People With Tattoos Are 'More Aggressive', Study Reveals

They may be more socially acceptable these days, but the stereotypical tattooed person is apparently as aggressive and rebellious as ever - relative to their tat-free peers.

A study led by Professor Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University questioned 378 UK adults (181 women and 197 men) aged 20-58 years.

The team found that people with tattoos showed “significantly higher levels of verbal aggression, anger, and reactive rebelliousness compared with non-tattooed adults”.

Women also showed significantly higher verbal aggression, proactive rebelliousness, and reactive rebelliousness than men, and there was a link between the number of tattoos a person has and the levels of anger they experience.

Of those surveyed, 25.7 per cent had at least one tattoo, and the average number of tattoos among those who had any was 2.5.

As far as educational qualifications were concerned, the number of tattoos made no difference.

Professor Swami said: “One explanation [for these findings] is that people who have higher reactive rebelliousness may respond to disappointing and frustrating events by getting tattooed.

“That is, when these individuals experience a negative emotional event, they may be more likely to react by pursuing an act that is seen as defiant. The act of tattooing is perceived as rebellious, or more generally tattoos themselves can signify defiance or dissent.

“On the other hand, there were no significant differences between tattooed and non-tattooed adults in proactive rebelliousness. It is possible that this form of rebelliousness, which is hedonistic and goal-driven, is at odds with the pain and permanence of tattoos.

“We also found that tattooed adults had higher aggression scores on two of the four dimensions of aggression that we measured, namely verbal aggression and anger.

“Although tattoos have now become commonplace in modern British society, our findings may have implications for understanding the reported associations between tattooing and risky behaviour among adults.”