Elsevier

Body Image

Volume 8, Issue 3, June 2011, Pages 245-250
Body Image

Tattoos and piercings: Bodily expressions of uniqueness?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2011.03.007Get rights and content

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the motivations underlying the body modification practices of tattooing and piercing. There were 80 participants recruited from an Australian music store, who provided descriptions of their tattoos and piercings and completed measures of need for uniqueness, appearance investment and distinctive appearance investment. It was found that tattooed individuals scored significantly higher on need for uniqueness than non-tattooed individuals. Further, individuals with conventional ear piercings scored significantly lower on need for uniqueness than individuals with no piercings or with facial and body piercings. Neither appearance investment nor distinctive appearance investment differed significantly among tattoo or piercing status groups. Strength of identification with music was significantly correlated with number of tattoos, but not number of piercings. It was concluded that tattooing, but not body piercing, represents a bodily expression of uniqueness.

Highlights

► People with tattoos scored higher on need for uniqueness than non-tattooed individuals. ► People with conventional ear piercings scored lower on need for uniqueness than individuals with no piercings or with facial and body piercings. ► Tattooed and pierced individuals did not differ from non-tattooed and non-pierced individuals on appearance investment nor distinctive appearance investment.

Introduction

Tattoos and piercings represent two increasingly common forms of body modification practices in contemporary society. Tattooing involves the insertion of coloured pigment into the dermal layer through a series of punctures of the skin in order to create a permanent marking. Currently, this is achieved using a rapid-injecting electrical device. Body piercing involves the insertion and threading of a metal bar or ring through an opening in the skin produced by a needle or specially designed piercing gun. In the past, both have been viewed as acts of rebellion or deviance associated with marginal groups in society (Benson, 2000). More recently, however, both have become increasingly popular across a broader segment of the population. Indeed, many celebrities now sport a visible tattoo or piercing. Although there are no definitive current incidence figures, an earlier large-scale Australian survey (Makkai & McAllister, 2001) reported that 10% of respondents had a tattoo, 32% had ear piercings and 7% had other body piercings. Smaller studies in the United States (Laumann & Derick, 2006) and Germany (Stirn, Hinz, & Brähler, 2006) have furnished similar estimates. More recently, a survey of more than 10,000 English adults estimated that 10% had a body piercing (Bone, Ncube, Nichols, & Noah, 2008), while in the United States, the Pew Research Center (2010) found that 23% of their sample had a tattoo and 8% a non-ear lobe piercing. In a recent German-speaking sample, 15% had a tattoo and 20% a body piercing (Stieger, Pietschnig, Kastner, Voracek, & Swami, 2010). In general, estimates are considerably higher in younger than older age groups. For example, among 18–29 year-olds (Millenials), 38% had a tattoo and 23% a body piercing (Pew Research Center, 2010).

Parallel to this demographic shift over time, much of the earlier research focused on risk-taking behaviours, and concluded that tattooing and piercing were associated with behaviours such as smoking, alcohol consumption, shop lifting, traffic violations, drug use and other illegal activities (Armstrong et al., 2004, Brooks et al., 2003, Deschesnes et al., 2006, Drews et al., 2000, Forbes, 2001, Greif et al., 1999, Roberts et al., 2004). More recent research has also found associations between body modifications and earlier or more frequent sexual activity and a greater number of sexual partners (Koch et al., 2005, Koch et al., 2007, Koch et al., 2010, Skegg et al., 2007). Yet body modifications like tattooing (and to a lesser extent, piercing) are rarely performed impulsively and in fact tend to be carefully planned in advance, especially among adults (Forbes, 2001). Although tattooing and piercing do carry some health risks, such as infection, transmission of blood-borne diseases, and allergic skin reaction to the dye or metallic insert, Huxley and Grogan (2005) found no difference in health behaviours or health value between their tattooed and non-tattooed, or pierced and non-pierced, college student participants. Furthermore, although some studies find personality differences between body modification groups on traits such as agreeableness and sensation-seeking (Nathanson et al., 2006, Stirn et al., 2006, Wohlrab et al., 2007b), overall these differences can be judged as minor (Tate & Shelton, 2008). As remarked by Forbes (2001), when significant numbers of well-educated middle class people begin to display tattoos and piercings, it becomes difficult to maintain a view of these body modifications as signs of personal psychopathology or social marginalization.

Some studies of college students have explicitly asked participants their motivations for getting a tattoo or piercing, although it should be noted that the samples of individuals with body modifications in these studies have been small. Greif et al. (1999) reported the most common reasons for both to be self-expression, followed by “just wanted one”, while Forbes (2001) reported self-expression and “just like the looks of it” as the most common. In accord, Armstrong et al. (2004) concluded that the most popular reasons for getting a tattoo or piercing were based around self-expression and identity, rather than deviancy or rebellion. There have been fewer studies of adults older than college students, but Millner and Eichold (2001) found that the most popular reasons given by a community sample recruited through tattoo and body art parlours similarly concerned individual expression and art. More recently, Tiggemann and Golder (2006) found that a sample recruited through tattoo studios nominated “to express myself” and “because they look good” as clearly the most important reasons for obtaining a tattoo. Nevertheless, there are a variety of other reasons for obtaining a tattoo or piercing, included group membership, celebration, perception of sexiness, and friends having one. Indeed, in their review of the literature, Wohlrab, Stahl, and Kappeler (2007) identified ten different motivational domains.

