Running Head: TATTOOS AND COLLEGE STUDENTS
Tattoos and college students: Is there a probable influence in academic performance?
Celeste Perez
ENGL 1302
The University of Texas at El Paso
Tattoos and college students: Is there a probable influence on academic performance?
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Abstract
The stigma of tattoos in history has sustained its prominence and has undoubtedly
imprinted its presence in its developed form to this day. The power of such a stigma has marked
its revolutionary role in society therein transcending to a greater influential niche in this generation
by deeming the tattooed population of persons a class, a remnant of society distinguished as a
social class. As this sub-culture in society, a discourse community of body modified persons, is
becoming gradually more accepted in society, antagonistic aspects of prejudice and judgment are
still experienced. The acceptance of body art in society has undergone incredible measures in the
generation of elevated popularity, and tattoos amongst the universities has raised speculation, in
accordance to the stigma of tattoos, as to what level the academic performance of such individuals
are in juxtaposition to non-tattooed college students. The synchronized correlation between selfconcept and body art has defined the driving factors of influence of individuals pursuing their
education simply because within the college setting, the enhancement of self-concept, which is
characterized as a collection of one’s beliefs, is what leads to self-modification. The association of
deviant behavior and tattoos has undermined the perception of college students obtaining body art
and has truly catalyzed the initiation of such research in addressing the forms of stigmas in society
of body modification. Moreover, the in-depth evaluation of the possible influence of body art
according to the stigma of tattoos towards the academic performance of students at the collegiate
level provides an outlet of research distinguished in its own commodity. The collation of body art
and academic performance in the university is furthermore scrutinized meticulously as these two
components in society influential as their own entities achieve an ambiguous association; body art
is contributory in some aspects yet is not effective in others.
Tattoos and college students: Is there a probable influence on academic performance?
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Tattoos and college students: A probable influence on academic performance?
The stigma of tattoos has remained present over many years and has transcended to our
current society today. Although tattoos are becoming largely more acceptable in society, there
are still many events of prejudice against this sub-culture or class of body modified persons coexisting with non-tattooed people. Gradually the sub-culture identity of tattoos has been
developed as a class in itself that, in accordance to the stigma of tattoos, is deemed inferior. The
issue of such a prominent stigma of tattoos is quite overbearing and highly significant in
unveiling the perception of society and its functionality in response to revolutionary identities of
sub-culture. The role of education in society is another factor of the diverse lifestyles many
people acquire, therefore there will be an imminent evaluation on whether tattoos influence
academic performance in college students in response to the everlasting stigma in our culture.
Tattoos are seen more in the universities amongst the students and it is all simply due to the fact
that the development and revolutionary experience as a university student provides and bolsters
the acceptance and enhancement of self-concept. Through the role of education as a driving
aspect in our society as well as the sub-cultural identity of tattoos, the investigation of such a
relationship will be discussed and scrutinized in depth in order to discover whether these two
components of our present-day culture acquire a correlation. The collation of body art and
academic performance in college students as a modified-class in society acquires an influential
connotative process of ambiguity, it is therefore effective in establishing an impact in variegated
degrees that are dependent on demographics.
As we consider the newly developed perceptions that are trending cultural aspects in our
society, the significance of tattoos in our society gain recognition and serve as more prominent as
time progresses. The popularity of tattoos in our present-day culture is an imperative component
Tattoos and college students: Is there a probable influence on academic performance?
