Tattoos on Women: Are They a Red Flag?

56% of women ages 18-29 have at least one tattoo. With tattoos so common, are they still “red flags” in women… or have they been fully “normalized?”

Recently we had a forum member asking about a girl he’s started dating, wanting to know if she’s girlfriend material or not. About her, he says:

Her first tattoo she got when she was 16 with her friends in school. On the inside of her lip which says ‘babygirl’ She’s a little bit embarrassed about that one. She got a couple other classier looking ones on the inside of her wrists and back of her ankles which look nice.

Another forum member referenced my 2017 article of yellow, orange, and red flags to watch out for in girls. One of the nine red flags I listed there was “more than one small tattoo.”

Here’s an excerpt from that article, in which I cite a bunch of the research on tattooed women:

[W]omen with tattoos are more impulsive than untattooed women, take more risks, and are also more likely to use drugs, shoplift, and have non-ear piercings (more on that in our next red flag). Women with four or more tattoos are 4x as likely to attempt suicide as women with three or fewer tattoos. And yes, your instincts are correct – they also engage in riskier sex. Remember, we said red flags are signs a girl is both nutty and easy, right?

Of course, as the years march by, more and more women are getting tatted up. According to the latest Pew survey, a whopping 56% of American women aged 18-29 have at least one tattoo.

Is it still the case that tattoos are a potential red flag in girls you want to date?