Background: Body ornamentation is becoming more and more popular, especially among young people.

Aims: To establish the sociodemographic characteristics of people with tattoos or body piercing and to analyze the motivations for body ornamentation.

Methods: The questionnaire studies were undertaken in Lodz--one of the largest cities in Poland. The data was collected from a group of 968 people, 476 of whom had a piercing and 492 a permanent tattoo.

Results: Statistical analysis revealed that in the group of people with a tattoo, 36.8% were female and 63.2% were male. Contrary proportions were noted among people with a piercing: 78.8% female and 21.2% male.

Conclusions: Body piercing is significantly more popular among women while tattooing is more popular in men. Among adolescents, body piercing is performed considerably earlier than tattooing. The main reasons for body ornamenting in the Polish population are the desire to enhance one's individuality and the need to increase sexual attractiveness.