Adolescents’ knowledge on the effects of tattooing and body piercing: A descriptive study

Body art is the latest buzz in fashion world. It is a visual language that communicates a person's status in the society, displays accomplishments, and encodes memories, desires, and life histories. In the last 2 decades, tattoos and piercing have gained more and more acceptance in India due to westernization and influence from widely known icons from sports and media. Adolescents are more fancied by people from the media and sports and try to imitate them without the knowledge of its associated complications. The most common health problems from body piercing reported by participants based on others' experiences were infection (74%), bleeding (30%), allergic reaction (26%), bruising (19%), and keloids (19%). Tattoos cause more problems, including swelling and erythema; there are reports of patients receiving second-degree burns on decorative tattoos that used a ferromagnetic pigment. 7The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge about the tattooing and body piercing among adolescents. A descriptive study was conducted among 60 adolescents from a nursing college. A semi structured interview schedule was used to collect the data and was analysed by using SPSS. The findings revealed that 12 (20%) adolescents had a good knowledge regarding body piercing and tattooing whereas around 42 (70%) adolescents had average knowledge and 6 (10%) adolescents had poor knowledge. The study concludes that there is less awareness about complications involved in tattooing and body piercing. So, there is a need to create awareness among society, which may further reduce the burden of illness.