Tattoos and Healing: Considerations from an Art Therapy Lens

Tattooing in North America is becoming more common as negative stigmas change and the types of tattoos available are as diverse as the people getting them. One interesting new motivation guiding individuals to get tattooed is a potential healing or therapeutic benefit. The field of art therapy explores how art can facilitate healing and the therapeutic process. Because of the emerging literature exploring these new tattoo motivations and the need for art therapists to continually expand their understanding of art and its many applications it would be beneficial for art therapists to understand this emerging practice. The literature in this study reveals that there is a significant amount of overlap between tattooing and art therapy in the themes the two explore. Additionally, tattooing offers new ideas and benefits that should be explored by art therapists more to identify how these could be applied in the therapeutic field.