We've found a plethora of evidence as to why , or why not, humans find tattoos attractive. according TO THE PEOPLE WE INTERVIEWED, THE ONES WHO FIND TATTOOS ATTRACTIVE believe THEY REPRESENT SELF-EXPRESSION AND having A SPECIAL MEANING TO THE individual makes it more acceptable. however, THE OTHER PEOPLE WHO we INTERVIEWED DON'T FIND TATTOOS ATTRACTIVE BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE IT TAINTS THE BODY AND IS AGAINST RELIGION.
- This is my mother, svetlana danielian, and she was interviewed on september 5th, 2016, and stressed that she does not find tattoos attractive. I asked her if she would find it attractive if They had a special meaning to the person, she said it's still unattractive. She explained to me that it wouldn't affect weather she loves someone more or not, instead it doesn't really matter to her. She told me the reason for this is because when she was younger, people who were associated with gangs and other bad influences had tattoos. In my article, it also states that tattoos are associated with groups, good or bad, so this may explain how tattoos are the cause of evolution. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MY ARTICLE AND MY INTERVIEW ANSWER, however. MY MOTHER BELIEVES THEY ARE NOT ATTRACTIVE, WHILE THE ARTICLE STATES THAT in todays world we have advancements in our healthcare and this has eventually led “individuals to seek new and unique displays of fitness.” (Carmen, Guitar, Dillon) Individuals, being us humans, therefore seek new ways to show others, for example males seek females, that they are unique and thus making them stand out. This sign of fitness, or to stand out, is tattoos. ULTIMATELY, MY MOTHER IS ONE WHO DOESN'T BELIEVE TATTOOS ARE ATTRACTIVE EVEN THOUGH MY ARTICLE EXPLAINs MANY REASOnS AS TO WHY SHE SHOULD BE. -Avo Danielian
- My mother's name is Hermine Sargsyan and she was interviewed on septemer 5th, 2016. Her answer to tattoos being attractive was a no. she explained that she believes tattoos taint the natural skin and she also added that it's against her christian religion. in Leviticus 19:28 it says, "do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the lord." This is the quote she brought up and said that this is why she is against tattoos. In order to clearly see if her answer is against, or for, weather we believe tattoos are attractive, or unattractive because of evolution, we have to compare the interview results to my article. My article states that the reason we believe tattoos are attractive is because our ancestors got them as a sign of strength. Before, getting tattoos could have gotten you an infection and even killed, therefore meaning that if someone did get a tattoo it would mean that they are healthy enough to withstand the health risks. Like other animals, humans seek an individual who is healthy and able to reproduce, so if tattoos represent that, then we should in time become attracted to tattoos, right? no. there are still many people in this world like my mother who believe that it is against religion. this shows us that humans are different from animals. animals don't have religions, and because of that, we cannot say that tattoos have evolved to become more attractive or acceptable. therefore, tattoos cannot be something that has evolved to be attractive because of our ancestors. This means that because of my interview results, we cannot really say there is a reason we find, or do not find, tattoos attractive from an evolutionary perspective. -Erik Mkrtchyan
- I interviewed my brother mike on september 5th, 2016. i asked him if tattoos were attractive, he replied yes. i asked him why? he replied to me saying because most people get a tattoo because it represents something about their life. most people with a tattoo have a meaning behind it. i asked does the tattoo make it more attractive if it had meaning to it? with no hesitation he said of course. if someone just has a tattoo just to say i have a tattoo then that makes it very unattractive. My article says that studies show that girls get tattoos in order to attract males sexually. we can say that my interviewee also believes tattoos are attractive. This means that girls have, over time, been using tattoos as a way to get males in order to reproduce and have offspring. to go more in depth, girls who have tattoos have a higher chance of reproductive success, and from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that women are, in this generation, starting to get more tattoos. If you get a tattoo, you have a higher chance of finding a mate, and that means that more women will get tattoos so that they may find mates. This should eventually lead to the end of people without tattoos, but why hash't it yet? Well, we could say that it needs a long period of time to happen, and we are either just begging the process, or are in the middle of it. but one thing this can't explain is why women regret these tattoos and or why they change their perspectives about tattoos over their lifetimes. Because of this, we cannot surely say that women are becoming more acceptable towards tattoos only because they find them attractive, there must be an outside or third factor. This clearly does not support what darwin and the theory of natural selection states. - harout manvelyan
