Perceptions on People with Tattoos and Piercing

"Perceptions on People with Tattoos and

Piercing"

The goal of this study is to understand

society's perception towards people with

tattoos and piercing. People sometimes

misjudge other people because of their

appearance and we want to know why. We

think that piercing and tattoos can be art

for the body and there should not be any

judgment just because someone has a

drawing in his or her body or a hole for an

earring. Through this study we can inform

other people how a person with tattoos

and piercing feel. Here in the University of

Puerto Rico there are a big number of

people with different kinds of drawings in

their body and different kinds of piercing,

and we intend to find whether they feel

discriminated or if they can live a normal

life.

There are different kinds of opinions; some

people think that a tattoo makes them look

"cool" while others even use it to mark

themselves as part of a group or gang.

According to a survey made by Daniel

Judelson; "from 446 college students

interviewed 51% had piercing and 24%

were tattooed." Robin Benton has pointed

out that, nowadays tattoos are very

famous, but simply having a tattoo in your

body may cause effect on the work area,

like for example big companies only allow

tattoos that support the corporate image

and those that do not support the

corporate image are restricted, and for an

employer that works on public companies

the rules are more stringent, having a

tattoo may cause the person to lose his

job. In similar topics, there are various

texts that describe the situation of

adolescents with body art and jewelry at

their jobs. One of these citations is from

Phyllis Hartman. Which explains that "he

thinks companies are finding it very difficult

to find a young person who does not have

a (body art or jewelry)",and according to a

study published in the journal of American

Academy of Dermatology last year, " 30% of

people ages eighteen to twenty nine are

tattooed." Further in the same text,

Patterson Pope, a charlotte-base company

that sells and installs mobile shelving to

place such as law firms and doctor's offices,

instituted a tattoo and piercing policy about

a month ago. Employees who work outside

the office must now cover tattoos and

remove facial piercing. In 2005, Jonathan W.

Roberti and Eric A. Storch declared that

"tattooing and body piercing represent a

specific example of behavior that has

multiple