“Are people with tattoos stigmatised?”

In a study carried out by Broussard and Harton in 2018, they found that people who chose to have tattoos are heavily stigmatised in society. Throughout their studying they found that in America roughly 47 percent of Millennials have tattoos, 36 percent of Generation Xers have tattoos and 13 percent of Baby Boomers have tattoos. Overall 21-29 percent on those admitted to having one tattoo and 15-20 percent of them admitted to having two or more tattoos. Although this had proved that tattooing was still rising in popularity, they still discovered that the tattooed individuals were still being stigmatised. They found that the treatment of those with a so-called “controllable stigma” was increasingly higher as it was originally their choice. The study showed that those with tattoos were perceived to have “negative personality characteristics, lower levels of inhibition, competence, and sociability, and higher levels of promiscuity”. The studies that focused primarily on tattooed women found that they were more harshly judged than the male counterparts. Further research showed that women with tattoos were perceived as dishonest, less caring, less intellectual, less attractive and that they were associated with heavy drinking. Broussard and Harton also found that those with tattoos were more vulnerable to workplace discrimination as they may be violating company policies in regard to appearance. One of their studies showed that managers would not hire anyone with visible tattoos as it would taint the company’s image. The results of the studies showed that tattooed people are more perceptible to stigmatisation and discrimination especially in the workplace. Throughout their research this proves that through quantitative research methodologies that still in current years there is an ongoing stigma and continued discrimination to working professionals in the public sector be it retail, food industries and so on.