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Pink Ink: Do Perceptions Of Tattooed Women Match Reality?

by — Last updated: 2017-09-21 in Emotional & Stress Management

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Studies show that women with tattoos are seen as less attractive but more promiscuous by a significant portion of the population. Isn't it high time to let go of such outdated ideas?

So, do unfavorable perceptions of women with tattoos match reality? As an inked woman, I find the very question slightly insulting. Before we get to why, let's take a look at the available scientific literature. 

A Polish study — which didn't separate surveyed participants by gender — found that tattooed people in general were indeed slightly more sexually active. However, the study only involved 88 people, not large enough a sample to make any real conclusions, and furthermore, the difference in sexual activity wasn't statistically significant. A New Zealand study of tattooed people did find that inked women were more likely to have had more than five sexual partners, while a French study conducted by the same researcher who did the "beach study" revealed that women who had piercings and tattoos commenced sexual activity at earlier ages on average, as well as with more partners. 

Larger-scale studies also concluded that people with tattoos are more likely to be thrill-seekers, while tattooed college students were found to be slightly less agreeable, kind and hard working. Again, however, the differences were found to be statistically insignificant. 

Why do these kinds of studies not translate to a real reason to conclude that perceptions a portion of the public have of inked people, and women in particular, are correct? Because correlation doesn't equal causation, because the findings aren't statistically significant in many cases, and because studies come to contradictory conclusions. 

"It’s clear that people, perhaps especially women, should carefully consider how others might view them if they get a visible tattoo or piercing," one article concluded. Well, though other data suggest that visible tattoos may affect one's chances of being employed, and that's certainly a good reason to think before you are inked in visible places, if you judge me for my ink, that says more about you than it does about me. 

READ Want To Get Rid Of That Awful Tattoo?

Why Do Women Get Inked?

One study conducted by Texas Tech University showed that women with four or more tattoos have higher levels of self-confidence. Tattooed women aren't afraid to march to the beat of their own drum, they aren't afraid to take risks, and they aren't pain avoiders. Women who have tattoos are as individual as the ink that adorns their bodies, with their reasons for getting tattooed being just as varied.

Women get inked because they want to mark things that are important to them on their bodies, because they want to commemorate loved-ones or events, because they think tattoos are beautiful, because their tattoos make them smile, because getting tattooed is kind of addictive — in short, women, like men, get tattooed because they want to.

Now, in the twenty-first century, it's high time to stop seeing body art as anything but body art.