US cigarette consumption

As tattoo parlors have multiplied, cigarette consumption has declined, a negative correlation of -0.979 that suggests Americans have replaced one form of body modification with another: the smoke goes out, the needle goes in, and the body remains the canvas for whatever the current generation considers a reasonable personal choice. The cigarette was the rebellion of the 1950s, the tattoo is the rebellion of the 2010s, and the chart traces the handoff with generational precision.

Tattoo parlors grew from about 15,000 to about 30,000 between 2007 and 2015. Cigarette consumption declined as anti-smoking campaigns, taxes, and e-cigarettes reduced traditional cigarette use. Both trends measure the same generational identity shift: younger Americans express themselves through ink rather than smoke, and the cultural associations of each have inverted—tattoos went from marginal to mainstream while smoking went from mainstream to marginal. The same generation driving one trend is abandoning the other.

Nine years of more tattoo parlors and fewer cigarettes is a cultural generational swap: the body modification of choice changed, but the impulse—to use the body as a medium for identity—remained the same. The cigarette was how your grandparents looked cool, the tattoo is how you look cool, and neither will be cool by the time your grandchildren decide. The smoke clears. The ink stays.