I'm a tattooed mom. Hell, I got half my tats after I had kids. I got two after my 40th birthday. I even have one that celebrates the fact that I'm a mom with the names of my husband and kids written in beautiful art deco script.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel: So, just imagine my surprise when I check out this study featured in the Chicago Tribune that claims those with four or more tattoos are linked with "deviant behavior."

A sociologist at Texas Tech University surveyed 1,753 students at four colleges and "found a correlation between multiple tattoos or piercings and 'deviant behavior.'"

The piece says: "The severally inked or poked at the unnamed Midwestern and Southern colleges said they engaged in, roughly speaking, more promiscuity, more drug use, more binge drinking, more arrests and more cheating on academics than their peers."

Um, think age has something to do with it? I mean, isn't this brand of rough-neckish behavior more common among college students in general?

I mean, I'm kind of psyched about being considered a deviant. Who knew that putting on their jams by ten and waking up at six to either hit the gym or the wailing of a cranky toddler was so ... kinky? Clearly, by omitting a large portion of the 18- to 35-year-old demographic (not to mention the 35-44s like myself), the researchers aren't quite getting a complete, vivid illustration of the tattooed segment.

And folks, if your kid has a solo tramp stamp, these researchers claim you have nothing to worry about.

"The new data also suggest parents needn't freak about a lone dolphin (14 percent of surveyed students had a tattoo) or a belly button ring (37 percent had a body piercing). 'For low-level body art, these kids are not any different from anybody else.'"

Do I hear a collective "phew" among you? Not so fast. They're strangely addictive. Just ask the tattooed mom you probably know.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Babble, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications and lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She authors two pop culture blogs: The Mad Mom and A Hag Supreme, and is on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com.