Tattoos have become more prevalent in our society in recent decades. What was once a social faux pas or a negative mark has become a more acceptable lifestyle choice in our culture. However, only those who have joined the inked club can describe the feeling of altering one's body through art. From the pain and tantric feeling of the sting that is released when a person allows themselves to be marked for the rest of their life, and the warm piercing of the needle that gives the sensation of feeling alive and the desire to start again. Tattoos have become a major social topic today, so the psychology behind their popularity is worth discussing. Ultimately, people who get tattoos yearn for individual expression through works of art, acceptance or adherence to a rite of passage, and the physical satisfaction that only the experience of tattoo can provide. Many of us want tattoos because we desire to define ourselves as unique individuals. There are different reasons why tattoo works accomplish this. For many, low self-esteem is the driving emotion that brings a person into the tattoo parlor. Shelley Twyman supports this idea by stating that "many people feel better about their self-image after engaging in some type of body modification." In fact, Shelley's research measured the self-esteem of individuals with tattoos as comparable to those without tattoos, after the modification. Additionally, body art is often used to express the individual's beliefs or opinions. For example, Margo DeMello states in “Body Art, Deviance, and American College Students,” cited by Myrna Armstrong et al, that some tattooed individuals view themselves “as if they were some kind of substitute for a personal philosophy” (152). . Myrna Ar... middle of paper...... 2014. SAME THING - CHANGE TO MLA FORMAT. Armstrong, Myrna L., Donna C. Owen, Alden E. Roberts, and Jerome R. Koch. “Body Art, Deviance, and American College Students.” ScienceDirect: The Journal of Social Sciences 47 (2010): 151-161. Internet. March 27, 2014.---.“College tattoos: more than just skin.” » Journal of the Dermatology Nurses Association: Dermatology Nursing 14 (2002): 317-323. Internet. March 27. 2014.Twyman, Shelly L. “The Effect of Low Self-Esteem on Body Alterations.” » Webclearinghouse.net. National Undergraduate Research Information Center. November 2001. Web. September 3, 2009. Velliquette, Anne M., Elizabeth H. Creyer and Jeff B. Murray. (1998) “The Tattoo Renaissance: an ethnographic account of symbolic consumer behavior”. -in NA Advances in Consumer Research. Flight. 25, edited by Joseph W. Alba and J. Wesley Hutchinson, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 461-467.