The Perception Of Tattoos | Do They Make You More Desirable?

Tattoos have gone from a social taboo to the upper echelons of high fashion with Jean Paul Gaultier experimenting with tattoo designs in much of his work in the early 90s. In this episode we discuss the social perception of tattoos and the following research suggesting that tattoos have a sensitive cost-benefit ratio of providing some masculine edginess (for both men and women) which correlates to increased desirability but comes at a hit in terms of long term mate characteristics such as stability, reliability and trustworthiness. 

The effects of tattoos are also asymmetrical across genders with women being sterotyped more negatively than men who actually gain a benefit. The hypothesised reasons for why this is the case, the sterotyping pitfalls and how tattoos change your physical aesthetic are all discussed right here in this episode!

• Molloy, Karlyn; Wagstaff, Danielle (2021). Effects of gender, self-rated attractiveness, and mate value on perceptions tattoos. Personality and Individual Differences, 168(), 110382–. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110382