Tattoos might tell a story, but they rarely tell the truth about one’s personality. Here’s why your … More
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Tattoos have now become more common than ever. According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, nearly 32% of American adults report having a tattoo, including 22% who have more than one.
Body art was once seen as a symbol of rebellion. However, people get tattooed for deeply personal and, quite often, emotional reasons. In the same survey, participants were also asked the reason for getting their tattoos. Many revealed that their tattoos help them honor someone, express their beliefs or boost their confidence in their appearance.
Despite how visibly common or acceptable tattoos may have become, they are still a target for quick judgment by others in more ways than one. People often make quick assumptions based on a single image or style, or about what someone’s tattoo says about their personality.
It’s not just the presence of a tattoo that prompts assumptions, but also the kind of tattoo. From the design and size to the placement or style, people can often form quick opinions about someone based on the body art they’ve chosen.
It’s natural for many to assume that a person’s tattoos are a direct mirror of who they are.
Given the general permanence of ink, it can feel intuitive to believe that the content, color or placement of a tattoo reveals something deeper about a person’s character.
While that may seem likely, new research proves that people’s instincts about this might not be as accurate as they think.
In the study, researchers studied 274 tattooed adults between the ages of 18 and 70. Each participant completed a well-established personality test and allowed researchers to photograph one or more of their tattoos. This resulted in a collection of 375 images.
These photos were then shown to trained psychology raters. Some saw just the image, while others also received a short explanation of the tattoo’s meaning.
Using the same personality scale given to participants, the raters were asked to assess how agreeable, conscientious, extraverted, neurotic or open to experience they believed each tattooed person was.
Based on these research findings, here are two ways tattoos can mislead you about people’s personalities.
1. You Trust Visual Cues That Aren’t Accurate
When most people see a tattoo, their first instinct is to assume that it reflects something personal and revealing, for instance, the person’s values, temperament or personality traits.
Most of us rely on visual shortcuts, such as bright colors that might suggest warmth or friendliness, while dark, edgy imagery might be read as rebellious or intense.
The study found that observers were surprisingly consistent in the impressions they formed based on visual features alone.
For example, cheerful and colorful tattoos were often linked to assumptions of higher agreeableness. On the other hand, large or traditional designs were tied to perceptions of extraversion.
Death-related imagery or low-quality tattoos were linked to traits like neuroticism or low agreeableness.
But here’s the catch: based on the research, these judgments were mostly wrong.
The tattooed individuals’ self-reported personalities rarely matched the traits assigned to them by observers.
This finding is merely a reminder that consensus doesn’t equal correctness. Just because a perception feels obvious or shared by others doesn’t mean it’s true. While your brain is wired to take mental shortcuts, especially when interpreting visual cues, it’s important to remember that it can easily lead you astray.
If you want to get better at understanding people, you need to move beyond assumptions based on appearance.
After all, tattoos might seem to tell a story, but what you see is only a part of a bigger picture. Before you make any judgments about a person, make sure you know them well enough to make that assumption.
2. A Tattoo’s Story Doesn’t Say All That Much About Personality
People usually have deep meanings and stories behind why they got a particular tattoo. You might think that knowing the meaning behind someone’s tattoo would give you better insight into who they are.
However, researchers found otherwise. Even when observers were given the personal backstory behind a tattoo, their judgments didn’t become significantly more accurate.
While sharing the meaning did slightly increase how much different observers agreed with one another, especially on traits like neuroticism, it didn’t bring them much closer to the tattooed person’s actual self-perception.
While the meanings can be emotionally rich, they’re not always personality-revealing.
A tattoo honoring a parent’s memory, for instance, might show emotional depth, surely, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate whether the person is extroverted, agreeable or highly conscientious.
In some cases, the story simply reinforces what the observer already assumed from the design itself, rather than challenging or refining it.
This reiterates the idea that a tattoo or the meaning behind the tattoo only reflects a moment, a memory or an aspect of identity someone wanted to express, not the full picture of who they are.
That being said, asking someone about their tattoo isn’t always pointless. It may just help you connect with them better by giving you a small window into what they’ve lived, what they’ve loved or what they’ve lost.
Sometimes, that’s more meaningful than any personality label.
Why First Impressions Deserve A Second Thought
Judging people or making assumptions without knowing the full story can come easy. It’s instinctive and sometimes feels like certainty.
You may feel wired to make sense of people quickly. But let this be your reminder that appearances, no matter how personal, rarely tell the whole truth. A tattoo might hint at a story, but not someone’s entire character — just like an outfit doesn’t reveal someone’s values and a quiet demeanor doesn’t mean a quiet mind.
Instead of treating surface cues as shortcuts to understanding, remember that they’re just projections or more like snapshots that we fill in with our own assumptions.
This isn’t about avoiding first impressions entirely. It’s about softening them. Remember to make space for the possibility that you don’t know the full picture.
Who a person truly is can only be understood by taking the time to actually get to know them. Until then, every assumption is just a placeholder for a deeper connection that hasn’t happened yet.
Do you often jump to conclusions about others or take your time with first impressions? Take this science-backed test to find out: Intuitive Decision Style Scale
