People with tattoos: 3 personality traits that define them

There are personality traits that predispose us more or less to tattoo our skin.

Tattoos are already an authentic social and aesthetic phenomenon. Since they moved from prison environments to fashion catwalks and to all kinds of demographic groups in most Western countries, they have become so normalized that they are no longer something strange, as was the case a few decades ago.

According to estimates by the Spanish Academy of Dermatology, one in three Spaniards between the ages of 18 and 35, the millennial generation, has at least one tattoo. This 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 only natural that social and personality psychologists have taken an interest in finding out What psychological traits and characteristics define people who wear tattoos.

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 very much into account.

However, it is also true that, in many cases, certain personality traits make us more prone to certain behaviors. This is the case with the propensity to consume drugs, to get married, and many others, among which, it seems, is also the fact of getting one or more tattoos.

Recently, a group of researchers at Anglia Ruskin University have carried out a study precisely to 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 series of volunteers, with or without tattoos, were recruited to fill out personality tests. Based on the analysis of all the accumulated data, the team discovered three basic personality traits in those who wear tattoos. These are, basically, the three we will see below.

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, people who are extraverted tends to seek out complex, socially rich, stimulus-filled environmentsThe extraverted person, unlike the introverted person, who shows a certain degree of anxiety if he/she feels overwhelmed by external stimuli.

In practice, extraverted people are more sociable, as they like to be more often in crowded places and in places where there are large groups, sounds and visual stimuli. They give the impression of being energetic individuals, although situations in which there is a certain degree of loneliness and isolation can cause their mood to drop, something that does not happen with introverts.

2. Openness to experience

This research shows that people with tattoos have a significant tendency to welcome new experiences with joy.. This means that, in general, the changes that occur in life with the passage of time are not seen as a bad thing, something that does occur, for example, in conservative people.

On the other hand, the search for new experiences is seen as exciting by those with this personality type, while monotonous situations quickly cause boredom. In general, everything related to adventure and the possibility of taking a certain degree of risk is the possibility of assuming a certain degree of risk is experienced with pleasure.

3. Motivation to excel

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 quite possible that in the case of hundreds of thousands of people with tattoos this is true, but this study has found that, in general, those who decide to get tattoos on their skin show that they are more motivated to stand out, those who decide to tattoo their skin show 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.These narratives usually have something to do with the wearer's philosophy of life, or with important events that have occurred in their lives.

In the end, even the smallest and most hidden tattoos give rise to questions and excuses to explain how one lives, or has lived, one's life. The fact that only very few people see some of them is in itself something that gives strength to their power to express, since the discretion and intimacy associated with them cause a clear emotional impact on those who contemplate them.