Which Religious Groups Are Most—and Least—Likely to Get Tattoos?

Tattoos and the Sacred: Where Faith Meets Ink

This post has been unlocked through a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment for the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA). The graphs you see here use data that is publicly available for download and analysis through link(s) provided in the text below.

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When I was in college, I did a lot of things that I’m glad I stopped doing once I earned my bachelor’s degree. For instance, one time I bleached my hair platinum blonde. It was such a dumb thing to do because the person applying the dye didn’t have much experience. She left it on too long, and it chemically burned my scalp. I had huge chunks of skin falling off for a week afterward. And to top it off, I just looked completely ridiculous.

There was also a time when I seriously considered getting a tattoo. I’m not even sure what I was going to have permanently marked on my skin, but I’m certain it would have been some type of Christian symbol. Several of my good friends made the trip to the tattoo parlor and came back with fresh ink, but for some reason, I didn’t go with them. I count that as part of God’s providence, for what it’s worth. I’m really glad I never got a tattoo.

What’s interesting is that at my Christian college, there was a fairly positive attitude toward tattoos. That was certainly not the case in my deeply evangelical environment back home. I was thinking about that contrast recently while scrolling through some of the new additions to the repository at the Association of Religion Data Archives. In July 2023, the Pew Research Center fielded a questionnaire that included a comprehensive set of questions about tattoos.

One relationship I wanted to explore was between religion and tattoos. My assumption was that religious folks—especially those from more conservative backgrounds—wouldn’t feel very positively about tattoos. But it’s also clear that the overall stigma around tattoos has faded tremendously over the last couple of decades.

For instance, Pew asked: “Over the past 20 or so years, do you think society has become more accepting or less accepting of people with tattoos, or has it stayed about the same?”

In the entire sample, 92% of respondents said that tattoos are more mainstream now than they were in the early 2000s. I was struck by how universal that sentiment was across a wide variety of religious traditions. Agnostics and atheists were the most likely to agree, with 98% and 96% respectively saying that tattoos have become more acceptable.

The groups least likely to share that view were Latter-day Saints, at 85%, and Jews, at 83%. But to keep things in perspective, that still represents a clear majority within those traditions who see tattoos as more acceptable today. Among the largest religious groups—like evangelicals and Catholics—the belief that tattoos are now mainstream is almost universal, hovering around 93%.

Of course, that question only reflects general societal impressions of tattoos. Pew also included a series of follow-up questions that dug deeper, asking whether respondents have actually gotten tattoos themselves.

The results from the prior graph and this one dovetail in a clear way: Jewish and LDS respondents are outliers on both measures. In the previous analysis, they were the least likely to agree that tattoos have been accepted by mainstream society. Here, they are also the least likely to have a tattoo themselves. Only 17% of Jews reported having at least one tattoo, and just 20% of Latter-day Saints said the same.

So, which groups are most likely to have tattoos? Unsurprisingly, it’s the nones. About one-third of atheists and agnostics reported having a tattoo, which is right in line with the overall sample average. But the “nothing in particulars” clearly stand out in this analysis: a striking 47% of them have at least one tattoo, and one-third of that group have multiple tattoos. When I give talks explaining the differences among the three types of nones, I would never have guessed that tattoos would serve as such a clear line of demarcation—but here it is.

Of course, any astute observer of American society will note that older adults are generally less likely to have tattoos than younger adults. To explore this, I broke down results for a few of the larger religious groups into four age categories. As expected, younger adults are more likely to have tattoos than those in middle age or older. However, the patterns vary somewhat depending on religious tradition, offering a more nuanced picture of how age and faith intersect when it comes to getting inked.

Among the youngest age category (18–29), 42% of evangelical Protestants reported having at least one tattoo. For younger non-evangelical Protestants, that number was slightly higher at 48%. But what really surprised me were the relatively low numbers among Catholics and atheists/agnostics in this same age group. Only 25% of 18–29-year-old Catholics reported having a tattoo, and just 32% of atheists and agnostics said the same. Based on my own experiences, I never would have guessed that young evangelicals would be 17 points more likely to be inked than young atheists.

