Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Untere Zahlbacher Str. 8, 55131, Mainz, Germany.
University Hospital for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
BMC Psychol. 2022 Apr 22;10(1):105. doi: 10.1186/s40359-022-00811-x.
Tattoos and piercings are becoming increasingly popular in many countries around the world. Individuals seeking such body modifications have reported diverse psychological motives. Besides purely superficial considerations, tattoos and piercings can also have a deep, personal meaning. For example, they can mark and support the emotional processing of significant life events, including formative experiences from early childhood. However, there is a lack of studies that examine the links of tattoos and piercings with experiences of childhood abuse and neglect in large, population-based samples.
We investigated the association of reports of childhood abuse and neglect with the acquisition of body modifications (tattoos and piercings) within a representative German community sample. Survey participants (N = 1060; ages 14-44 years) were questioned whether they had tattoos and piercings and filled out the 28-item Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form (CTQ-SF).
Tattoos and piercings were more common among individuals who reported childhood abuse and neglect. The proportion of participants with tattoos and piercings increased as a function of the severity of all assessed types of abuse and neglect (emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; emotional and physical neglect). In logistic regression analyses which included the covariates age, gender, education, and income, the sum of significant kinds of childhood abuse and neglect was positively related to having tattoos and/or piercings (OR = 1.37 [95% CI 1.19-1.58]).
The results corroborate previous research indicating that body modifications could have special significance for individuals who have survived adversity, in particular interpersonal trauma at the hands of caregivers. These findings could inform screening procedures and low-threshold access to psychotherapeutic care.
纹身和穿孔在世界上许多国家越来越流行。寻求这些身体修饰的人报告了各种不同的心理动机。除了纯粹的表面考虑因素外，纹身和穿孔还可以具有深刻的个人意义。例如，它们可以标记和支持重大生活事件的情感处理，包括来自童年早期的形成性经历。然而，缺乏研究在大型人群样本中检查纹身和穿孔与童年期虐待和忽视经历之间的联系。
我们调查了在代表性的德国社区样本中，报告的童年期虐待和忽视与身体修饰（纹身和穿孔）获得之间的关联。调查参与者（N=1060；年龄 14-44 岁）被问到他们是否有纹身和穿孔，并填写了 28 项儿童创伤问卷短表（CTQ-SF）。
报告有童年期虐待和忽视的个体更常见纹身和穿孔。有纹身和穿孔的参与者比例随着所有评估的虐待和忽视类型（情感、身体和性虐待；情感和身体忽视）的严重程度而增加。在包括年龄、性别、教育和收入等协变量的逻辑回归分析中，童年期显著类型的虐待和忽视总和与有纹身和/或穿孔呈正相关（OR=1.37[95%CI 1.19-1.58]）。
这些结果证实了先前的研究，表明身体修饰对经历逆境的个体，特别是经历照顾者人际创伤的个体可能具有特殊意义。这些发现可以为筛查程序和接受心理治疗的低门槛提供信息。
