Female Tattoos- Pretty in Ink or Just Pretty Inked Up?

The Suicide Girls are a group of tattoo girls that blow away the classic stigma of female tattoos. You won’t find these girls with just a few cute tiny tattoos on their ankles and wrists.  No, these female tattoos are old school, Sailor Jerry girls all the way that are hardcore pretty inked up women.

The Suicide Girls, a web site that débuted in 2001, was co-created by Missy and Sean Suicide of Portland, OR.  Since the debut, the Suicide Girls site has grown, and now boast a militia of 1,000 plus unconventional models - who all pay tribute to the classic art of pin-up girls with the idea of changing the image of tattoos and what makes women beautiful.

But are the Suicide Girls really changing the view of women with tattoos or adding truth to the age-old stigma of female tattoos?

And, don’t think for a second the Suicide Girls didn’t start a growing tattoo trend among women.  That’s right these girls are not the only tattoo divas in town.  A simple online search of “girl tattoos” will lead you straight to Burning Angels, Inky Girls, Deviant Nation, and Rock Star Pixies — all popular tattoo web sites exploiting tattoo skin of women and their lifestyles.

It seems the Suicide Girls and the others like them are giving off exactly the opposite message about female tattoos that many women with tattoos have been defending, or perhaps they are not. 

Regardless of the growing number of women revealing tattoos, and the message the tattoos are giving off there is still a stigma about tattoos, especially female tattoos that continues to cause tattoo regret and tattoo removal for many women later in life.


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She. Tattoos. Aging. Identity. Trend.

Women become bolder as they grow older. This ideal is one clearly supported by the growing trend of older women getting tattoos.  Mature women are transforming tattoos, and tattoos are transforming women in their middle ages.  Tattoo images, colors, and bold patterns are defining the older female identity.  Women are getting tattoos as a coming of “aged” if you will later on in their mature years.

The number of middle-aged women getting tattoos for the first time is a trend that has been on the rise for years.  Back in 2001, American Demographics magazine published a study that identified this emerging tattoo trend finding women between 40 and 64 years of age had significantly more tattoos than men of the same age.

Reasons women get tattoos and become new ink inductees later in life range from commemorating significant birthdays, celebrating divorce, leaving behind a relationship, or a bad habit, or a way of life, and even go so far as to make fun of society’s “older” women stereotype.

To some aging women, tattoos are a means of incorporating years of experience into living breathing art because tattoos exist inside her body.  Other older women get tattoos during difficult times as a means of self-affirmation that better days will come.  And of course there are the middle-aged women that see tattoos as a flirty game to play in an effort to resist looking as though they are aging. 

Women “coming of aged” defiantly get tattoos for Identity. Power. Beauty. and Respect.  Signifying life is beautiful, and at times brutal older women boldly get tattoos as momentous markings to remind her of the path endured along the way in which she has arrived.


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What Motivates Women to Get Tattoos

What Motivates Women Can Lead to Tattoo Regret and Removal

women and tattoos

When it comes to motivation of tattoos there seems to be a bond among “wayward stereotypical” tattooed women.

With the tattoo popularity trend on a steady rise, it is important to understand what motivates women to tattoo, as it relates the growing demand for tattoo removal.

It seems wayward tattooed women travel down a common path, as many women regard their decision to get a tattoo as an immature, “impulsive stab” at finding self-identity.

And now ironically, women’s motivation for tattoo removal comes from maturity, a sense of self-realization, and the desire to dissociate the future from the past.

Rash, poor decision-making, leading to tattoo regret is the common motivation empowering the latest, deliberate trend of tattoo removal.

Tattoo removal does require consideration when it comes to method of treatment, cost/affordability, level of pain, and potential risks of infection or scaring.

Today’s motivation to tattoo may very well be tomorrow’s deterrent and tattoo regret.  Women everywhere, please rise to the occasion and think about your future before getting a tattoo.

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