FAITH IN TATTOOS ( Baylor University)

 Baylor University in the USA, in collaboration with Texas Tech University, has been carrying out research into faith-based and religious tattoos. 

They've made some interesting findings. Analyzing hundreds of photos of Christian students' ink, it was found that tattoos with deep religious significance for the wearer are more likely to face inward  positioned inside the wrist, for example  because they are usually a personal reminder of values to live by, rather than a public proclamation of belief.

 The most common placements for religious tattoos were the wrist, arm, foot and back. Women's religious tattoos tended to be smaller; men's religious tattoos tended to be larger. Nearly half the tattoos photographed incorporated words, and half of these were purely lettering (with no other images at all). 

Since the students were all Christian, it's not too surprising that most of these texts were from the Bible. New Testament references were slightly in the majority, but the most popular source overall was the Old Testament Book of Psalms. The hope is to broaden out the study to the wider population. This initial research was published in the journal Visual Studies (of the International Visual Sociology Association).

 

For more details, visit www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences and look under Arts & Sciences News