People who sport tattoos and piercings are heavier drinkers

French scientists have found evidence proving the stereotype that people who sport tattoos and piercings are heavier drinkers than those who prefer to remain unadorned.

Alcohol tests performed on nearly 2,000 young men and women frequenting bars in the west of France showed a strong correlation between body art and boozing, they said.

“Pierced and/or tattooed individuals had consumed more alcohol in bars on a Saturday night than patrons in the same bars who were non-pierced and non-tattooed,” a study for the journal “Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research” reported.

Previous research had shown that people with tattoos and piercings were more likely to engage in unsafe sex, fighting and heavy drinking, but this was the first such project to measure the amount of alcohol per liter of exhaled breath.