More and more Australians are getting tattoos but some, like Victoria Beckham, who has had three of hers removed, suffer from ‘tattoo regret’.
Victoria’s back tattoo, dedicated to husband David, was barely visible at last week’s British Fashion Awards at The Royal Albert Hall in London.
The 44-year-old is believed to have had laser removal surgery to remove the tattoo, which stated “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” in Hebrew.
She has also had two tattoos removed from her wrists – one featured the date the Beckham’s renewed their marriage vows in 2006 and the other read ‘Again from the start’ in Latin.
Although Victoria has not confirmed why she had the tattoos removed, media outlets have speculated it signifies problems within the couple’s marriage.
Whatever the reason, the former Spice Girl is not alone in her fondness for tattoos – or desire to remove them.
According to McCrindle Resarch’s latest report, Tattoos in Australia; Perceptions, trends and regrets’, Australian have “become more tattooed than ever”.
The research company says Australia is experiencing growth in the proportion of the nation becoming ‘inked’ with a record 20 percent of Australians now admitting they have a tattoo.
However, three in ten (31 percent) Australians with tattoos say that they regret, to some extent, getting a tattoo ‒ and almost one in ten (nine percent) have commenced looking into, or have looked into, tattoo removal.
The company’s survey of 1013 Australians also found that:
- The proportion of Australian women with a tattoo now exceeds that of men (21 percent compared to 19 percent).
- Most Australians with a tattoo got their first between the ages of 18 and 25 (51 percent) but over a third (36 percent) got their first tattoo when aged 26 or older.
- Women are getting their first tattoo later in life than men. Sixteen percent of women were over the age of 36 when they first got their tattoo, compared to nine percent of men.
- Three in five inked Australians have more than one tattoo (61 percent), while two in five (39 percent) currently have just one.
- 32 percent of Australians have two to three tattoos and 14 percent have more than six.
- Women are more likely than men to have just one tattoo (42 percent compared to 36 percent), while men are more likely than women to have two to three tattoos (38 percent compared with 27 percent).