For Aussies, tattoos aren't 'cool' anymore

Melbourne, Dec 2 : Starting off as the permanent mark of the working class, tattoos became cool as they touched bodies of stars like Angelina Jolie and David Beckham. But as it turns out, the 'eternal' body art doesn't hold its fervour anymore, at least in case of Aussies.

According to a recent survey of 1000 Australians aged between 18 and 70, tattoos are not anymore in vogue and are a big turn-off for majority of participants.

Over 50 percent of respondents think that body art on the opposite sex make them less attractive. And surprisingly, women are more forgiving than men.

"A surprising 56 per cent of men find tattoos on women unattractive, while just 50 per cent of women think that tattoos are not attractive on men," The Courier Mail quoted UMR Research's David Utting as saying.

Tattoos are also a turn-off for Coalition voters, what with 63 per cent believing tattoos make people less attractive, in comparison to 49 per cent of Labour voters and 38 per cent of Greens supporters.

In fact, the kind of people getting tattoos is also changing, with tattoos beginning to appeal to a different type of person.

"Once only seen on the working class, tattoos are now more liked by higher income earners," said Utting.

He added: "Of people earning less than ,000, just 6 per cent think tattoos on the opposite sex are attractive compared with 9 per cent for people earning over ,000.

"Overall only 7 per cent of Australians think tattoos make the opposite sex more attractive."

Inner Vision tattoo artist Kian Forreal said tattoos have become popular with cashed-up Gen Y.

And now, the youngsters ask for duplicates of star tattoos instead of the usual skulls, dragons and crosses, or the cliche of the name of a loved one.

Said Forreal: "We get a lot of people coming in saying I like this one on Nicole Richie or I like this one on Angelina Jolie. Over the last 10 or 20 years the quality of art has improved, there is a better product that appeals to higher tastes."

ANI