Tattoos due to a long association with deviant individuals, gangsters, and prisoners, had long been perceived as scary presentations.  However, the popularity of tattoos among the general public in recent decades has changed the perceptions as well as the presentations of tattoos.  Instead of having tattoos of high-fear designs (such as skulls and guns), many had elected to have tattoos with low-fear designs (such as hearts and stars).  The purpose of this study is to examine (1) how high-fear tattoos, and low-fear tattoos are perceived respectively, (2) if having tattoos changes that view, and (3) how gender plays a role in the selection of high-fear tattoos or low-fear tattoos, as well as in the placements of the tattoos, by the college students.  

This study utilizes the study of the presentation of self in symbolic interactionism as a theoretical framework.  More specifically, Mindy Fenske's work, Tattoos in American Visual Culture, as well as Clinton Sanders and D. Angus Vail's Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing, provide the theoretical foundation for this study.  Margo DeMello's work, “The Convict Body: Tattooing Among Male American Prisoners,” in Anthropology Today also informs the research questions in this study.

The researcher hypothesizes that (1) high-fear tattoos and low-fear tattoos would generate different perceptions among the college students, and (2) gender would impact on the selection of high-fear or low-fear tattoo designs, as well as the placements of tattoos on one's body, by the college students in this study.

A survey, designed to ascertain the perceptions of high-fear tattoos and low-fear tattoos, as well as the selections and the placements of tattoos, was administered to students in a midwestern university who served as volunteers in this study.  The data collection is underway, with the research findings to become available in the near future.