As the literature above suggests that the most common motivations for tattooing and piercing are based around self-expression and a sense of identity or uniqueness, Tiggemann and Golder (2006) sought to apply the theoretical framework provided by the Theory of Uniqueness (Snyder and Fromkin, 1977, Snyder and Fromkin, 1980, Snyder and Lopez, 2002). The term ‘uniqueness’ refers to a positive striving for different-ness compared to other people (Snyder & Fromkin, 1977). The basic premise underlying the Theory of Uniqueness is that, in addition to a need for similarity, people have a need to be distinctive and special. In fact, they seek to establish a moderate level of self-distinctiveness, because perceptual judgements of either extreme similarity or extreme dissimilarity to others are experienced as aversive. While everyone has a need (or desire) to be moderately dissimilar to others, the theory proposes that there are individual differences in this need (Snyder & Fromkin, 1980). Accordingly, people higher in the need for uniqueness will be more motivated to establish a level of perceived self-distinctiveness, for example, by obtaining or purchasing an item that is unique to them (Lynn & Snyder, 2002). Tiggemann and Golder (2006) reasoned that tattooing provides individuals with a means to achieve distinctiveness through body modification, and in support, found that tattooed individuals scored higher on need for uniqueness than non-tattooed individuals. This finding was also replicated by Tate and Shelton (2008) in a large college sample. Among non-tattooed individuals, Tiggemann and Golder (2006) found need for uniqueness predicted future likelihood of getting a tattoo, with this relationship being largely mediated by need for a distinctive appearance.

As tattooing is a permanent appearance-altering behaviour that requires considerable investment in terms of time, cost, and discomfort, Tiggemann and Golder (2006) also predicted that tattooed individuals would score higher on appearance investment than their non-tattooed counterparts. Appearance investment refers to the extent of cognitive, behavioural and emotional investments in the body and its importance for self-evaluation (Cash, 2002, Cash et al., 2004). However, contrary to their expectation, Tiggemann and Golder (2006) found no significant difference in appearance investment between their tattooed and non-tattooed participants. Although they speculated that perhaps the measure of appearance investment (ASI-R, Cash et al., 2004) captures primarily investment in “normative” aspects of appearance associated with current societal ideals of beauty such as weight and shape, a more obvious possibility, tested here, relates to the visibility and placement of tattoos. For example, an individual with a small discrete Chinese character tattooed on their hip and rarely seen by anyone else is unlikely to be motivated by appearance, in contrast to an individual who chooses a large readily visible dragon or mermaid tattooed on their forearm or side of their face. Thus we predicted that individuals with readily visible tattoos would score higher on appearance investment than individuals with easily concealed tattoos.

While much of the literature has conceptualized tattoos and piercings as parallel modes of body modification, there are likely differences in their motivation and meaning. In fact, Wohlrab, Stahl, and Kappeler (2007) concluded their review by recommending that future research should investigate explicitly differences in motivation, a recommendation adopted by the present study. Specifically, we reasoned that tattooing is a practice that usually involves considerably more time, pain and cost than piercing, which can often be accomplished in a few seconds. Importantly, tattooing results in permanent body alteration, whereas piercings can usually be easily removed to enable the hole in the skin to heal over (Armstrong, Roberts, Koch, Saunders, & Owen, 2007). Finally, there are an almost infinite number of tattoo images that can be chosen or even individually designed by the bearer to be unique, in contrast to the more limited range of rings, studs and metal inserts available for piercings. Accordingly, as also remarked by Wohlrab, Stahl, and Kappeler (2007), tattoos are likely to be imbued with considerably more personal meaning than are piercings.

The present study was conducted among shoppers in a music store. This setting was chosen as it was thought likely to give rise to a reasonable proportion of participants with and without body modifications, recruited from the same source and therefore directly comparable. It also allowed exploration of the relationship between musical identity and body modification practices. Like body modifications, styles of music can convey particular messages and act as a form of self-expression (Abbey & Davis, 2003). Certainly members of various youth sub-cultures (e.g., punk, Goth) display their membership by the music they listen to and the presence and form of their body art, in addition to their general dress, hair style and behaviour (Langman, 2008, Moore, 2009, Nathanson et al., 2006).

In sum, the present study sought to investigate underlying motivations for tattooing and body piercing. Specifically, we hypothesized that tattooed and pierced individuals would score higher on need for uniqueness than their respective comparison non-tattooed and non-pierced counterparts. Second, we hypothesized that individuals with highly visible tattoos and piercings would score higher on appearance investment and distinctive appearance investment than individuals with less visible tattoos and piercings. Third, it was predicted that tattoos would be more motivated by self-expression and identity, relative to piercings which would be more related to general adornment. Finally, the relationship with music identity was explored.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 80 shoppers (29 men and 51 women) recruited in a music store in the Central Business District of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. Their mean age was 25.61 years (range 16–53, SD = 7.76). Of the 80 participants, 45 (56.3%) were tattooed, and 60 (75.0%) had at least one piercing, including pierced ears.

Measures

Participants completed a questionnaire entitled ‘Music, Identity and Body Adornment’. The questionnaire contained measures of (in order) music preference, need for

Characteristics of the Sample

Of the 45 tattooed participants, 19 were male and 26 were female. Most had one tattoo (n = 20), followed by two tattoos (n = 8). There was no significant gender difference in number of tattoos (men M = 6.53, SD = 10.52; women M = 3.42, SD = 4.85), t(43) = 1.33, p > .05, ηp2=.04. The most common tattoo position was the upper arm (n = 18), followed by the back of the shoulder (n = 14), foot or ankle (n = 14), and wrist (n = 13). Tattoos covered a wide range of size and image: from a small (<1 cm) star on the thigh, to a

Discussion

Taken together, the results of this study support the conceptualization of tattooing as a bodily expression of uniqueness. We replicated, in a quite different sample of shoppers at a music store, the previous findings of Tiggemann and Golder (2006) and Tate and Shelton (2008) that tattooed participants score higher on need for uniqueness than do their non-tattooed counterparts. The present study also found that this was irrespective of the degree of visibility of the tattoo. According to the

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