Recidivism And Tattoo Research

The art of tattooing first rose to prominence within the West following the resolution of the American Revolution, as tensions remained high between newly formed America and Britain. In an effort to further identify themselves – and avoid being pressed into service by the British navy – sailors sought inventive and permanent ways to verify their identity. Smith found that these ink inscriptions, ranging from significant dates or names to symbols of a life at sea, provided irrevocable proof of nationality for those who carried descriptive protection certificates (2013). Using whatever tools were available on the ships, sailors lined up to get inked with unorthodox pigments – even gunpowder. Smith went on to note that “rarely did members of

Further reinforcing in the minds of the public the early link between recidivism and tattoos, criminals began to prominently use ink as a way of displaying their list of misdeeds (Burgess & Clark, 2010). From this moment forward a strong societal association with abnormal or deviant behavior and those who chose to get tattoos was formed; consequently, that association would extend to define interactions with the subgroup of tattooed citizens even today within our modern, progressive society.
Aronson and Steele (1995) broadly defined stereotype threat as a “psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one’s group applies” (p.809). Their experimentation focused heavily on the deleterious effects stereotypes could have on groups stigmatized according to their race, but this is by no means the only social group

Burgess and Clark (2010) found that beginning in the 1970s more women began to “adopt tattooing as a body modification project” (p.748). Along with that came an increasing public demand for higher quality, more broadly appealing artwork. Despite their rise in pervasiveness – and an overall increase in ink advocates – tattoos still remained indelibly linked to social deviance, a less civilized nature and an overall negative perception. The public tends to view women with tattoos as lacking in certain desirable personality traits, such as: generosity, intelligence, honesty, and competence (Wohlrab, Fink, Kappeler, & Brewer, 2009; Guéguen, 2013). These negative associations extend to outward traits as well, where women involved in the tattooing subculture are viewed and depicted as more open regarding sexual experimentation and less attractive overall. Wohlrab et al. found that “tattooed individuals are assessed as higher sensation seekers with more promiscuous tendencies” (pg.4). With men being particularly receptive of women’s appearance and their physical signals, the presence of tattoos can lead to an overestimation of women’s intent and a subsequent increase in the amount of attention that is strictly sexual in nature (Guéguen, 2013). Guéguen (2013) was able to demonstrate this by devising an experiment in which women were stationed alone on the beach, with and