Tattoos Might Help You Be a More Successful Entrepreneur, New Research Suggests

Picture a person with tattoos. What are they like? Given that something like 30 percent of the U.S. population has a tattoo, in reality they could be like anything at all. But what most of us first imagine is someone who is a little bit of a rebel, someone who is maybe a little more creative than the average bear. 

Is that a stereotype entrepreneurs might be able to use to their advantage of? A new study suggests yes. 

Get a tattoo, raise $27,000 more online? 

The study, recently published in the Journal of Business Venturing Insights, examined 1,500 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns downloaded at random. Would it make a difference, the trio of researchers behind the study wanted to know, if the person raising money had visible ink? 

The data showed a clear benefit to showing tattoos if you’re looking to drum up online cash for a project. “As it turned out, tattoos helped all types of campaigns. For artistic campaigns, showing people with tattoos brought in 128 more backers on average than campaigns where tattoos weren’t shown,” reports the Wall Street Journal, which continues:  

“For nonartistic campaigns, the presence of tattoos helped even more, attracting 458 additional backers on average. Moreover, for nonartistic campaigns, revealing tattoos translated into a steep increase in total dollars pledged–nearly $27,000 in more funds raised, on average, than nonartistic campaigns that displayed no tattoos.”

Why did images of entrepreneurs with ink persuade more people to open their wallets? The researchers suggest that perhaps it’s the perception that people with tattoos are more creative, which signals they may be more likely to succeed in the freewheeling world of crowdfunded entrepreneurship. 

A whole bunch of caveats 

The authors caution that what works for Kickstarter may very well fail to impress at Goldman Sachs or Andreessen Horowitz. More buttoned up backers like banks and VCs are likely to value different qualities in those fundraising than Kickstarter contributors. 

“In some ways, entrepreneurship represents the ultimate form of self-expression, but you won’t see Warren Buffett rolling up his sleeves and showing tattoos,” says Jeremy Short, a professor of entrepreneurship and one of the study’s authors. “But you will see that in crowdfunding, which allows entrepreneurs to appeal directly to the masses for support and typically attracts creative founders and ventures.”

Nor should anyone hit up their local tattoo parlor solely because of one study out of the University of North Texas. You’re going to look at your tattoo for the rest of your life. You should want to do it for deeper reasons than a slightly more lucrative crowdfunding campaign. 

But the results might just surprise some folks in older generations who came of age when tattoos still had more of an outlaw mystique. My own father once told me to “never get a tattoo anywhere you can’t hide it from a judge.” Thanks, Dad. 

And the results are also a healthy reminder to anyone considering the entrepreneurial path that it is particularly welcoming to out-of-the-box thinkers, those with a rebellious streak, and headstrong creative types. You might fear you have to hide your big personality or individual quirks to get ahead. This study is one small reminder that self-expression is often a virtue in entrepreneurial contexts.

As Dolly Parton once memorably advised, don’t tone down your sparkle — or hide your ink — for anyone.