- People who are looking for an affair find tattoos attractive, according to a survey from Ashley Madison.
- Most male and female respondents said they liked people who were inked.
- People tend to associate tattoos with fun personalities, according to sex therapist Tammy Nelson.
- Or for some people, tattoos might give the impression someone isn't relationship material.
People are unfaithful to their partners for different reasons. Sometimes, they develop feelings for someone at work. Other times they insist they are cheating to actually make their marriage work— even though this sounds counter-intuitive.
Whether it's an act of carnal attraction, revenge, or something else entirely, it all comes down to your personal situation. But according to survey data from Ashley Madison, the married dating site, there are some patterns. For example, there are certain jobs where people are more likely to cheat.
The company also found in a recent survey of over 3,000 Ashley Madison users that people who are looking to have an affair like their partners to be inked.
Most of the respondents — 61% of women and 59% of men — said they were attracted to tattoos. Also, only 20% said their current partner had a tattoo, which could mean they are looking for something different in an affair partner.
As for why people find tattoos attractive, it could be because 42% of respondents said people with tattoos seem more spontaneous, while 40% said they look edgier.
Over half (51%) of respondents said they liked tattoos because they are personal, and 26% said they are expressive. Another reason cheaters gave for liking tattoos was that they make the person seem more sexually adventurous, fun, and easy going.
"According to this survey, the personality traits that people associate with tattoos are attractive qualities when seeking an affair partner," said Tammy Nelson, Ashley Madison's resident sex and relationship therapist, and author of "The New Monogamy: Redefining Your Relationship After Infidelity."
"So it may not be the tattoo itself that stimulates the attraction, rather that it signals the potential for greater excitement that people aren't feeling in their marriage."
Director of communications Isabella Mise said ultimately people are looking for a connection, so discussing something like the origins of someone's tattoo can open up the potential for deeper communication.
"Discovering someone for the first time and finding out what makes them unique is all part of the excitement of a new partner," she said. "And tattoos make that experience even more layered and interesting."
A study from 2017, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, found that tattooed men stood out as more masculine, more dominant, and more aggressive than non-tattooed men.
Women in the study rated tattooed men as healthier, although not necessarily more attractive. Meanwhile, men said they found the tattooed men hotter.
But women weren't going to risk it all for the tattooed men, because they tended to see them as one night stand material, rather than potential fathers to their children. Men thought the opposite.
It could be that in general, women see men with tattoos as a worthy candidate for having an affair with. Although, 74% of respondents in the survey said they don't look for someone with tattoos specifically — they just consider it a bonus.
So there's no simple answer, but it just might give you an extra advantage if you're putting yourself out there to be someone's secret lover. Or it might not — everyone is different.