I think this is a flawed experiment just due to the terrible quality and unrealistic appearance of most of these tattoos. Like copy, tattoos are content: they can look extremely stupid or they can look very smart.

A few examples of tattoos that seem designed to appear stupid in your experiment include:

– A tattoo that says “Hustle” on a guy wearing an “Always Be Hustlin’” shirt

– A tattoo of the Star of David next to a tattoo of Buddha

– A full sleeve tattoo of British landmarks with an enormous Union Jack and an American flag

These are nothing close to representative of people with tattoos you’d find in everyday life or business. I think this experiment needs to be re-run with more thought put into the content of the tattoos instead of just… tattoos.

I don't have any tattoos and I definitely don't intend to get them but it would be fun to have a temporary one just to see people's reaction.

Yeah it's been super fun seeing how people look with the tattoos (also I get to have people virtually tatted up and consider it a business expense) 😛

Very interesting Hien. It's cool you have them where you can cover them up whenever you want. Put on a shirt and BAM they're gone and Corporate Hien can come out :-P

Bahahhaaha, now that's the ULTIMATE revenge for that comment!

P.S. He was probably like, "Whyyyyy don't people like meeeeee waaa waaa" (I mean, pretty sure that's what happened) ;)

Thanks for the feedback Katherine!

Like I mentioned in some other comments we have to use a heavy amount of tattoos for them to be visible in ratings systems where many people are using mobile devices to use.

So including single tattoos was not really an option.

Hey Elaina, I 100% agree with you.

I understand that some people unfairly judge tattoos, but people unfairly judge stuff ALL THE TIME!

Race, gender, height, looks, hair styles.....these are all visible things that people make judgements about subconsciously all the time.

If I choose to walk around looking like Marilyn Manson, I'll definitely get some stares as that outward appearance is unusual and people don't see it everyday. Most people dressed like that will recognize that it's unusual and understand some people will react "interestingly" to it (and often they ENJOY the varied reactions)!

Appearing a certain way will definitely cause different reactions from different people, and that's just life :)

What an interesting point of view!

That's funny how a tattoo makes you the "cool teacher" 😎

What's interesting in this experiment is only HUGE AMOUNT OF TATTOS were displayed. This is because when we tried including small tattoos:

1.) They were barely visible in the ranking system.

2.) They barely made an impact at all.

So it seems for the most part society doesn't care too much about small tattoos in common locations (arms, legs etc). So progress is being made for sure :)

Bahahahahah "So bad it was good."

Lol, at least you have a good (or bad?) story about how it came about!

Did you AT LEAST get a free Red Bull can?? :-P

100% agree!

If you're in a customer service job in a very professional environment, I couldn't imaging that tons of half-naked women tattoos would be a benefit.

However if you worked as a producer for music, movies, or any creative industry.....tattoos would almost be "welcome" and make you look more creative!

Cool comment. Possibly shirt-worthy :)

Interesting observation Randal.

I bet this is a Causation/Correlation thing going on here.

Tattoos don't necessarily mean drinking and smoking etc as there are obviously many examples of this not being the case (like Ysmay's comment below).

However I bet there's some sort of correlation between vices (I'm guessing). I'm assuming most people who smoke might also be more likely to drink. Or people who drink and smoke would be more likely to get a tattoo.

Would be interesting to find out!

Oh wow!

I remember seeing a similar case of a man who had very significant skin disfigurements, so he started covering them with tattoos.

It seemed to make him much happier having tattoos over them, so it was a net benefit for sure!

Wait....there's a heavily tattooed man making custom motorcycles?? WHHAAAATT!?!? 😛

I bet in your field the tattoos have a positive brand image, as opposed to maybe an accountant. However I think you can also TOTALLY OWN something like that too. There's this lawyer in Austin with billboards all around town that totally owns his grungy looks:

Great comment Tyler, possibly shirt-worthy :)

Oh yikes, sounds rough 😐

I think more and more places are becoming accepting of minor tattoos now. I can still see judgement for large amounts of tattoos or neck/face tattoos though.

BAHAHAHHAHA that's pretty funny :)

I could see why you'd need to keep your shirt on around some more conservative parents. It probably just brings extra attention you don't want.

I've never heard the Aesop story, but it must be damn good if you decided to get a tattoo of it!

Bahhahahah great point. I thought this was spam, but then realized it's an actual comment....just....very capitalized.

I see we have a comedian in the house 😅

Well that's cool that you both came to a fair agreement and it seems to have worked out great!

Thanks for sharing Stefan!

I think HOW you ask about someone's tattoo is important. If said with a negative or judgy tone it's clearly kind of a sly insult. However sometimes I'm genuinely curious what something means (if anything), and most people are happy to tell their story about it.

And yes especially in tech related jobs it seems casual dress and tattoos are pretty openly accepted. I've never seen it be an issue except when dealing with large corporate clients where a sales person will typically cover up the tattoos with clothing unless it's clear it's not an issue.

Thanks for sharing Cierra!

Yeah it seems like HOW you ask about the tattoo is important.

If it's politely asked, it seems most people don't mind at all.

If it's asked with a judgmental tone, then that could definitely be perceived as a slight insult.

From the comments it seems:

Creative Jobs = "Tattoos are cool! 😎"

Corporate Jobs = "You better cover that up and never show it. 😒"

You're bucking the trend Ysmay! Starting smoking and doing drugs immediately 😜

Bahahahah, they might think you're weird ANYWAY for wearing long clothing in hot weather :-P