Running head: EFFECT OF TATTOO ON OTHERS

Effect of Tattoo on Others

Abstract

The focus of this research is social psychology concerning the effect of tattoos on

others' perceptions, with the intent of establishing both the implicit and explicit attitudes towards

tattooed persons. The research is hypothetical and evaluates postulations on inked individuals, a

thorough investigation of a job interview context. Early research studies depict that the challenge

tattooed individuals encounter in our case, is they are associated with being less cordial,

unprofessional, and barbaric, which is not always the case.

Tattoos are rapidly growing in popularity across different demographics.

However, experimental studies show that regardless of the increasing demand for tattooing, the

negative attitudes towards inked bodies are prevalent. Resulting from the early scholar's different

arguments, we experimented in our college class to answer the formulated research question,

"Does having a tattoo affect your professionalism perception?” We used a range of methods

focusing on both qualitative and quantitative methods, mainly by administering questionnaires,

using the improved scoring algorithm, interviewing individuals, and more prevalently using

social media data.

The research methodologies adopted were excellent with a single limitation.

Initially, there were thirty-three participants, but we considered only 30 responses as the

limitation on the other three responses was that the individual’s 20% of their answers were

extremely fast, more than 300m/s, which indicates extreme response times. After a keen

evaluation of the results from all the methodologies adopted, the experiment revealed that

tattooing is rising in popularity, and implicit measures to a great extent were associated with

explicit measures.
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Keywords: Tattoo, perception, implicit and explicit attitude, professionalism

Effects of Tattoo on Others Perceptions

Tattooing culture has grown tremendously, but there are only a few researches

that have examined the perceptions that come around with the culture or the relationship between

implicit and explicit attitudes towards individuals with inked bodies (Baumann, Timming, &

Gollan, 2016). It is critical to focus on the opinions due to the arising stigma around tattooed

individuals. The early publication reports slightly differ from the recent experiment we carried

out, but to a great extent, it builds on the initial report. In this case, our research question is,

"Does having a tattoo affect your professionalism perception?”

Following the research question, inking the body, is the independent variable,

while the dependent variables are the perceptions about tattooing, in this case, professionalism.

The rationale behind the research question results from multiple early publications exhibiting an

instance of an interview context whereby the panel dismisses tattooed individuals, the excuse

being they look unprofessional, among other negatives, jaded attitudes displayed (Miller, Nicols,

& Eure, 2009). As a result, the research will focus on how perceptions are formed based on

physical characteristics, in this case, tattooing and professionalism.

The proposed research investigation aims at reducing prejudice towards tattooed

individuals, showing the correlation between implicit and explicit attitudes towards tattooed

individuals as well as giving a future direction. Further, the study will focus on the examination

of both implicit and explicit attitudes towards tattooed individuals, literature review,

methodologies used, results, and final proposal, but not limited to these.
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Research Questions

1) Does having a tattoo affect your professionalism perception?

2) Which behaviors are stereotypically associated with inking the body?

3) What is the relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes towards

tattooed individuals?

Hypothesis

The hypothesis of our research is tattoo does not affect professionalism. A

statistical test will be conducted to evaluate whether tattooing the body had an impact on

professionalism and competence in an interview context through a discussion and analysis of the

research findings. Additionally, a statistical analysis will also be conducted to establish whether

examining the relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes towards a tattooed individual

reduces the stigma around tattooed individuals.

Literature Review

Over the years, the popularity of tattoo culture has tremendously increased, and

recently, the controversial topic has received considerable attention to its effect on different

perceptions such as professionalism, competence, and compassion, among others (Miller, Nicols,

& Eure, 2009). However, regardless of the subject's attention, the concern of prejudice and

negative, jaded attitudes towards tattooed individuals exists, and therefore, the need for study is

still critical (Ellis, 2015). In recent publications, scholars have commenced examining implicit

and explicit attitudes towards tattooed individuals in an earlier ignored area.

