Study links tattoos to personality disorder

Getting a tattoo is so common it almost seems like a rite of passage for young people. But a new study sheds a little light on personality characteristics that prompt some people to get tattoos.

The study published this week in the journal Personality and Mental Health looked at a very small segment of the population: hospitalized psychiatric patients who had committed crimes. Researchers at the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry examined 36 male inpatients at a maximum-security state psychiatric facility. They looked for the presence of tattoos and whether the men had a mental disorder called Antisocial Personality Disorder. ASPD is characterized by a lack of empathy and remorse, a low tolerance for anxiety and shallowness. The behavior must have developed before age 15 to qualify for the diagnosis. The researchers found that 73% of the men with tattoos had ASPD while only 29% of those without tattoos had the diagnosis. The men with ASPD and tattoos tended to have many tattoos in more visible locations.

What does this say about law-abiding citizens with tattoos? Perhaps nothing. The study's findings may or may not be relevant to the general population, says the study's author, Dr. William Cardasis. But he  noted that the research raises questions such as "whether adolescents with tattoos are more likely to have conduct disorder than those without, and what the effect the meaning and subject content of the tattoo has."

Sounds like a new academic pursuit: The field of tattoo studies.

-- Shari Roan

Photo: AP Photo/Inked Inc. Press

Comments

[Brenda]

I saw the title for this shot and I had to read it because I'm having my first tattoo done Saturday. I wanted to find out if I had some kind of personality disorder.

Imagine my relief when I saw the population that was studied didn't fit me. Well...I do have some intolerance for shallow and stupid people, but I'm female ,failrly old to be getting my first tattoo and the tattoo is flowers and music which is prettiy indicative of my personality. Whew!!!

Enjoy your day

[Ellen Hilburn]

I am sometimes sorry I ever got my ears pierced but I am never sorry I never got a tattoo. I think they're gross. I will never get one. I think it takes more of a rebel NOT to get one in this day of tattoos here, there and everywhere. What's the point? This said, to each his/her own. I don't judge people who have them, I just choose not to.

[Sarah]

Let's continue to perpetuate stereotypes! People with tattoos are weird and possibly crazy!!

[Brady]

The study is done in a maximum security psychiatric facility, so of course you are going to find this more. i think tattoos are an expressions of one's self. i do have to agree with ellen a little, dont get a tattoo just because everyone else is. but i love tattoos, never regretted either of mine (and one i did myself) and i plan on getting more.