As Gen Z has grown up and changed into young adults, the choices they're allowed to make have also changed. With the majority of Gen Z now being over 18, tattoos have become a popular body modification amongst the generation, especially with students at ASU.
Tattoos have been around for generations. The discovery of Ötzi the Iceman, a frozen mummy covered in tattoos, helped scientists date the practice back to as early as 5,200 years ago. Tattoos were, and still are, frequently used amongst many cultures to express heritage and significance.
As time passed, tattoos gained other associations with gang affiliation, prisoners and other taboo ideas. In present day, it's become more common for schools and employers to be more comfortable with visible tattoos.
READ MORE: Once etched as taboo, tattoos have become acceptable in the workforce
While Gen Z may have the same amount of tattoos as other generations, the age at which they get the tattoos has changed, Ella Voss, a freshman studying media arts and sciences said.
"More people have them freshly out of high school, or they have more as they're younger," Voss said. "Whereas my parents waited until they were a little bit older to get some."
A popular TikTok among tattooed Gen Zers is a video by Crazy Aunt Rose, where she shares how she feels tattoos are "stickers" earned because life is hard.
Some students who have tattoos have ones with heavy meanings to them. The meaning could be family, friends or important memories.
"(A) nudibranch that I have, I got in Bermuda because I spent a semester there," Oliver Livingstone, a senior studying ocean futures, said. "They are native to Bermuda. They're endemic, I like nudibranchs, and it'll be fun to remember that."
Many students alongside Livingstone have meaningful tattoos of birth flowers, planets or animals.
While some tattoos can have deep meaning, others may not. Some students believe that tattoos don’t need to have a meaning, and that it’s up to the person.
READ MORE: My tattoo doesn't mean anything, and that's what I love about it
"I don't think there's anything wrong with only having tattoos that have meaning. I don't think there's anything wrong with having tattoos just because you want a tattoo," Livingstone said. "At the end of the day, it just boils down to what you want to do with your own body."
The big debate is whether or not tattoos "without meaning" truly have no meaning. Even if there isn't an intricate meaning behind the tattoo, there is still a memory behind it and that can be meaning enough, Aly Cao, a fifth-year student studying special education, said.
"Even if it's just a funny memory or something like that, I feel like that's meaning," Cao said. "I feel like every tattoo has a meaning because you did it for a reason. Deep, philosophical meanings and stuff I feel are not really that serious."
Getting a tattoo can be the sole important meaning behind it, and sometimes friends will get tattoos with one another to celebrate their friendship and their mutual appreciation.
However, some worry about the risk of getting matching friend tattoos, and others regret getting matching ink with their partner.
"I personally wouldn't get one because if our friendship does end, then that's on me forever," Voss said. "I don't want to be reminded of them, especially if it's a bad situation that happened with them."
A few students even said that matching tattoos are a curse between friends.
"Most people now are just like, yeah, a matching tattoo is a curse. I honestly feel like Gen Z is pretty superstitious," Cao said. "That's honestly a millennial thing, the matching tats, and I think that's why we learned from it, and we're like, no thank you."
Tattoos and Gen Z have a unique relationship that many students have varied thoughts on. But most feel tattoos are up to the recipient, and students feel that this makes tattoos, meaningful or not, a unique body modification.
"It's my body. I want to put something that I enjoy, even if it doesn't have meaning," Voss said. "As long as you like the art and you enjoy it on your body and you think it's going to be cool to you, you should get it no matter what."
Edited by Sam Troester, Emilio Alvarado and Sophia Keeling.
Reach the reporter at jhamil33@asu.edu and follow @jhamilton_media on X.
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Jen Hamilton is a freshman studying Journalism and Mass Communications with a minor in Political Science. This is their first semester with The State Press.
