Just when it seemed like tattoos had truly entered the mainstream, with everyone from Bieber to Samantha Cameron sporting both bold and inconspicuous ink, a study has been released that suggests those with tattoos might be more aggressive than those without.

Additionally, they suggest the more tattoos you have, the angrier you are.

The study, which is due to be published in a journal titled: Body Image, surveyed 378 adults between 20 and 59-years-old. Of those surveyed, 25.7 per cent had at least one tattoo. Those with tattoos had an average of 2.5 each.

According to the research, ‘tattooed individuals reported significantly higher levels of verbal aggression, anger, and reactive rebelliousness compared with non-tattooed adults.’

Professor Viren Swami, who was in charge of the research said: ‘One explanation is that people who have higher reactive rebelliousness may respond to disappointing and frustrating events by getting tattooed.’

‘We also found that tattooed adults had higher aggression scores on two of the four dimensions of aggression that we measured, namely verbal aggression and anger.’

‘Although tattoos have now become commonplace in modern British society, our findings may have implications for understanding the reported associations between tattooing and risky behaviour among adults.’

There are 20 million people in the UK with at least one tattoo, while the number of tattoo parlours is at 1,500. 

And now you know what to blame if (when) Bieber has his next meltdown.