the wordsmith
sarah james
that's not feminine
When it comes to the search for a partner, men typically place more emphasis on physical attractiveness than women do. There is sufficient research to suggest that men enjoy looking at women’s physical attributes; namely large breasts and the perfect hip-to-waist ratio. But when it comes to tattoos, men often view women with tattoos as less attractive.
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In a study conducted surrounding men’s perceptions of women’s tattoos, it was found that men believed that tattooed women were less honest, less religious and less intelligent than non-tattooed women. Despite this, the men in this study perceived the women as more promiscuous. Although I don’t’ have any tattoos, I have quite a number of piercings. I have had both men and women comment things such as ‘you must be really freaky in bed’.
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I conducted a poll on Instagram and the outcome of vote showed that only 5% of voters think that tattoos make women less attractive. One person commented that tattoos can often disguise or hide a woman’s attractive features, which then tends to make her appear as not so attractive. A common belief seems to be that tattoos will take away from a woman’s femininity, delicacy or prettiness, especially if they are large, colourful and cover large areas of the body (such as tattoo sleeves).
YouTube content creator, Helen Anderson
I follow a YouTube content creator called Daisy Foxglove, who is a fairly heavily tattooed woman. Daisy is currently pregnant, and personally, I have never seen a heavily tattooed pregnant woman before. Some viewers of her videos have said that she won’t make a good mother, simply based on her tattooed appearance. This is an unfair judgement to make as it does not take her character into account at all.
Daisy Foxglove
Daisy also previously worked as a stripper and had customers tell her to her face that she would be more attractive if she wasn’t tattooed. On the other hand, some customers hired her specifically because she had tattoos.
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Society at large tends to regard women who have visible tattoos as scary or unapproachable and in some cases, tattooed women revel in this image of being scary.
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There is a general consensus among families that tattoos on girls are okay, as long as they are feminine and easily concealed. But this raises the question – what exactly is a feminine tattoo? One that is dainty? With no thick black lines and in-you-face colour? Pretty cursive script? But why are these styles in particular deemed feminine?
Daisy also previously worked as a stripper and had customers tell her to her face that she would be more attractive if she wasn’t tattooed. On the other hand, some customers hired her specifically because she had tattoos.
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Society at large tends to regard women who have visible tattoos as scary or unapproachable and in some cases, tattooed women revel in this image of being scary.
​
There is a general consensus among families that tattoos on girls are okay, as long as they are feminine and easily concealed. But this raises the question – what exactly is a feminine tattoo? One that is dainty? With no thick black lines and in-you-face colour? Pretty cursive script? But why are these styles in particular deemed feminine?
I think that we still have quite a way to go with how we view tattooed women, and especially with realising that what others do to their bodies has no effect on us at all.