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Three percent to 8% of the U.S. population is tattooed, and body piercing of areas other than the earlobes is increasingly accepted. In this study, investigators evaluated whether tattoos or body piercings were associated with risk-taking behavior in adolescents. An anonymous survey was given to 552 patients (age range, 12 to 22 years old) who presented to an adolescent clinic at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego; 484 patients (88%) responded. The survey, based on the 1997 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey, contained 6 indices covering disordered eating, violence, gateway drug use, hard drug use, sexual activity, and suicide.
More than 13% of respondents reported having tattoos, and 26.9% reported havi…