People with tattoos drink more alcohol than their friends, say researchers

Although tattoos and body piercings have gone mainstream, they still carry a connotation of risky behavior. And a new study suggests this stereotype is borne out in the drinking habits of those who modify their bodies: they drink more alcohol than their friends with undecorated skins.

For four Saturday nights, ninety-nine undergraduate business students in the west of France became temporary researchers. In four separate cities, they waited outside bars that catered primarily to college students, and surveyed youths as they left the drinking establishments. Almost 2000 subjects, 20 years old on average, told the interviewers how many tattoos and piercings they had, and underwent breathalyzer tests to determine how much alcohol they had consumed that night.