2025-07-08 11:57:34

People who have colourful and cheerful tattoos are seen as more agreeable.

According to a study conducted by Michigan State University, people who have happier and brighter tattoos are more likeable than those who have darker tattoos that feature images linked to death, such as skulls.

However, these assumptions proved false as the tattoos did not reflect the person’s true personality.

William J. Chopik wrote in the Journal of Research in Personality: “While people often believe tattoos reveal deep truths about someone’s personality, those impressions usually do not hold up.

“Previous work has been agnostic to whether and how people use the content of people’s tattoos when forming judgments about them (and if those judgments are accurate).

“The content of tattoos might communicate important information about those people in similar ways that other external cues guide judgment (e.g., physical appearance, laptop stickers).”

In their research, the scientists enlisted 274 adults who had at least one tattoo, aged 18 to 70, and the participants completed a personality questionnaire to analyse their levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. 

The group also provided pictures of their tattoos, as well as descriptions of what they meant.

The researchers then collected 375 tattoos and passed them over to 30 people, who were asked to rate the people behind them.

Eventually, the scientists found that people with death-inspired tattoos were considered more neurotic, while those who opted for more comforting imagery were seen as more pleasant.

Chopik said: “The findings revealed that people do make judgements based on someone’s tattoos – for example, someone with a small, cute daisy tattoo would be viewed as more agreeable than someone with a big, grotesque skull tattoo.”

However, these suppositions were incorrect, and the tattoos did not accurately reveal the owners’ real personality.

Even so, the study did find that people with “wacky” tattoos were more likely to be open to experiences than those who had more traditional tattoos.

Chopik added: “Those impressions usually do not hold up, except in the case of ‘wacky’ tattoos, which can genuinely reflect a person’s openness.”

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