- The person I have chose to interview was my mother, Rita Terzyan, on September 5th, 2016; the reason as to why I chose her was because I wanted to get the understanding of both a woman and a mother. I asked her questions which were tattoo related because I wanted to understand her viewpoint. The first question was if she was attracted to tattoos, she answered yes and gave me different answers as to why she agreed. The different answers consisted of the meaning of each tattoo, the number of body art, and the different ideas as how each tattoo is expressed. I feel that overtime we have developed a love for body art; because my mother’s answers were based on the kind of art they apply to their body and the meaning behind it. Us humans have developed different kinds of understanding through tattoos, some people like it and some people don’t, but many times we apply body art on our skin is because of a big meaning behind the art. My article states that tattoos represent social status and claims that if someone has a tattoo then they could potentially have a better chance of reproducing and finding mate. The article says that people who have tattoos can get it from life experience, but also that tattoos also include risk taking values. This is because tattoos require healthy bodes in order to obtain, and if so then people who have healthy bodies can represent it with tattoos which will show mates that they are in fact able to reproduce offspring. But the problem with this is the people who don't have healthy bodies and get tattoos, what happens with them? One doesn't need to have an extremely healthy body because in todays generation tattoos have become almost risk-free. Then why should tattooing ones body become more popular? The only thing we can say for sure is that this can't be the process or evolution because there are other factors, like people who don't have healthy bodies who find mates just as easily than people with the healthy bodies. My mom finds tattoos attractive for the meaning, but that doesn't mean that it has evolved due to a certain reason. - Hovannes Kazanchyan
- after thoroughly inspecting each interview and all of our articles, we can conclude that the reason people get tattoos or think they are attractive is not because of a biological reason. Instead, we can conclude that it is choice. The reason for this i because if someone was to get a tattoo because they want to have a higher chance of reproductive success, why would they then laser it out or regret their decision? The theory of natural selection states that this should change over a long period of time, but one can change their minds instantly. This is not seen in the animal kingdom. A beaver that made a house in order to show its capabilities of providing for others is not going to think and ponder weather it was a good idea or not, but with humans, it could. Also, animals don't use religion and other factors to do certain things, like get tattoos, in order to attract females or males. Even though we have seen a increase in tattoos in our generation and they have became more acceptable, we can't say that this is because of evolution, instead we can say we prefer it. We do use tattoos to beautify ourselves, but i don't believe we have came to do this because of our ancestors and natural selection. Ultimately, as humans grow, our midset changes. This can explain our interviews, age matters in determining weather tattoos are acceptable or not. The generation before us believes that tattoos are wrong because of many reasons stated above, while people in our generation, like harout's brother, mike, believe it is attractive. This disproves the theory of natural selection and sexual selection because it shouldn't change so rapidly, it should be over many, many generations.
Works Consulted Carmen, Rachael A., Amanda Guitar E., and Haley Dillon M. "Ultimate Answers to Proximate Questions: The Evolutionary Motivations behind Tattoos and Body Piercings in Popular Culture." Review of General Psychology 16.2 (2012): 134-43. Web.
Danielian, Svetlana. "Are Tattoos Attractive?" Personal interview. 5 Sept. 2016.
Griffiths, Mark D. "Tattoos and Sexual Attraction." Psychology Today. N.p., 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 13 Sept. 2016. <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-excess/201604/tattoos-and-sexual-attraction>.
Hadhazy, Adam. "Survival of the Tattooed and Pierced?" Scientific American. N.p., 26 Mar. 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2016. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/survival-of-the-tattooed/>.
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Koziel, Slawomir, Weronika Kretschmer, and Boguslaw Pawlowski. "Tattoo and Piercing as Signals of Biological Quality." Evolution and Human Behavior 31.3 (2010): 187-92. Web.
Manvelyan, Michael. "Are Tattoos Attractive?" Personal interview. 5 Sept. 2016.
Sargsyan, Hermine. "Are Tattoos Attractive?" Personal interview. 5 Sept. 2016.
Terzyan, Rita. "Are Tattoos Attractive?" Personal interview. 5 Sept. 2016.