Hooked on Ink

By The Oasis Team on 16 August, 2006

A Cosmopolitan article by Biddi Rorke about an unusual addiction: a compulsive need to get tattoos.
Tattoos are no longer the preserve of drunken sailors and jailbirds. Nowadays they're seen as expressions of individuality and a way to beautify your body. But before you peel off your T to have that second (or third) butterfly indelibly inked on your shoulder, consider your motives carefully.

In the good old days, it seemed only rebels and misfits were drawn by the lure of needles, ink and knowledge that the bleeding heart they'd tattooed on their arm was there for good. These days, you probably know a number of friends who proudly display ingenious works of tattoo art, ranging from kanji (Japanese symbols) to flowers, dragons, Tasmanian devils and their boyfriend's names.

Chances are you have already experienced the thrill of needles and ink on your own skin. Or have at least been seriously considering booking time at your local tattoo studio. But while a discreet arrangement of stars on your hip or a few cherry blossoms around your ankle might be a cool assertion of your personal freedom and views of the world, some women are quite happy to admit that their fascination with tattoos has become an addiction.

'The more you get, the more you need,' says 22 year old Amy Ferreira of Durban, who had her first tattoo on her 18th birthday. 'It was a real adrenaline rush. It was as if my body was releasing its own, natural happy drug.' Ferreira already has two blue roses on her right shoulder, butterflies up her left leg and three Chinese symbols, signifying truth, honour and respect, on her right leg. On her left arm, she sports a celtic butterfly and on her lower stomach, she's inked the words: 'Tattooing is in my blood.'

Ferreira says there's something quite magical about the whole ritual of needles and ink. 'Getting a tattoo definitely transports you to another zone, 'she says. 'It's as if you separate your mind from your body during the process and I guess that's what drugs do too.'

'I can't wait to get the next one done,' she admits. 'I don't think I'm addicted to the pain of the needles or anything. In fact, I go numb after the first few minutes so it can't be that. But I'm hooked on the feeling that I've done something that will be with me forever. Making a permanent imprint on yourself is pretty intense.'

Peter Powis, a clinical psychologist at the Stepping Stones Addiction Centre in Cape Town, defines addiction as a compulsion beyond your willful or conscious control that may harm yourself or others. 'There are so many dimensions to addiction,' he says. 'An addict often becomes preoccupied with their substance of choice, which becomes the central point of their lives to the detriment of all else.'

While Powis says he'd be pushed to see serial tattooing as a 'proper' addiction, there are elements of it that point to a worrying obsession with the way you look. 'What young woman need to consider is that while new tattoos might draw welcome attention and encourage you to have more, when is enough enough? If you are tattooing over underlying issues of low self-esteem, you might want to consider your reasons for continuing to do so, he says.

Anstice Wright, an addictions counsellor and psychotherapist at the Oasis Addictions Centre says that although 'getting inked' repeatedly might do less damage than chemical addictions, this behaviour may well indicate an addiction to changing your outward appearance, hoping this will magically change the way you feel about yourself.

Find out more about the addiction treatment available at our registered rehabilitation centre by contacting Oasis Counselling Centre in Plettenberg Bay.