When looking at the oldest adults in the sample, the share with a tattoo was incredibly small and showed little variation across religious traditions. For example, 81% of evangelicals aged 65 or older reported having zero tattoos, which was the same share as the “nothing in particulars.” Among the other three groups I analyzed—non-evangelical Protestants, Catholics, and atheists/agnostics—the figure was at least 85%. Put simply, a young adult today is about 30 percentage points more likely to have a tattoo than a senior citizen.

The survey also asked respondents who do have tattoos about their motivations for getting inked. Specifically, they were asked whether they got a tattoo to honor someone or something, to make a statement about what they believe, or simply for aesthetic reasons.

The most common motivation for getting a tattoo was to honor someone or something. Nearly half of respondents with tattoos cited this as their primary reason, and another quarter said it was a “minor reason” for getting inked. Interestingly, there wasn’t a lot of variation across religious traditions on this measure. Atheists and agnostics were the least likely to choose this option, but only by a few percentage points.

When it comes to pure aesthetics, however, atheists and agnostics lead the way. More than four in ten said they got a tattoo to improve their personal appearance—10 to 15 points higher than any other religious group.

But the final graph in this section really caught my attention. Look at the results for atheists and agnostics: only 55% said that their tattoos were not intended to make a statement about what they believed. That percentage was virtually identical to evangelicals and only slightly lower than Catholics.

In other words, the data don’t suggest that religious people are disproportionately getting tattoos as a way to make strong statements about their beliefs.

Finally, what about people who don’t currently have any tattoos? The survey also asked about their likelihood of getting a tattoo in the future. To focus on those most likely to consider it, I restricted the sample to the two youngest age categories, meaning this analysis includes only respondents between the ages of 18 and 49.

In my analysis, about half of respondents said they had no plans whatsoever to get a tattoo. Only 11% said they were “extremely likely” or “very likely” to get one in the future. In other words, there aren’t many people sitting on the fence when it comes to tattoos—most have already made up their minds one way or the other.

The group most firmly opposed to getting inked were evangelical Protestants: 57% said they had no intention of ever getting a tattoo. Catholics followed closely behind at 50%. On the other end of the spectrum were atheists and agnostics—just 36% of them were completely opposed to the idea.

What’s especially interesting here is that younger atheists and agnostics were not particularly likely to currently have tattoos. This suggests that for those who don’t already have one, they haven’t completely ruled it out, leaving the door open to the possibility in the future.

Finally, there was one last question I found fascinating. Among people with no tattoos, Pew asked whether they felt positively, negatively, or neutrally when encountering someone with visible ink. The overwhelming majority chose indifference: two-thirds of respondents said it didn’t affect their perception at all. Only 29% said that seeing someone with a tattoo made them think less of that individual.

Two groups clearly stood out here—Jews and Latter-day Saints—which has been a recurring theme throughout this post. About half of each group said that seeing a person with tattoos gave them a negative impression, and almost none said it left a positive one.

For most other groups in the sample, however, a more laissez-faire attitude was the norm. Among Christian groups, responses aligned closely with the national average: roughly two-thirds said they didn’t care either way. Among the non-religious, that number climbed even higher, reaching nearly 75%. It’s worth noting, though, that very few Americans overall feel more positive toward someone with tattoos—just 5% of the entire sample. Something to keep in mind.

So, what can we take away from all of this?

1. Society has clearly moved toward greater acceptance of tattoos over the past couple of decades.

2. Some religious groups—most notably Jews and Latter-day Saints—remain more skeptical about the idea of permanent ink.

3. The “nothing in particulars” are easily the most tattooed group in the United States, with almost half reporting at least one tattoo.

4. While most Americans without tattoos are neutral toward those who have them, a significant minority still hold a negative view of people with visible ink.

Can we say for certain whether religion plays a major role in shaping attitudes about tattoos? It’s hard to know. Aside from a few smaller religious traditions that continue to discourage the practice, it appears that most Christians simply don’t care much either way, and the non-religious feel similarly.

This seems to be an area where, over the past couple of decades, most religious groups have simply stopped talking about tattoos altogether.

Code for this post can be found here.

Other relevant posts at Ahead of the Trend:

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Are Religious People More Fearful?

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Ryan P. Burge is a professor of practice at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University.