Rebecca Moore discovers why more females are getting inked and that they are the stronger sex when it comes to the pain of the needle

Over the past few months, Twitter and Instagram have been alight with images of celebrity tattoos, with the likes of Cara Delevingne and Rita Ora covering their hands, and even the inside of their ears with ink. Some celebrities – here’s looking at you, Cheryl Cole – have taken to tattooing their whole derrieres.

Gone are the days when body art was seen as a masculine affair: more women than men have tattoos in America.

Over the past decade or so, it has become an increasingly common interest for women in Britain too and according to Oxford-based studio, Oxford Tattoo, more than 60 per cent of their clientele are female. “We certainly have more women clients than men,” comments Marc Winston, owner at Oxford Tattoo. “This figure hasn’t changed much in the three years we’ve been open, but I imagine over the last decade or so the amount of women having artwork has increased.”

And good news for the ladies – not only do women form a larger proportion of Oxford’s tattooed community, they also tend to moan less about the pain. “Women’s pain threshold is noticeably higher than men’s,” Fran Tillyer, a female tattoo artist at Oxford Tattoo tells me. “It’s definitely true that women who have endured childbirth barely flinch at all.”

One such woman is 24-year-old Aura Willow, a regular at Oxford Tattoo who has been having artwork applied to her body for three years now. She confirms that after childbirth, pain inflicted by the tattoo machine is pretty negligible. She should know: her torso and arms are covered in an array of designs and today she is having a crow coloured onto her wrist. Her love for tattoos is born partly from wanting to express herself, a love encouraged from an early age by her older sister who always had a lot of tattoos. “I think female role models can definitely inspire you to get a tattoo, but ultimately it should be about your own expression”, she agrees.

This may go some way to explaining why many girls now feel similarly inspired by top models and celebrities. The number of female tattoo artists has also been on the rise for some time.

Fran Tillyer and Martyna Kabulska at Oxford Tattoo entered the profession in very different ways. Fran comes from an apprenticeship background in Bristol after studying creative production design at university. Martyna was encouraged by her tattooist boyfriend to turn her hand to the art form and she never looked back.

Female tattooists can be beneficial for customers. Fran explains: “I notice that guys are much more willing to show when they need a rest or to flinch if they’re uncomfortable when they come to a studio that’s not filled with men. They seem to relax more: there’s perhaps less need for them to appear macho.”

However, Martyna is particularly aware of negative attitudes towards tattoos. In her native Poland she says people with tattoos are often regarded as criminals. “It’s not like that here – in Britain it feels more feminine somehow and more accepted. There is slightly less judgement,” Martyna says.

But negative connotations are still in evidence: Marc informs me that he has seen a sharp rise in people requesting tattoo removal to assist in job-hunting. “Our most common requests for removal are images and symbols on the knuckles and tattoos that leak upwards above the collar line,” Marc says. “People worry about work situations, mainly – a lot of employers don’t like tattoos being visible.”

This bias against body art is evidenced by results from a study conducted last year which showed that no matter how articulate, intelligent and well-educated a job candidate was, a broad sweep of employers – including bank managers, booksellers and restaurant owners – all agreed that they would be put off if a candidate had visible tattoos, some worrying that clients may find them “repugnant”.

For many, the fear is that although it’s fine for rich, successful celebrities to have visable tattoos, for the average person it could greatly damage their ability to find work. The tattooists at Oxford Tattoo stress to first-time clients that a subtle piece of body art, somewhere that can be hidden, is the best first step.

Hidden away as the derriere may be, Cheryl’s tattoo, is probably a step too far for most women. Though at least we now know that it’s not for fear of it being a terrible pain in the bum.

See oxfordtattoo.co.uk or call 01865 791893.