I'm pretty covered in tattoos these days. Not only have I lost count of the number, they've also started to merge together as one piece began to build on another. My "collection" — and my love affair with tattoos — all started with that first time, of course. That first tattoo, long since covered up. The first person to tattoo me "warned" me that this would happen, and he was right. The more inked I become, the more sad and naked the unadorned portions of skin are, screaming out for something to cover them.
Like many people, I enjoy getting tattoos. I enjoy the art work and what it means to me. I enjoy thinking about what I'm getting next. I enjoy seeing what my artist has thought up for me. I enjoy the physical process of being tattooed — seeing the first lines transformed to images, the social banter with my artist and the people in the shop, and even the slight pain and rush it brings.
What is addiction?
People can become addicted to both psychoactive substances and behaviors — like gambling, work, exercise, or shopping. While substance addiction often has direct health consequences that differ from those of behavioral addictions, behavioral addictions can also impact health indirectly. An addict under the thrall of an addictive behavior may lose sleep, use money they needed to spend on food or healthcare to fuel their addiction, or be exposed to injury, expose violence, or even communicable diseases if they're dealing with a sex addiction.
Addiction hijacks a person's behavior, leading to characteristic symptoms like:
- Being preoccupied with the substance or behavior when you're not engaged with it or can't get your hands on it. With time, addicts will often need more and more of the same experience to feel the same way. Cravings set in when they don't get their fill.
- Lacking impulse control — the addiction becomes more important than anything else, and addicts continue even when it negatively impacts their health, the health and safety of others, social life, relationships with loved ones, work life, or bank account.
- Addicts are often in denial, telling themselves it's not so bad or they could stop if they wanted to.
- Even if you don't want to be addicted any more, the addiction always pulls, rendering you unable to call the shots. Addicts spend more time than they wanted to or planned to engaged with their addiction.
How does addiction differ from habit, hobby, or passion?
Habits, things we do all the time, form by way of repetition, often as a result of a conscious choice. They're very human — we all need our little rituals to make sense of the world — but they can also change. We're usually aware of our habits and are in charge of them. Hobbies and passions are habits we love and that allow us to recharge our batteries, that offer intellectual stimulation, and that often allow us to foster a sense of belonging to a wider community.
Not everything we choose to do as much of as possible and feel good about when we're doing it is an addiction. Passions, habits, and passionate habits don't have the same negative impact that addictions do. Let's take work as an example. It is, many scientists agree, possible to become addicted to work — to be a workaholic.
Someone who is absolutely passionate about, say, the scientific research they're conducting or helping their newly-established business thrive, will put in an awful lot of hours, making work, at least temporarily, central to their life. They're doing so because they want to. They're happy with the status quo, have made the choice to work as much as they do for themselves, and are also able to enjoy the occasional day off.
This, in a nut shell, is the difference between passion and addiction.
Tattoo addiction: What does the science say?
Not much, actually, and that's interesting given the fact that behavioral addictions not recognized as official diagnostic categories receive a lot of scientific attention. One study did notice some interesting parallels between addiction and the behavior and emotions of some tattooed people, however, specifically:
- The actual experience of being tattooed causes a rush that may be comparable to the "acute intoxication" seen in substance addictions.
- Tattooed people can have quite intense wishes to get more tattoos.
- Some people experience feelings of anxiety or discomfort just before they're going to get a new tattoo — which may be comparable to the "oh no, I really shouldn't" smokers feel before lighting up again, or could represent ambivalence about the upcoming tattoo experience or the knowledge that that new tattoo will grace your body forever.
- Many tattooed people get bigger and bigger tattoos as they "progress" in their tattoo "career".
This does not, in itself, constitute addiction — though there are similar features. When may your habit of getting tattooed morph from hobby to addiction, or at least a problem? We'd say you may want to reconsider your relationship with ink if:
- You spend more money on tattoos than you wanted to or planned to, and it's causing you financial problems.
- You get tattoos you don't really want just to experience the feeling of being tattooed.
- You keep getting tattooed even though it is negatively impacting your health. (This can include people with uncontrolled diabetes, people who get tattooed in unsanitary environments, or people who are allergic to certain pigments.)
- You spend so much time getting tattooed or researching new tattoo ideas that it's messing with your daily responsibilities.
In conclusion
If you love tattoos, get them from reputable artists who take health and safety seriously, consider what you put on your body carefully, take care not to go over budget, and don't let tattoos get in the way of your daily responsibleness, you have a hobby or passion, not an addiction — no matter what some people may say.