Kansas City ranks among the most tattooed cities in America

Kansas City ranks among the most tattooed cities in America
August 20, 2010
by Brian Kaberline
Kansas City Business Journal

Kansas City’s image as an unassuming Midwestern city may be changing.

Website totalbeauty.com included Kansas City in its list of the “top 10 most tattooed cities in America.” Kansas City ranked No. 9 — one spot above Los Angeles. The website did its rankings based on the number of tattoo shops per 100,000 population.

Kansas City made its mark with about six tattoo shops per 100,000 population. That may seem like quite a few, but it’s barely a splotch compared with No. 1 Miami Beach, which had about 24 tattoo shops per 100,000 people, according to totalbeauty.com.

Tattoos no longer are viewed as a bad mark on their owners’ reputations. A study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 36 percent of what it calls “Gen Nexters,” or those in the 18-25 age range, have a tattoo. The study said 40 percent of Gen Xers have a tattoo.

Kansas City’s ranking is no surprise to Jim Oshel of Mercy Seat Tattoo. He couldn’t put an exact number on the number of tattoo shops in the metro area, saying it could go from 30 to 50 depending on how you define the area.

He said the industry definitely has grown in the five years that Mercy Seat has been in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District. But there still are just a handful of top-notch shops, he said, and they stay busy.

Mercy Seat sees customers from all walks of life, Oshel said.

“I know nurses who have face tattoos, so it doesn’t really matter,” he said.

Oshel said attitudes about tattoos may be loosening up, but it is a topic that people wanting a tattoo need to keep in mind. He said the shop will warn young customers who want large or very visible tattoos that it could affect their job prospects.

But throughout time, Oshel said, people who decide to have an “individual approach” have had to deal with the fact that others may judge them.

“I would rather live in a world where people are judged by their actions than by their personal appearance,” he said.

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