No doubt tattoos on men took off earlier. However, tattoos on women started much later, and my observance was that that didn’t happen until the end of the 90s. The full sleeve crap on women didn’t start showing up (on any women other than hardcore biker chicks and punk rockers) until the mid 2000s at the earliest.
You may be right. My memories may be skewed because I do distinctly remember in the mid 90s scamming on and picking up some cute little magenta-haired, alterna-chicks with lots of tats. Hey, it was the flavor of the day.