People with tattoos: 3 personality traits that define them
Tattoos are already a real social and aesthetic phenomenon. Since they moved from prison environments to fashionable fashion shows and all types of demographic groups in most Western countries, they have normalized so much that they no longer seem strange, as happened a few decades ago.
According to the estimates of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology, one in three Spaniards aged between 18 and 35, the millennial generation, has at least one tattoo. It is not an isolated case: in the United States, almost a third of the inhabitants have their skin tattooed in one way or another, according to the Pew Research Center.
Given this rapid expansion, it is normal for social and personality psychologists to be interested in knowing what traits and psychological characteristics define the people who wear tattoos.
- Maybe you're interested: "40 symbolic tattoos with a deep meaning (with photos)"
Personality traits of people with tattoos
It is clear that each individual is a world; This is a principle that all researchers dedicated to the study of individual differences take into account.
However, it is also true that, in many cases, certain personality traits make us more prone to perform certain behaviors. It happens with the propensity to consume drugs, to marry, and to many others, among which apparently also the fact of getting a tattoo or more.
Recently, a group of researchers from the Anglia Ruskin University has conducted a study just to detect those personality traits in which people with tattoos are characterized when compared to the rest of the population.
To carry out this study, a number of volunteers were recruited, with or without tattoos, to fill out personality tests. From the analysis of all the accumulated data, the team discovered three basic personality traits in those who carry tattoos. They are, fundamentally, the three that we will see next.
1. Extraversion
Extraversion is a personality trait that tells us about the degree to which people depend on external stimuli in the immediate environment. Specifically, who is extraverted tends to look for complex and socially rich environments , and full of stimuli, unlike introverted people, who show a certain degree of anxiety if they feel overwhelmed by external stimuli.
In practice, extroverted people are more sociable, since they like to be very often in crowded places and where there are large groups, sounds and visual stimuli. They give the impression of being individuals full of energy, although situations in which there is a certain degree of loneliness and isolation can cause their mood to fall, something that does not happen with introverts.
- Maybe you're interested: "Differences between extraverted, introverted and timid people"
2. Openness to experience
This research shows that people with tattoos have a significant tendency to joyfully receive new experiences . That means that, in general, the changes that occur in life over time are not seen as bad, something that does occur, for example, in conservative people.
On the other hand, the search for new experiences is seen as something exciting by those who present this type of personality, while monotonous situations quickly cause weariness. In general, everything related to adventure and the possibility of assuming a certain degree of risk It is experienced with pleasure.
3. Motivation for highlighting
It is well known that many people claim to get tattoos simply because they like them or because they have a meaning that they know more than anyone else. Of course, it is very possible that in the case of hundreds of thousands of people with tattoos this is so, but this study has detected that, in general, Whoever decides to tattoo their skin shows a significant motivation to stand out from the rest.
From this data, the fact of resorting to this kind of aesthetic and symbolic resources can be seen as an attempt to build an identity in front of others; have something to tell through stories traced by the ink that decorates the body , being these narrations, normally, something that has to do with the philosophy of life of the one who takes it, or with important events that have happened in their lives.
After all, even the smallest and most hidden tattoos give rise to questions and excuses in order to explain how life is lived or lived. The fact that only very few people see some of them is in itself something that gives strength to their power to express, given that the discretion and intimacy associated with them cause a clear emotional impact on those who contemplate them.
