Tattoos and piercings – who has them and how much did they spend?

This is the fourth article about the results of the BDSM and Money Survey. I asked people to say how much they had spent, since their interest in BDSM began, on tattoos and piercings.

Hands across the sea

There is little difference between the likelihood that US or UK citizens would spend money on tattoos or permanent piercings, just that US respondents were a little more likely to have both. Around a third in both countries have either or both.

Gender differences

Women in the survey appeared considerably more likely to have spent money on tattoos or permanent piercings than men.

26% of men had spent money on tattoos and 42% of women (if you exclude people who earn money from BDSM the proportion of women who said they had spent money on tattoos went down to 35%; for men it stayed the same).

16% of men had spent money on permanent piercings. The proportion was much higher for women: 40% of women had spent money on piercings (if you exclude people who earn money from BDSM the proportion of women who said they had spent money on piercings declined to 30%; for men it stayed the same – 16%).

Almost all of those who had spent any money on piercings or tattoos had spent £/$500 or less. Women were slightly more likely than men to have spent more on than £/$500 on. tattoos.

BDSM Orientation

Only switches said they were more likely to have spent money on permanent piercings (36%) than tattoos (32%). However, across all orientations the difference is low between the two types of body modification.

The dataset

390 people answered this question. 263 said they were from the UK and 104 said they were from the USA. 165 said they were male and 208, female. 131 said they were tops/dominants, 82 said they were switches and 178 said they were bottoms or submissives. Other options were available for country of origin or gender but I’ve not included them in the analysis.

A note on currency

I’ve made no attempt to align spending between US or UK respondents – it’s not just a question of interest rates changing, it’s also that $ seem to buy more in the US, generally, than £ do in the UK – so the figures are only of very general interest. I also reckon some respondents spoofed the figures – which is regrettable.

Other BDSM and Money Articles

BDSM and Money – first results

I’d rather have a pizza with my kids in Ibiza – priorities for spending

BDSM as a spending priority – Female Tops or Dominants rate it as more important

BDSM and money survey – what did people say their income was?

 

The BDSM surveys

• BDSM and Money Survey
• BDSM symbols of ownership survey
• Safewords survey
• BDSM and Education Survey
• Fetish Dressing – from styles and relationships survey
• Multiple Relationships – from styles and relationships survey