Home to some of the most popular tattooed celebs, like Angelina Jolie and Kat Von D (of "LA Ink"), Los Angeles boasts about 150 tattoo parlors within 10 miles of the city center. (Heck, we counted 15 in one of the country's most famous tattoo "strips," Venice Beach, alone). Its surrounding area also plays host to some of the country's largest tattoo expos. And while the amount of people living in L.A. (we're talking millions) hurts their per capita ranking (which is about four shops per 100,000 people), as one tattoo lover we found put it, L.A.'s tattoo-friendly "vibe" is hard to find elsewhere.
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No. 9: Kansas City, Mo.
With about six tattoo shops per 100,000 people, Kansas City came up in several sites we looked at as another "tattoo-friendly" place to live — not bad for the not-so-tattoo-friendly Midwest. Why? We're guessing it has something to do with KC being the bustling center of the Kansas City metro area and the state's largest city, along with having a thriving population of below-30 folk, more than 10 colleges and universities, and a big performing arts scene.
Well, it's official. Whether or not you think tattoos are sexy forms of self-expression, Maxim, Playboy, AskMen.com and FOX have all pegged tattooed beauties as some of the hottest in the world. The most recent picks? Britney (yes, she still makes many of the lists!), Angelina, Katy Perry, Zoe Saldana, Megan Fox and Jessica Alba. And, lest we forget the opposite sex: Johnny Depp (People's "Sexiest Man Alive" two years in a row), Brad Pitt, David Beckham and Hugh Jackman, to name a few, all have several tats. They are but shining examples of the reason tattoos are today's favorite "beauty marks."
According to two Harris Interactive polls (taken in 2003 and 2008) and a Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology study from 2006 — between 14 percent and 25 percent of the country's adults have at least one tattoo, with the most tattooed people being between ages 25 and 29, and living in the West. Of the 2,000-plus people surveyed by Harris Interactive, those who had tattoos thought body art was "sexy," "rebellious," "attractive" and "spiritual." With that said, those without tattoos said they thought the opposite. Translation: If you want your tattoo to look sexy, a) get a mark that's pretty to look at, and b) move to a town where it will be appreciated.
To find out which towns in America were most tattoo-friendly, we perused chat forums and looked up every state in several public directories, including Yellow Pages, Google listings, Tattoo Yellow Pages and AAA Tattoo Directory, to find those with the most listed tattoo and permanent makeup shops. Then we looked up which cities in those states had the most shops listed per capita with populations based on latest U.S. Census numbers. We also took into consideration the city's demographics and whether or not it hosted tattoo conventions, remembering that not all tattoo parlors were listed in the directories. See which cities love ink the most, and let us know if we left one out.
