Skin deep social perceptions towards tattooed individuals

"The primary purpose of this study was to examine the social perceptions of a male and female model with different degrees of tattooing. One hundred and fifteen females and 85 males from the Rockhampton city area (QLD) rated images of males and females that varied along five levels of tattooing. Attitudes were measured using the NEO-FFI survey (International Personality Item Pool, IPIP, 2001, http://ipip.ori.org/ipip/). Results showed that women were rated more negatively than their male counterparts across all conditions in which a tattoo was present. The female model was rated as a direct function of the number of tattoos present on her body. Thus, ratings of negativity increased in accordance with the degree of tattooing present. Female participants consistently rated the tattooed female more positively than male participants regardless of tattoo condition. An in-group bias effect was also observed in which tattooed participants perceived the tattooed female and tattooed male model more positively than those participants who did not possess a tattoo. Implications and limitations are also discussed."--Abstrac