U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has a talent for stealing the spotlight. But she outdid herself in mid-August when a photo of her in a sleeveless shirt showing both her arms covered in tattoos went viral.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Mace usually appears in public wearing long-sleeved blazers. The contrast with the photo of her tattoos left some internet posters wondering if it was AI-generated.

But it was genuine. Mace had already disclosed their existence in an interview with Politico in February. She said she got nine tattoos over a period of several months from 2023 to 2024.

Are tattoos the new normal on the political right? Writer Abigail Nichols thinks they should be. Around the time that Mace’s photos went viral, Nichols published a column in the Daily Wire titled “How Inking Up Can Save the Right.” She argues that tattoos are traditionally associated with cultural rebellion and “conservatives are the new rebels.” Thus, we should embrace that status and “mobilize the movement” by getting tattoos. She points to U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, both of whom are inked, as role models.

Nichols’ premise is wrong on several counts. About 32% of American adults have at least one tattoo, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. Of those, 22% have more than one. Nearly half of adults between the ages of 30 and 49 have a tattoo. And I suspect that figure has only increased in the three years since Pew published its finding. When over a third of the population is doing something, it is no longer rebellious.

American churches are full of tattooed believers. But Nichols thinks that tattoos are still unwelcome there. She wrote, “No Baptist preacher wanted his daughter coming home with a tatted boyfriend.” In fact, the daughter in this scenario is more likely to have a tattoo than the boyfriend. Pew found that women get a lot more ink than men (38% to 27%).

Mace recently ran for governor of South Carolina but lost her bid in June. She placed fifth in the GOP primary. Would she have fared better if she’d put her tattoos on full display at her campaign rallies? I doubt it. In her interview with Politico, Mace shared her nine tattoos came during a tumultuous period when her engagement ended and all of her congressional staff quit or were fired. “So my story … is I am totally broken,” she said. The tattoos provided her “the pain that I need to feel.” She’s also previously spoken about surviving sexual assault and molestation.

Tattoos have been extensively studied by academics and, sadly, Mace is hardly unique in this regard. Studies have found significant associations between self-reported sexual, physical, and psychological abuse and various forms of body modification, including tattoos. A 2022 study in Germany found that among people reporting significant childhood abuse or neglect, 40.6% had a tattoo.

Studies have found evidence of an association between tattoos and depression, particularly among adolescents. Tattoos are also correlated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.

These correlations obviously don’t mean tattoos cause harmful behavior. But at the very least it means conservatives shouldn’t embrace tattoos as the way to “take back the culture in a defiant American way,” as Nichols recommends.

One thing Nichols gets right is that “adherents to the clean ‘old-money’ conservative aesthetic that prioritizes self-control, structure, and modesty are inherently less inclined to get inked.” Why does Nichols think that is a bad thing? She also labors under the delusion that this tiny group has any influence.

Over the past several years, I’ve regularly asked people about the reasons they got a tattoo. And I have never once heard a happy story. Many tattoos commemorate the death of a beloved person or sometimes a pet. But the stories I’ve heard get darker from there. I’ve heard people say they got a tattoo to commemorate a stint in rehab or as a reminder not to engage in self-harm.

The least tragic stories involve people saying they got a tattoo when they were young because they thought it was cool. Nichols herself falls into that camp. At age 20, her father offered her $1,000 to wait a year to get a tattoo. She got it anyway.

She recounts that a boyfriend subsequently dumped her because of the tattoo saying, “It’s like putting a bumper sticker on a Bentley.” He stole that line from Kim Kardashian, who is no one’s idea of a conservative trad wife.

Tattoos are part of mainstream American life. And given that removing them is expensive and painful, they will be with us for the rest of our lives. But they haven’t been rebellious in a long time. More tattoos are not what is going to “save the right.”

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News.

Image credit: Freerange Stock