Nearly a third of people with tattoos regret getting one, according to a small new survey out of the United Kingdom.
The survey findings, presented at the annual meeting of the British Association of Dermatologists, showed that men were more likely to have tattoo regret than women.
Tattoo regret was also three times more likely among men if they got their tattoo before reaching age 16, according to the survey. Meanwhile, the demographic least likely to regret a tattoo was women who got their tattoo after age 21.
But even though tattoo regret was relatively common among the study participants, not even half of those with tattoo regret said that they would get it, or them, removed, the researchers found.
“From our research we found that many of the people we questioned regretted their tattoo/s, therefore we’d encourage members of the public to have a ‘cooling’ off period or to seriously think about what effects getting a tattoo may have on their lives in the future,” study researcher Dr. Caroline Owen, a consultant dermatologist for the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said in a statement.
