Tattoos and body piercings continued to be considered deviant activities in the United States until the 1960s, when both tattoos and body piercing began to cross over from the working class, bikers, prisoners, and military personnel to a younger, hipper audience. This crossover began with the hippies.

The hippies were a youth subculture who advocated universal love and peace and were associated with long hair, drugs, rock music, and political protests. The hippie culture embraced tattoos as a way to show the world their beliefs. They choose to get spiritual and political tattoos, such as ying and yang and peace signs. In addition, British youths who visited India during the 1960s adopted the Indian practice of piercing their noses. Piercing was adopted by the punk movement in the 1970s as a symbol of rebellion.

Tattoos and body piercing began to spread from rebellious youths to more mainstream society in the 1970s. This was due, in part, to the increasing professionalization of both industries. For example, Lyle Tuttle, a famous tattooist in San Francisco, realized that to attract new types of customers, tattooing had to lose its reputation for unhygienic practices. Tuttle was instrumental in getting new health regulations passed for tattoo studios. Because these regulations made getting a tattoo safer, more middle-class clients became interested in tattoos.

Body piercing also became more accessible to the public in the 1970s. Jim ward opened the Gauntlet, the first U.S. body piercing studio. People could now get pierced by a professional rather than doing it themselves or having friends do it. And in 1989 the publication of Modern Primitives, a book featuring interviews with several people who had gotten piercings and tattoos, brought awareness of body piercing to readers throughout the United States.

In the years that followed, body piercing and tattooing continued to gain popularity among new groups of people. Many well-known artists, actors, musicians, and fashion designers adopted tattooing and piercing. The public followed this celebrity trend. By the end of the twentieth century both practices had become wildly popular.