For many people who are fond of body art, tattoos are just an expression of their creativeness and it is how they show their art. There are people who also consider body piercing. For many years, you see people with tattoo and other body modification grow in number and that is fine with you. But that is not fine for MBS (Marina Bay Sands) Club.
For the first time here in Singapore, there is a club that imposes “no-tattoo rule”. People with tattoo reacted to this new rule. MBS is a famous nightspot but they impose the rule to entice more customers. The refusal of their entry is to maintain the club’s ambience and the comfort level for the patrons.
We rely on what we see. We perceive people based on what they look like. We take hints from cosmetics, clothing, grooming, body piercings and tattoos. In the case of tattoos, it has been around for many centuries but people with them are evaluated negatively in specific cultures.
There was a study in America (Seiter and Hatch, 2005) where researchers assessed the attractiveness and credibility of models. There were 148 respondents and they were asked to judge images of men and women with and without tattoos. The results revealed that tattoo wearers (of both sexes) got the low ratings. The negative perceptions can be described by Role Theory.
The theory states that the societies have standards when it comes to how people should look like and how they should behave. People who violate the expectations of the society are obstructed in their group interactions.
Tattoo wearers here in Singapore can simply hide their tattoo to gain entrance. But it is the club’s discretion to allow them to enter. But there are other clubs here that allow customers to enter despite the visible tattoo.
