When I was in my youth (1970s), tattoos were largely taboo. The two most commonly specified criteria in personal advertisements were "good sense of humour" and "no tattoos" . I haven't read personal ads recently, but I wouldn't be surprised if "needs to have tattoos" was a requirement people asked for, or at least something that, once introductions were out of the way, gave you some sort of advantage in the mating game.
I guess you can never say never, but I'm highly unlikely ever to get a tattoo - I can't even bring myself to to draw on my skin with permanent marker.
In Darwin recently, I noticed lots of people had tattoos My travelling companions said this apparent abundance of tattoos was because of the heat: people were wearing fewer clothes, so more flesh was on show with its attendant body art. But I reckon there were still more tattoos on more people, in this tropical outpost, than is the norm. Of course the prevalence of 'tatts' in the Top End could be because there are more young people up there than 'down south' and that particular demographic is prone to dabble in the permanent daub. Unfortunately the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) doesn't collect data about such things. Despite the lack of ABS data, it can be said, unequivocally, there are more tattoos nowadays than back in the 1970s.
On a slightly different tack, but still in the realm of bodily modification, again when I was in my youth, I remember older people talking about women of middle and old age having their veins done. This involved the removal from legs of varicose veins, which were deemed unsightly. I don't know much about current varicose vein removal rates; it's not mentioned much nowadays. I would guess it's done at the same rate that it was done years ago - again no ABS data. But as a phenomena, it seems to have receded from view. I suspect that other cosmetic practices have overtaken it in prominence. Things like getting botox and having your breasts done or even rhinoplasty. I've even heard of people having their eyebrow hair permanently removed and then getting eyebrow lines tattooed to their forehead, as a form of cosmetic enhancement. What I can be sure of though (no need for verification by the ABS) is back when I was young and also nowadays, no one is getting tattoos on their legs of varicose veins.
