I've always wondered if tattoos have an affect on how people view you....particularly in the workplace.
Many companies have a "No Tattoo Showing Policy" in place, especially for very professional roles.
So we did an experiment:
Keep in mind the tattoos we are testing must be EXTREMELY VISIBLE, so we're not talking about 1 or 2 hidden tattoos. The tattoo's we're testing are going to be very very visible.
Sam with No tattoos:
Sam with arm and neck tattoos:
Sam's Eye Tracking Charts:
Sam's Total Ratings:
Sam's Tattoo Conclusion:
Social: It seems Sam got (+50) Cool Points for rocking the tattoos!
Dating: There was a significant drop (-66) for dating. Judging on the feedback, the prominent neck tattoo is what people disliked.
Business: It seems Sam lost a few points (-14) with tattoos in the workplace.
Noah without tattoos:
Noah with arm and neck tattoos:
Noah's Eye Tracking Charts:
Noah's Total ratings:
Noah's Tattoo Conclusion:
Social: It seems Noah got (+23) Cool Points for rocking the tattoos!
Dating: There was a strong drop (-48) for dating. I'm guessing it's the neck tattoos causing this.
Business: Noah lost a bunch of points (-65) with tattoos in the workplace. His "Business" picture without the tattoos was sky high, but it seems perception of the tattoos in a business setting was negative on this one.
Jack without tattoos:
Jack with full tattoo sleeve:
Jack's Eye Tracking Charts:
Jack's Total Ratings:
Jack's Tattoo Conclusion:
Social: It seems Jack got (-2) points off his score for rocking the tattoos. I would say this is not enough to warrant as significant.
Dating: There was a super small drop (-4) for dating. I think Jack didn't drop in ranking too much because there's no neck tattoo.
Business: Jack dropped a decent amount (-33) with his tattoo sleeve in what's supposed to be a professional photo.
Sara without tattoos:
Sara with arm and neck tattoos:
Sara's Eye Tracking Charts:
Sara's Full Ratings:
Sara's Tattoo Conclusion:
Social: It seems Sara got dinged (-6) points for rocking tattoos in a social context. That's not much, and I would say not significant enough to count.
Dating: However on dating there was definitely an overall drop (-34).
Business: It seems there was a (0) point drop with tattoos in the workplace for Sara's "Business" photo.
Sara without tattoos:
Sara with full body arm, legs, neck tattoos:
Sara's Eye Tracking Charts:
Sara's Total Ratings:
Sara's Tattoo Conclusion:
Social: It seems Sara got a slight ding (-4) Cool Points for rocking the tattoos!
Dating: There was a super significant drop (-147) for dating on this set. Judging on the feedback, the vast amount of tattoos prompted this.
Business: Sara lost points (-25) with tattoos in the workplace. I'm actually surprised this number wasn't a bit higher because of the large amount of tattoos showing.
There were two notes on Sara's "Business" photo regarding the tattoos:
"Would prefer without sunglasses. For business, may want just your head. This would be an excellent social/dating photo, though, as you seem very happy and relaxed."
"That many tattoos are an issue for me personally."
Linda wearing dress without tattoos:
Linda wearing dress with chest tattoos:
Linda's Eye Tracking Charts:
Linda's Total ratings:
Linda's Tattoo Conclusion:
Social: Linda got robbed of social points with tattoos (-26).
Dating: However Linda got bonus points (+20) for dating. Seems like some people preferred the tattoos in this case!
Business: Looks like she also got MORE POINTS for having tattoos (+25) in this picture. Seems the tattoos were mellow enough, and the picture good enough to where people didn't deduct points for these tattoos.
Linda wearing swimsuit without tattoos:
Linda wearing swimsuit with full body tattoos:
Linda's Eye Tracking Charts:
Linda's Total Ratings:
Linda's Tattoo Conclusion:
Social: It seems "Yakuza Linda" got (-24) points off social for the large amount of tattoos.
Dating: The full body tattoos didn't seem to bode well for dating with a (-44) point drop.
Business: Points were lost on this photo (-28) with tattoos (not that this photo was terribly well suited for a "Business" photo in the first place)!
Neville without tattoos:
Neville with tattoos:
Neville's Eye Tracking Charts:
Neville Total Ratings:
Neville's Tattoo Conclusion:
Social: It seems I (Neville) got (-44) points taken off for this social photo.
Dating: Seems tattoos added (+16) points for dating.
Business: There were (+15) points for having tattoos in this "Business" photo which is a bit surprising. Guess if I'm gonna be more valuable at work I just need to get a full set of tattoos 🤣
So....do tattoos affect people's perception in the workplace?
We lined up all the Business ratings "Without Tattoos" and "With Tattoos" here:
Of course this small experiment can't account for individual public perception of tattoos, but we hope you enjoyed it!
If you're interested in more photo rating experiments, checkout our How To Choose The Right Image For Social Media post.
Sincerely,
Neville N. Medhora - Fake Tattoo'er
P.S. Do you have any tattoos? Have you ever faced any good or bad effects from having them??
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