Got a tattoo

Got a tattoo? Then you're probably AGGRESSIVE: People with inkings are more likely to be rebellious and angry, study claims

• Those with tattoos were found to have ‘significantly higher’ levels of verbal aggression, anger, and were more rebellious compared with people without
• Findings are surprising as it had been thought that as tattoos had become more mainstream – with a tattoo parlour seemingly on every street today

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People with tattoos have been found to be more aggressive (stock image pictured)

Tattoos have had an image makeover in recent years.

Once the preserve of convicts and biker gangs, they are now called ‘body art’ and even the Prime Minister’s wife has one.

But people with tattoos have been found to be more aggressive and rebellious than those without, researchers have found.

The research has been seen as surprising as it had been thought that as tattoos had become more mainstream – with a tattoo parlour seemingly on every high street these days – there would be little difference between the inked or un-inked.

Professor Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University studied 378 adults – 181 women and 197 men aged between 20 and 58.

Of these 97 – one in four – had tattoos.

Those with tattoos were found to have ‘significantly higher’ levels of verbal aggression, anger, and were more rebellious compared with people without tattoos.

The more tattoos a person had, the more angry they were, the survey found. There were no significant differences between tattooed and non-tattooed people in their educational qualifications.

The research found that tattoos had become ‘mainstream’ – with ‘no significant difference’ in the social background between those who with and without tattoos, and men and women were equally likely to be adorned with body art.

The tattooed people – members of the general public questioned in high streets, underground stations and parks in London - were more likely to be rebellious in a ‘reactive’ way.

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Someone who showed ‘reactive rebelliousness’ would answer they would ‘get angry and argue back’ if someone in authority shouted at them.

Proactively rebellious people were more likely to answer positively to questions such as: ‘If you are asked particularly not to do something, do you feel an urge to do it? on the test measures.

Professor Swami, professor of Social Psychology said: ‘We found that tattooed adults had significantly higher reactive rebelliousness, but not proactive rebelliousness, compared with non-tattooed adults.

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Not a taboo: The research has been seen as surprising as it had been thought that as tattoos had become more mainstream (shot from Justin Bieber's Instagram account pictured)

‘One explanation is that people who have higher reactive rebelliousness may respond to disappointing and frustrating events by getting tattooed.

SIZE DOESN'T MATTER (WHEN IT COMES TO THE BRAIN, AT LEAST...) 

The question of whether a large brain equates to a high IQ has puzzled scientists for centuries.

Now researchers have found brain size only plays a small role in explaining why some humans are cleverer than others.

Instead, they believe how our brains are structured may hold the key to explaining IQ scores.  

An international team of researchers led by the University of Vienna, examined the links between brain volume and IQ by studying data from 148 samples comprising 8,000 participants.

They found a robust but weak association between brain size and IQ, regardless of a participant’s sex and age, according to the study, published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.

‘The presently observed association means that brain volume plays only a minor role in explaining IQ test performance in humans,’ Jakob Pietschnig from the Institute of Applied Psychology of the University of Vienna explained.

‘That is, when these individuals experience a negative emotional event, they may be more likely to react by pursuing an act that is seen as defiant. The act of tattooing is perceived as rebellious, or more generally tattoos themselves can signify defiance or dissent.

‘On the other hand, there were no significant differences between tattooed and non-tattooed adults in proactive rebelliousness. It is possible that this form of rebelliousness, which is hedonistic and goal-driven, is at odds with the pain and permanence of tattoos.

‘We also found that tattooed adults had higher aggression scores on two of the four dimensions of aggression that we measured, namely verbal aggression and anger.

‘Although tattoos have now become commonplace in modern British society, our findings may have implications for understanding the reported associations between tattooing and risky behaviour among adults.’

The good news is that people with tattoos seem no more likely to react with physical aggression than anyone else, according to the research published in Body Image.

The finding that one in four people had a tattoo in the study tallies with 2006 research by dermatologists in the United States, which found 24 per cent of people were tattooed.

Drawbacks of the research include that the measures of aggression were self-reported.

The researchers did not look at the designs of the tattoos. It is possible that someone with a dainty dolphin on the foot, as sported by Samantha Cameron, might be less aggressive than someone with a teardrop tattooed under the eye – said to be the sign of someone who has taken a human life.