Early research depicts that tattoos have been closely linked to mediocre

individuals and stereotypically associated with deviance, negative behaviors, and criminal acts.
EFFECT OF TATTOO ON OTHERS 5

Herrera and Marcelin 2018 reiterate that the typical physical characteristics among the criminals

were the possession of a tattoo (Miller, Nicols, & Eure, 2009). As a result of those early

postulations, professionalism is affected to a great extent by tattooing as tattooed individuals are

associated with being deviant, incompetent, and unprofessional.

Reports also assert that tattooing has been found to have a significant impact on

attitudes in the workplace with pragmatic implications for various life outcomes, including but

not limited to professional achievements, employment, and workplace relations. Following a

health context in theatre, medical practitioners without tattoos are preferred to those who are

tattooed in surgery and mechanical related professionals (Baumann, Timming, & Gollan, 2016).

Based on these findings, it is apparent stigmatization towards tattooed individuals has an

extensive spectrum and is far-reaching.

On the contrary, recent publications state that tattoos, however, don't fall in the

marginalized class, resulting from increased popularity. Further, the latest studies show that there

is a close correlation between explicit and implicit attitudes (Miller, Nicols, & Eure, 2009).

Following the explicit opinions, current research on college students exhibited that tattooing

doesn't necessarily mean deviance; instead, it was a way of self-expression, body art, and both

tattooed and non-tattooed individuals were optimistic about body inking (Baumann, Timming, &

Gollan, 2016). However, experimental studies prove otherwise by showing the negative attitudes

towards tattooed individuals (Mendez, 2016). Despite an extensive demographic having tattoos,

they express that most of them are hidden, and this brings into our attention how stigmatization

around tattooing is critical and should be addressed.

Research Design/Research Methodology

The research focuses on the different perceptions and attitudes of different

persons towards tattooed individuals. The distribution of the study encompassed the myriads of

people, contingent on the research methodology. In our case, each and every research

methodology had participants from different demographics, across an extensive range of

heterogeneous groups. The study was conducted through the administration of questionnaires

and structured interviews, the use of social media data, and the improved scoring algorithm to

examine the implicit measures and expose the correlation between implicit and explicit attitudes.

The questioners in the survey were open-ended, allowing the participants to

answer the questions as they were provided and express their feeling when need be as much as

they want. The data collected from the in-depth research was categorized into two groups to

establish an analysis and interpretation of the research findings. The participants' categorization

was made depending on whether they had negative, jaded feelings and perceptions towards

inking bodies, whether they embraced tattooing, and was optimistic about body inking.

We administered questioners and interviewed the participants, which ensured the

development of varying answers among the respondents, which facilitated the comparison of

responses. To add to that, the use of social media data had a significant impact as the link shared

in MTurk, a tool used in recruiting participants aided in reaching more demographics and

acquiring more personalized answers. I would say that the diversity was critical and all research

methodologies applied were relevant in coming up with the proper research findings.
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Population and Sampling

The population in this research includes different demographics, and the heterogeneity was

aimed at deriving unbiased findings. Following the social media data methodology, the

distribution of the participants included a total of 33 participants, both men and women, from a

different ethnic background and with different age gaps. The questionnaires were administered to

our college class, and 17 people participated in both genders. Additionally, an interview was

done for a small group of nine individuals working and non-working class. It is important to note

that the distribution of participants included both large and small groups. The small group

interviewed was involved to ensure a lower risk of error on the results from the survey.

Alternatively, the small sample space of nine people was included to provide easy statistical

analysis of the data.

Participants

The participants of this research study aggregated to 59 summative from a different ethnic

background, age groups, and gender. The distribution of participants who used the social media

data included three from the United States of America, three from Iraq, five from Egypt, ten

from Saudi Arabia, two from Singapore, eight from pacific, and two from Libya. All the

participant's opinions were appreciated, but 3 of them exhibited extreme response times. The

variables among the population were employment, age, gender, ethnicity, and marital status.
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Data Collection

In this case, the study was based on the collection of data regarding the perceptions around

tattooed individuals, especially the professionalism concept. Therefore the data was collected by

social media data, structured interviews, and open-end questioner. The respondents were

randomly selected, and following the ethical regulations of the research was critical. One of the

ethical guidelines considered was the participatory willingness, whereby participation in the

study was out of the free will, and the ethics of confidentiality were also strictly followed.

