A Comparative Study of Mental Health Issues among Tattooed and Non-tattooed Young Adults

Abstract

The present research work titled, ‘A Comparative Study of Mental Health IssuesAmong Tattooed and Non-Tattooed Young Adults’, is based on the enquiry, could manytattoos, in different parts of the body done over a period of time, an indication of onsetof mental illness? Why people willingly inflict pain on their body? Do the young adultswho get multiple tattoos on different parts of their body have mental health issues?The objectives of the study wereto study themental health of young tattooed adultswith the Hypotheses: a) There will be an effect of tattoos on the mental health of youngadults with tattoos on different parts of the body, and b) There will be a significantdifference between the mental health of tattooed and non-tattooed young adults andthe Variablesbeingtattoo (IV) and mental health (DV). Tool: Mental Health Inventoryby Jagdish and A.K. Srivastava (1983) that has 56 questions covering six dimensionsi.e., positive self-evaluation (10 questions), perception of reality (8 questions), integrationof personality (12 questions), autonomy (6 questions), group-oriented attitudes (10questions), and environmental mastery (10 questions). The Sample Populationwas 60young adults between the age range of 18 and 25 years (30 with tattoos on differentparts of the body and 30 without tattoos) using purposive sampling and ExploratoryResearch Design. The statistical analysis was done using Descriptive Statisticst testand correlation. This study clearly indicates that tattooed young adults scored poorlyin mental health status.