Which Religious Groups Are Most—and Least—Likely to Get Tattoos?

Abstract

Analysis of 2023 Pew Research Center data on tattoo prevalence across American religious groups. Examines current ownership, future likelihood, and attitudes by tradition, generation, and motivation. Latter-day Saints and Jews remain among the most reserved on tattoo acceptance even as broader societal acceptance has grown.

Findings for Latter-day Saints

• 92% of all respondents say society has become more accepting of tattoos over the past 20 years; LDS (85%) and Jews (83%) agree at lower rates.
• 47% of "nothing in particulars" have at least one tattoo — the highest of any group.
• 42% of evangelicals aged 18–29 have tattoos vs. 32% of same-age atheists/agnostics.
• 57% of evangelical Protestants say they will never get a tattoo.
• ~50% of Jews and Latter-day Saints report negative impressions on seeing tattooed individuals.

Limitations in methodology

Substack blog analysis (not peer reviewed) summarizing Pew data; cross-sectional snapshot; LDS subsample is small relative to majority traditions.

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Cite this study

Burge, R. (2025). Which Religious Groups Are Most—and Least—Likely to Get Tattoos?. Graphs About Religion (Substack). https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/which-religious-groups-are-mostand

Ryan Burge. "Which Religious Groups Are Most—and Least—Likely to Get Tattoos?." Graphs About Religion (Substack), 2025. https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/which-religious-groups-are-mostand.

@article{burge_2025_religious_groups_tattoos,
  title = {Which Religious Groups Are Most—and Least—Likely to Get Tattoos?},
  author = {Ryan Burge},
  year = {2025},
  journal = {Graphs About Religion (Substack)},
  url = {https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/which-religious-groups-are-mostand},
}