Communicative value of meaningful tattoos : a quantitative look into perceived trust, credibility, and attraction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how individuals perceive different levels of trust, credibility, and attraction when knowing the meaning behind someone's tattoo. Grounded in Attribution Theory, different scenarios were given to participants to test whether their perceptions differed once knowing the meaning behind the tattoo. Results showed statistically significant differences between the meaningful tattoo scenario, the meaningless tattoo scenario, and the no tattoo scenario for all dependent variables tested. Limitations and future directions arc also discussed in this research.