Expected Results

According to the research, tattooing is no longer a presentation of a group of

individual people, deviance, and an outlaw's mark. Still, it is more seen as a way of self-

expression and body art with individualism (Schmaltz, 2016). However, the findings show that

despite the tattoo culture prevalence, to some reasonable extent, it affects your profession but not

professionalism if it's visible resulting from the different personalities, preferences, and attitudes.

A job can be impacted; for instance, findings show that most participants don't like conspicuous

tattoos in offices, but in the music industry, it is the new normal (Baumann, Timming, & Gollan,

2016). In a nutshell, having a tattoo can work against your professionalism, depending on your

boss's discretion. I would run an ANOVA on my three groups, I would expect group A

researched by social media data more accurate than Group B, which included our class members,

and C would be the least reliable. That is because from the former subsequently, there is reduced

diversity, and the findings are likely to be biased.

Discussion

The findings can be described in terms of tattoo and do not affect professionalism.

This is because competence and physical attributes do not relate. However, the profession can be

changed depending on the executive description and the code of ethics. Therefore, it is essential

for more research to be carried out to make the topic well understood to avoid negative implicit

and explicit attitudes towards tattooed individuals. Prejudice and stigmatization around tattooed

individuals are limiting and should be avoided as competence, professionalism, compassion, and

many other perceptions are not correlated with body inking (Bassili, & Brown, 2005). The

findings suggest that cognitive facets of attitudes like negative deducts and jaded postulates are

more indented to the implicit attitudes towards tattooed individuals that the explicit emotional

and behavioral facets of stigmatization. It is important to note that regardless of the slight

association between the two, the correlation does not always translate to emotional response

towards behavioral intentions

Final Research Proposal

Despite the prevalence of tattoo culture, the present research corroborates with the

early findings in that perceivers express negative implicit and explicit attitudes towards

individuals with inked bodies (Baumann, Timming, & Gollan, 2016). Taking different

publications report into account, individuals with tattoos face a lot of stigma and prejudice as

they are attributed to less favorable attributes (Bassili, & Brown, 2005). However, it is

commendable to focus more on the stigmatization around tattooed individuals and do more

research on the controversial topic. Further, in professions, it is worth noting that physical

characteristics do not affect professionalism, competence, and compassion, as well as other

perceptions (Perugini, 2005). More research is needed to gain more comprehension of the factors
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catalyzing negative attitudes towards tattooed personalities and, more importantly, how to reduce

stigma and prejudice effectively.

References

Bassili, J. N., & Brown, R. D. (2005). Implicit and Explicit Attitudes: Research, Challenges, and

Theory.

Baumann, C., Timming, A. R., & Gollan, P. J. (2016). Taboo tattoos? A study of the gendered

effects of body art on consumers' attitudes toward visibly tattooed front line

staff. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, 31-39.

Ellis, A. D. (2015). A picture is worth one thousand words: Body art in the workplace. Employee

Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 27(2), 101-113.

Foltz, K. A. (2014). The Millennial's perception of tattoos: self expression or business faux

pas?. College student journal, 48(4), 589-602.

Mendez, M. (2016). Attitudes toward tattoos in the work place. Angelo State University Social

Sciences Research Journal, 2(2).

Miller, B. K., Nicols, K. M., & Eure, J. (2009). Body art in the workplace: Piercing the

prejudice?. Personnel Review.

Perugini, M. (2005). Predictive models of implicit and explicit attitudes. British Journal of

Social Psychology, 44(1), 29-45.

Schmaltz, A. (2016). The Effects of Tattoos on Perceived Competence in Traditional and Non-

Traditional Students.