Do People Get Tattoos For Attention
Are tattoos a sign of narcissism, or simply a ways of self-expression? The answer to this question may not be as straightforward as it seems.
Hither is a scenario: you lot're standing in line at Starbucks. The person in front of yous is a young adult female with a butterfly tattoo on her naked shoulder. Y'all don't hateful to expect, simply an eye-catching inked epitome is hard to resist. You observe yourself staring at it, and trying to decipher the line of cursive text circumvoluted the butterfly.
That is to say, tattoos tend to attract attention. They're similar big neon signs on the skin screaming "Wait at me!" And people await.
That seems to suggest that tattoos correspond attention-seeking beliefs, which is a hallmark of narcissism.
So are tattoos a sign of narcissism? Allow's discover out.
Why Do People Become Tattoos?
There's a myriad reasons for why people become tattoos. Hither are some of them.
- Improve self-image or cocky-esteem. In the words of Alex Bell, "some of us take piercings and tattoos and dye our hair because we think it looks pretty, non for any deep sociological reason."
- Self-expression through body art. Tattoos can be representations of your beliefs, aspirations, by experiences, tributes to family and friends, reminders of of import lessons, or just artistic adornments.
- Cultural heritage. The exercise of tattooing is mutual in many cultures, both modern and ancient. In today'due south America, tattoos are as common equally ear piercings or faded jeans.
- Peer pressure. A group of drunk frat boys stumbles into a tattoo shop…Yous know what's going to happen. Someone is getting a hideous tattoo on a dare! Aye, in some circumstances, you can be pressured to get tattoos to prove masculinity or belonging to a certain peer group, i.e. marines, bikers, gang members etc.
- Human action of disobedience or rebellion. Tattoos can exist a grade of rebellion, when a grouping you identify with is prejudiced against tattoos. For example, religious groups like conservative Christians or Jews view the trunk as sacred, and prohibit body modification. In this case getting a tattoo would solidify your status equally a rebel and an outsider.
- Attention . Depending on the blazon and placement of the tattoos, it can exist a cry for attention. Merely so over again, the aforementioned tin be said nearly a hairstyle, apparel or the kind of car ane drives.
- Just considering. It's conceivable that ane can get a tattoo for no particular reason other than curiosity or boredom. Stranger things happen!
What'south Different About People With Tattoos?
Jack London said: "Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting by." If he was live today, he'd have it back.
While tattoos used to exist a sign of social deviancy and non-conformity, it is at present a very mainstream practice found in almost every population category.
Over 40% of Americans ages 26-40 accept tattoos.
Yet, tattooed people are not your typical Brady Bunch. Research shows that inked individuals do differ from the full general population.
Amidst other things, they are more than likely to:
- be diagnosed with mental health issues
- take spent time in jail
- be smokers
- have a higher number of sex partners
- have sleep issues
- engage in risky behavior.
Out of all this traits, i stands out every bit the about narcissistic: engaging in risky behavior. Much research and real-life examples (Wall Street) testify that narcissists take more than risks than others, although it'south not entirely clear why.
I reason could exist that they overestimate their abilities to predict the outcome, and are too cocky-assured to consider the consequences of losing.
So tattooed people are more likely to accept risks and have more sexual partners, just like narcissists.
But is a couple of mutual traits plenty to equate the two?
Tattoos and Narcissism
Regardless of personal views, in that location's something a little cocky-obsessed most tattoos, isn't information technology?
People who get tattoos are very much focused on their cocky-image. It's of import to them how they are perceived, otherwise they wouldn't become tattoos in visible places.
Self-image is as well of import to narcissists. But a narcissist'due south self-prototype is a grandiose project of a warped and fragile ego, while most inked individuals are simply expressing who they are.
Sure, sometimes tattoos are meant to cloak personal insecurities or project a desired trait. But more than anything, tattoos are artistic representations of our inner globe, and what information technology is about ourselves nosotros consider unique.
It's non the attending-seeking that drives people to get tattoos. It's the desire to be unique.
Tattoo wearers spend a lot of time looking for the right design, the right inscription, the right tattoo creative person. It's very deliberate, with a bear on of perfectionism.
Information technology can accept someone years to find that distinctive design that will fix them apart from the crowd.
And since inking went mainstream, it'southward even harder to take a tattoo that'southward one of a kind.
Could that obsession with uniqueness be egotistic?
In a book "Tattoo: Secrets of a Strange Fine art" author Albert Parry says that people want to go unique tattoos "to express their honey for themselves and their proud conventionalities that they are dissimilar from other people." That carries a certain element of narcissism.
However, he points out that the truly narcissistic consider themselves perfect already. They don't desire any tattoos. Their skin is "already perfect and endowed with all the glory and beauty of unadorned nature."
Tattoos Are Stories Etched in the Skin
I have vii tattoos. Some I like, some I live with.
I got my start tat, a vine going around my ankle, when I was 17, on vacation in Kingdom of spain.
To me, that tattoo was a rite of passage. It was a distinguishing mark that separated me from all the previous generations. You meet, I come from a family where no one has tattoos. NO ONE. I guess I wanted to be different.
Was information technology egotistic of me? I suppose information technology was. Nosotros're all egotistic to a caste.
But I'd like to recollect it wasn't my main motivation.
I also wanted to mark the feel. I wanted to remember the warm Mediterranean sunday, and the new sense of freedom I felt.
At the fourth dimension of this Spanish fiesta I was an awkward lanky kid who was transforming into a young woman with long legs, raven hair and ambitious dreams. And it was scary, but likewise exhilarating and freeing. I wanted to remember that feeling.
Fast-forward xx years, and I still have an urge to go a tattoo every time I reach a milestone, be information technology an external event, or some kind of internal modify.
And I don't see myself stopping anytime presently, to the dismay of my family. I hear them say: "I could never practise that. Information technology's so permanent. What if you regret it after?"
It makes me laugh how people recall their bodies are "permanent." Naught is permanent. Even if you don't become tattoos, time and life will put their own marks on your body.
At to the lowest degree with tattoos y'all get to choose the blueprint.
So peradventure tattoos are a fiddling narcissistic. But non in a clinical, malignant sense. It's everyday narcissism, like finding yourself start when you lot look at a grouping photo.
And in my experience, well-nigh narcissists would never go tattoos because they recall they're perfect the fashion they are.
What practice you think? Do you think tattoos are a sign of narcissism?
Next
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Source: https://toxicties.com/tattoos-sign-narcissism/
Posted by: lucassount1975.blogspot.com
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