Nowadays tattoos are not considered the most extreme body changes, but yet one should think twice before rushing to the nearest tattoo parlor.
According to popular belief, women love “bad guys”, and for a long time various tattoos were an unmistakable sign that a man considers himself an alpha male, and wants to showcase this by displaying his richly illustrated skin surfaces.
Take it slow with that needle!
However, according to a recent study, men’s belief that tattoos make them more attractive to women may be mistaken. After interviewing 2584 men and women, two Polish researchers, Andrzej Galbarczyk and Anna Ziomkiewicz published a research paper in the Personality and Individual Differences magazine that produced a very interesting result.
The participants in the research had to evaluate the photos of unknown half-naked men. The male participants had to give their opinion as to which photos women would be attracted to, while women simply had to tell how attracted they were to the same men in the photos. Some of the pictures were modified: smaller tattoos were photoshopped on the men’s arms on the photo.
Male participants ranked most tattooed men as the ones women would find more attractive; women, on the contrary, preferred men without tattoos.
Tattoo equals health
The research produced another interesting result: When the participants were asked to rank the men in the photos according to who could be healthier, women categorized tattooed men as healthier than the rest. Tattoos are usually associated with qualities such as toughness, pain tolerance, or just manliness; tattooed men are considered healthier, and also more fertile than men without tattoos.
A tattooed man is not always the winner
However, this does not mean that men with tattoos would seem more attractive: signs such as tattoos are meant to indicate high testosterone levels for the outside world, but if the level of the male hormone is too high, it is already a warning sign: not many women prefer a man who runs after every other woman in sight. This is in line with the University of New Mexico’s research according to which men with lower testosterone levels are more likely to be a persistent, loyal partners, while those who are endowed with higher levels of testosterone have a higher predisposition to be unfaithful, have multiple partners or lead a bachelor lifestyle.
In addition, high testosterone may also indicate that a man is a dominant person, and the risk of domestic violence also increases in direct proportion with testosterone levels.