More similar than different: Tattooed adults are only slightly more impulsive and willing to take risks than Non-tattooed adults

•19.1% of central European adults have at least one tattoo.•Tattoo ownership did not vary by sex, nationality, education, or marital status.•Tattooed adults had higher impulsivity and more likely to take some risks.•Effect sizes of differences were negligible to small.•Tattooed and non-tattooed adults were more similar than different.

Emerging evidence suggests that there are few differences in the personality profiles of tattooed and non-tattooed adults. To add to this literature, we compared tattooed and non-tattooed adults in terms of their willingness to take risks in multiple domains, as well as their impulsivity and boredom proneness. Adults from central Europe (N = 1006) completed measures of the afore-mentioned concepts and reported the number of tattoos they had. In total, 19.1% of respondents had at least one tattoo, with no significant differences as a function of sex, nationality, education, or marital status. We also found that tattooed adults had higher motor impulsivity and were more willing to take risks in recreational and health and safety domains. However, effect sizes of these differences were negligible to small. Among tattooed adults, there were no significant associations between the number of tattoos possessed and any of the measured variables. These results suggest that tattooed and non-tattooed adults nowadays are more similar than different.