Jan. 23, 2014: Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber shows a tattoo on his back while in police custody in Miami Beach, Florida. (Reuters)
A majority says they don’t like tattoos, yet more Americans are getting them -- and getting more of them.
The latest Fox News poll finds 20 percent of voters, or one in five, has at least one tattoo. That’s up from 13 percent in 2007.
Click here for the poll results.
In addition, the number reporting they have two or more tattoos has nearly doubled in the last seven years: 14 percent today, up from 8 percent in 2007.
People under age 45 are twice as likely as those 45 and over to have one (31 percent vs. 14 percent).
And the number goes up as the age goes down: A third of those under age 30 have a tattoo (34 percent). One in five in this age group has three or more (19 percent).
And check out this gender gap: Nearly half of women under age 35 have gotten ink, almost double their male counterparts (47 percent vs. 25 percent).
It’s the reverse among those 65 and over: three times as many senior men as women have a tattoo (14 percent vs. 4 percent).
By a 58-32 percent margin, voters say “no” when asked the simple question: Do you like tattoos? Yet 55 percent of those under age 35 say “yes.” That rises to 64 percent for women under 35.
The increase in body ink is not because people think tattoos are attractive: 6 in 10 think they make a person less attractive. That’s more than seven times as many as say more attractive (eight percent). About a quarter says tattoos make no difference.
Even tattoo wearers aren’t wholehearted supporters: 24 percent think ink make a person more attractive, while 22 percent say less attractive. The largest number -- 42 percent -- says no difference.
Ten percent of tattooed Americans say they don’t like tattoos.
By a 73-16 percent margin, most voters say they would hire someone who has a visible tattoo. Among tattoo wearers, 84 percent would hire the person, while 6 percent wouldn’t.
Overall, a wide range of groups are about equally likely to have skin in the game: Men (21 percent), women (22 percent), whites (21 percent), blacks (21 percent), Democrats (24 percent), independents (21 percent), Republicans (19 percent) and white evangelical Christians (18 percent).
On the other hand, more liberals (26 percent) have ink than conservatives (18 percent).
Military veterans and those currently serving in the armed forces are bigger tattoo wearers: 36 percent have one. That’s double the number for those who haven’t served (18 percent).
Whether a person has a tattoo or not makes no significant difference in their views of President Obama’s job performance, views of Congress, vote preference in the midterm election or views of Obamacare.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,002 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from March 2 to March 4, 2014. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for the total sample.
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