Mike Weiss has at least 70 tattoos, stretching from his shoulders to his ankles. Since getting his first in 2011, he has spent roughly $13,000 on them.
Mr. Weiss, 31, a group fitness instructor based in Larchmont, N.Y., is one of millions of Americans who have gotten inked. Once considered countercultural — something for sailors and misfits — tattoos are now culturally ubiquitous: Nearly one-third of American adults have at least one, according to a survey by Pew Research.
And business is booming like never before. The global tattoo market, which currently brings in about $2.2 billion, is expected to grow to more than $4 billion by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights, a market research firm. There are over 20,000 tattoo parlors in the United States. Kari Barba, 64, is a tattoo artist and the owner of Outer Limits, which has two locations in California. She opened her first shop in 1983.
Even with an uptick in business, the artists themselves don’t always benefit. “When I first opened, people didn’t open a shop within about 30 miles of each other, out of respect to other tattoo artists,” Ms. Barba said. “Now, the closest shops are about three blocks away. A lot of seasoned artists struggle at this point because there’s so many tattoo artists.”
When Ashley Rath, 42, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, she got a tattoo. “Everything that could have happened, happened — surgeries, chemo, radiation, lost all of my hair,” said Ms. Rath, the founder of a nonprofit who lives in St. Louis. “I wanted to commemorate my journey.”
Ms. Rath is not alone. Sixty-nine percent of adult Americans say they have gotten a tattoo to memorialize something or someone, according to the Pew survey. Not long after her diagnosis, Ms. Rath left her marriage and decided to honor that occasion, too — this time with a tattoo of a phoenix.
Tattoos can also be visible statements about identity. For Ezra Michel, a 29-year-old barber, musician and artist in Los Angeles, one of his is about being a transgender man. After he got top surgery, Mr. Michel’s scars faded so much that they were barely noticeable. To pay tribute to his transition, he decided to tattoo over each of his scars as a way to keep them from disappearing.
But sometimes getting tattooed is just about the aesthetics.
“You grow up thinking, if you’re going to mark your body forever, it has to have meaning,” said Jade Forman, 27, who lives in Los Angeles and works as an electrical engineer. “Then I started asking people what their tattoos meant, and they’d say, ‘Nothing, I just thought it was cool.’” Ms. Forman has racked up roughly $25,000 on over 75 tattoos.
Some people, like Camille Kea, a 48-year-old life coach in Lincoln City, Ore., find the inspiration for tattoo designs in surprising places. “This is a belt buckle from the Diesel store,” Ms. Kea said of the lion tattoo on her shoulder. “I loved him.”
If everyone is getting inked, is it even considered taboo anymore?
Lonni Pike, 60, is a TikTok gamer and influencer in Temecula, Calif., with one arm tattooed in a colorful sleeve. “Every woman my age looks at me like I’m a freak,” she said.
But having tattoos at her age helps her appeal to a different generation, she said. “I have 1.1 million followers on TikTok,” said Ms. Pike, whose handle is @grayhairandtattoos. “I have an extremely young following. I give them a glimpse into the future: No, they’re not going to regret their tattoos.”
Well, some people might have regrets. In fact, the tattoo-removal business is flourishing, and is estimated to reach close to $800 million by 2027, according to Allied Market Research.
Years ago, Mr. Weiss, the fitness instructor, got tattoos all over his hands and immediately regretted it. “My first job after that was in an office,” he said. “I was so nervous they would fire me if they saw my hand tattoos.”
He started going to laser tattoo removal appointments, which were painful, before his first day on the job. “I wound up paying $1,400 for six sessions,” he said. The tattoos faded but weren’t entirely gone.
Luckily, they weren’t a problem for his new job. “I ended up going into the office, and no one ever said anything,” Mr. Weiss said.
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