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in bolstering a new-found characteristic which is the tendency to become more open to change as
tattoos are gradually gaining more acceptance in society. Despite the revolutionary elevation of
the presence of tattoos in society, the stigma of tattoos continues to reign consistently, as to this
day, tattooed persons in the population still confront situations of prejudice and judgment. In
their journal published in 2010, Martin and Dula emphasized within their research that “as
increasingly diverse groups of people get tattoos, popular perceptions are often discordant with
the individual meanings behind tattoos. Still, tattooing is often seen as a negative
behavior.”(Martin & Dula, 2010). Therefore, in order to address the stigma of tattoos in society,
the research I found explicitly focuses on social aspects of tattoos in our culture. Martin and Dula
proposed a way in which the assessment of the stigma of tattoos experienced presently should be
conducted and in doing so their research journal entails that “due to the rise in tattoo popularity,
a method to analyze stigma against tattooed individuals is needed. The Martin Stigma Against
Tattoos Survey (MSATS), was created, taken by 210 undergraduate students along with a Big
Five personality measure, and subjected to factor analysis and preliminary evaluation of
validity.” (Martin & Dula, 2010). The core of my research is focused simply on whether tattoos,
according to the stigma, really influence academic performance in college students; the evidence
of the correlation between tattoos and college students became exclusive and branched into other
forms as even educators who were once college students are still familiar with the power of the
stigma of tattoos in their life as they too undergo situations of oppression as their aptitude is
questioned simply because the portrayal of their character is obscured by body art. In the Quo
Vadis newspaper of this year, Paige Bollman principally evaluated that “with the number of
adults embracing tattoos, one may wonder about the increasing number of educators who sport
tattoos. Does this affect their ability to teach their students? Most students are unaware that their
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educators even have tattoos.” (Bollman, 2014). In addition, Bollman conversed with Nickerson,
a college professor, in fulfilling the rhetoric she communicated in her article as provided as “
Nickerson said, “I never want my tattoos to be an issue while I am teaching. I always try to
conceal them while teaching. I guess I am ‘old school’ that way. I don’t want my students to
focus on my tattoos during class, nor do I want anyone to judge me by seeing my
tattoos.”(Bollman, 2014). In response Bollman discusses that “as one can see, Nickerson’s
teaching abilities are not affected by his tattoos. This is also true for the one out of five adults in
today’s society who possess them as well. Having a tattoo does not make you a different person.
Tattoos may make someone unique or present their ideals about aspects of the world or their
lives. Yet, having them does not change their adequacy.” (Bollman, 2014). The adequacy
acquired by Nickerson was thought to be seen as poor and the ‘old school’ perspective in
exposure to tattoos was simply the effect of the continuously intrusive form of the stigma of
tattoos in Nickerson’s circumstances as professor with body art; Nickerson himself provides a
vantage point as he is solely cautious of the ‘image’ he gives to college students. The pattern of
precaution taken by tattooed persons amongst the population of inhabitants in society has given
the stigma of tattoos more power of influence on deciphering the true adequacy of an individual
in this situation as Nickerson proclaims, however, Bollman does in fact reiterate that the
adequacy in accordance to the stigma of tattoos should not be determined by physical appearance
of body art. The assessment of the stigma of tattoos and the provision of a primary source
account by Nickerson led to the tangent in the search of an actual college student and how his or
her perception of tattoos is considered in the research developed. Strohecker, a doctoral
candidate in the university who acquires plentiful body art, has studied that art of tattooing for
several years and the author of the article, Madeleine List, provides that “Strohecker , the
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sociology doctoral candidate found that [tattoos] significance in society has changed
dramatically throughout history, just as his own reasons for getting tattooed have evolved over
the past decade” (List, 2013). As the article progresses, List implements a supplementary quote
by Strohecker as he mentions that "it used to be common for a working-class person to walk into
a tattoo parlor, pick a design off the wall and get it tattooed for $50. But now, young, collegeaged people are investing large sums of money in designing individualized tattoos with personal
meaning, Strohecker said. […] the middle-class approach to tattooing emerged in the ’90s [and]
custom tattooing has become the hegemonic narrative.” ” (List, 2013). A hegemony created by
society of the tattooed persons in society has distinctively developed and heightened the power
of the sub-culture created for the tattooed population; hegemonic narratives as stated by
Strohecker is in fact one factor in the increase of popularity as the idea of self-concept
discovered and embraced in college is formulating the pathway of evolution and elevation of
such characters pursuing their education.
Academic performance is inevitably determined by various factors and is driven by the
recognition of self-concept as well as the practices of enhancing the intensity of how valuable selfconcept is to students in the university in their endeavors in education. The role of self-concept
entails a collection of beliefs about oneself and embodies fulfillment of individuality. As the stigma
of tattoos has penetrated the universities, the impact of such a stigma has seeped into the consensus
of adequacy of an individual obtaining body art as they are experiencing the process of self-concept
as a college student; rises in connotations of a possible influence of body art on performance in
academics from college students is speculated. Likewise, Katherine Janney explains that in order
to grasp the concept of performance in college students, “academic performance is one key
component within this research experiment because the study is the difference between individuals
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with tattoos or without tattoos and their academic success. Therefore it would be beneficial to
comprehend what makes up a “good student” and how it can be related to body art.”(Janney, n.d.).
