Tattoos, Religiosity, and Deviance Among College Students

ABSTRACT For much of U.S. history, tattoos carried a stigma. The perception was that tattoos marked gang members and prisoners, not respectable church-going citizens. In recent decades, tattoos have become mainstream, even for some religious people. We analyze the number and content of tattoos in relationship to religiosity and deviance. We test four hypotheses using survey data from 3,525 students at 12 American colleges and universities, finding that the number of tattoos is largely unrelated to religiosity, but tattoo quantity is associated with binge drinking, marijuana use, and having multiple sexual partners. As expected, students with religious tattoos claim a stronger faith, pray more, and attend religious service more than students with no tattoos or non-religious tattoos. However, both religious tattoos and non-religious tattoos are associated with marijuana use and multiple sexual partners in contrast to those with no tattoos. To conclude, we offer a theory of sensation seeking to explain this irony.