today the mere presence of a tattoo is not correlated with mental or behavioral issues (Roggenkamp et al., 2017). In fact, most people in many cultures conscientiously obtain tattoos to express themselves and honor people and causes they deeply care about (Khair, 2022; Naudé et al., 2019; Shuaib, 2020). Nevertheless, in one study of a German community (N = 1,060), which sampled people aged 14–44, 40.6% who reported childhood abuse or neglect had at least one tattoo, compared to 29.4% tattooed participants who reported no significant abuse (Ernst et al., 2022). However, Ernst et al. (2022) cautioned that the mere presence of a tattoo is not perfectly correlated with childhood abuse. Aesthetic embellishment of the body is the most common reason for getting tattoos, and it should not be considered an automatic indication of childhood abuse (Ernst et al., 2022). Evidence suggests that the number of tattoos as well as their placement and content better indicate potential maladjustment than the mere presence of an easily concealed tattoo. Specifically, Mortensen et al. (2019) found that participants (N = 2008 adults) who had four or more tattoos were 15.4% more likely to report having been diagnosed with a mental health problem compared to 5.8% of participants with only one tattoo. Further, 13.4% of the participants with visible tattoos reported having a mental health diagnosis, and 28.2% of the participants who self-reported having an offensive tattoo also reported having a mental health diagnosis. In other words, multiple and visible tattoos may be more closely correlated with mental and behavioral issues than the mere presence of tattoos. However, contrary to Mortensen et al. (2019), in their study of life satisfaction with a sample of 449 participants (16–58 years old), Pajor et al. (2015) used the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (MSEI; O’Brien & Epstein, 1988), a psychological assessment tool with 116 items graded on a 5-point scale and designed to measure various aspects of self-esteem. Results indicated that tattooed people reported significantly higher competence than nontattooed: 37.2 versus 33.6 (p < .001). Tattooed participants also scored significantly higher on a measure of personal power, 35.6 versus 33.5 (p < .01), and significantly lower scores on a measure of anxiety and insomnia, 1.50 versus 1.75 (p < .05). Thus, although numerous visible tattoos could potentially indicate mental or behavioral issues, the research is not conclusive, suggesting the need for counselors to open-mindedly assess each client’s motivations for obtaining tattoos. Contrary to previous hypotheses, tattoos are rarely a form of self-harm (i.e., cutting, self-mutilation). For example, Aizenman and Jensen (2007) analyzed a sample of college students (N = 1,330; ages 17–39) to determine mental health differences between students who self-injure and those with tattoos. The majority of tattooed students reported receiving tattoos as a way to express their individuality, while students who self-injured were motivated by feelings of insecurity and loss of control. Participants also completed assessments measuring depression and self-esteem. In terms of general wellness, the selfinjury group (no tattoos) reported higher mean depression scores compared to both the tattoo group’s score and the nontattooed (no self-injury) score. The self-injury group also reported lower mean selfesteem scores compared to both the tattooed and the nontattooed groups. Noteworthy is the fact that there was no significant difference between the tattooed and nontattooed groups in terms of depression and self-esteem, which further suggests that tattooed college students are no more likely to experience mental health issues than nontattooed college students. In a more recent study to determine whether tattooing was a form of self-injury, Solís-Bravo et al. (2019) found that from a sample of 438 adolescent males, 11.5% reported engaging in nonsuicidal selfinjury (NSSI), but only 1.8% indicated receiving a tattoo with the explicit intention of feeling pain. However, they also found that 62.5% of the students with tattoos self-injured compared to 10.6% of
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