Upon this advent in research, the investigation of true academic performance is needed to allow
the comprehension of GPA within the university to be more efficient and intelligible in context of
whether body art obtains an influence or not. As the concept of exceptional academic performance
is an important factor in examining the correlation of two aspects in our culture, the accumulative
GPA of tattooed students in the university in one research journal was dissected and keenly
scrutinized in contrasting the scores of tattooed and non-tattooed college students, for “there was
one independent variable (tattoos or no tattoos) and one dependent variable (grade point average).
To test the hypothesis that individuals with tattoos have a lower grade point average than those
without tattoos an Independent Samples T-test was performed. Results indicated the independent
samples t-test analysis comparing grade point averages for individuals with tattoos and individuals
without tattoos indicated that tattooed individuals’ grade point averages (M=3.17, SD=0.44) did
differ significantly from non-tattooed individuals’ grade point averages (M=3.49, SD=0.45),
t(92)=-3.544, p=.001” (Janney, n.d.). Based on the results from the research Katherine Janney from
McKendree University found, it is evident that in regards to academic performance there is a
contrasting component, yet the information only serves as supportive partially due to the
demographics acquired in this experiment as the aggregate of women scored higher than men in
both groups between tattooed and non-tattooed individuals; this reaffirms the ambiguity of
information that supports the stigma of tattoos yet deviates in lessening this social stigma.
Based on several accounts of research accumulated, the consensus of the possible influence
of body art on academic performance is furthermore evaluated in the fact that more empirical
research is necessary to solidify the degree of influence. As tattoos are gradually becoming more
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acceptable, the correlation of influence between tattoos and college students is reaching ambiguous
relations. According to preceding research Martin and Dula found “previous research has
highlighted several stereotypes about those with tattoos, including being unsuccessful in school,
coming from broken homes, having an unhappy childhood, rarely attending church, having poor
decision-making skills, usually obtaining body modifications while inebriated, and being easy
victim to peer pressure.” (Martin & Dula). The importance of former research to the investigation
bolstered the image of transformation the stigma of tattoos has undergone from the past to the
present; Martin and Dula found it highly significant and created a tangent towards accomplishing
a more concise and concrete source of information that assesses the stigma of tattoos presently.
“[Furthermore, Martin & Dula’s] study seeks to create an empirically sound, reliable and valid
measure for the use in accurately assessing stigma against tattooed individuals.” (Martin & Dula,
2010). The pathway of ambiguity of the relationship between tattoos and college students is
becoming increasingly more potent as there is also a disassociation that is developing in our current
society, in fact, “some researchers argue that the trend in tattooing and piercing indicates a shift in
fashion and a break with body art's exclusive association with lower class people and deviant
activities (DeMello, 1995; Ewey, 1998; Martin, 1997) However, little evidence has been presented
to demonstrate that the association between tattooing and various negative behaviors or personality
disorders was unjustified in the past or has changed in the current culture.” (Manuel & Sheehan,
2007). The progression of the research accumulated through the utilization of such tests resulted
as “items with face validity and significant differences between tattooed and non-tattooed
participants on MSATS scores provided initial evidence of construct validity. Perhaps dispelling
one myth underlying stigma, no significant differences were found in the GPA of tattooed versus
non-tattooed college students.” (Martin & Dula, 2010). Moreover, “the results of this study concur
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with most studies in finding that people choosing to tattoo are different on some personality
variables. However, in this college population the differences were not as extreme as they have
been in previous studies involving less normative people (e.g. incarcerated people, suicides, and
mental health facilities).” (Manuel & Sheehan, 2007).
Due to the ambiguity of the relationship between tattoos and college students, there is
undoubtedly a necessity of more empirically sound research to truly solidify the concept of
influence from body art imposed on academic performance in college students. The variation of
research acquired in this investigation truly provided a broad spectrum of ideals and perspectives
on the juxtaposition of body art that is becoming increasingly more prominent in the universities
amongst college students that are embracing their self-concept most currently more than ever.
However, the debate as to whether body art is influential in academic performance is, for now
since more research is needed, to an extent more influential depending on the demographics
obtained within research evaluations conducted in the past, present, and future. The purpose of
more research will enlighten and enhance the role of influence just as the demographics in the
research conducted are up to par and the presence of limitations is as simplified as possible.
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