Tattoo Stigma and Job Discrimination

Recent research (Madera & Hebl, 2011) has found that visible stigmas can lead to discrimination against stigmatized individuals in the form of lower job applicant ratings. Tattooed individuals may be one group that faces such discrimination. People with tattoos are perceived less positively than non-tattooed people (Martin & Dula, 2010; Resenhoeft, Villa, & Wiseman, 2008), which may be the result of a tattoo stigma. Pryor & Reeder (2011) suggested that one hallmark of stigmas is that they evoke implicit negative attitudes. In a pilot study, participants implicitly and explicitly evaluated tattooed and non-tattooed individuals, and a tattoo stigma was supported. In the present study, tattooed (vs. non-tattooed) applicants were rated lower on overall effectiveness. However, unlike Madera & Hebl (2011), the present study did not find memory to mediate the tattoo condition-effectiveness ratings relationship. Implicit tattoo-related attitudes, explicit tattoo-related attitudes, and participant gender were found to moderate the relationship between tattoo condition and candidate effectiveness ratings, and a number of additional participant demographic variables (i.e. age, number of tattoos, level of education) were found to be additional predictors of candidate effectiveness ratings