Why Entrepreneurs Might Consider Getting a Tattoo

Entrepreneurs who run crowdfunding campaigns do better if they feature tattooed people in their online presentation materials, according to a new study. And showing off tattoos is especially useful if the campaign is for a product that isn’t particularly artistic. For example, a non-artistic product like new night vision binoculars would benefit more from showing tattooed people than an artistic product like a beautiful book.

This is likely because potential funders may interpret tattoos in a non-arts campaign as a signal that the person running the campaign is creative – and the perception of creativity makes people more likely to contribute, according to research. However, for an art campaign, people probably already think the project is creative, so tattoos don’t help as much.

So, even if they offer a seemingly prosaic product, entrepreneurs shouldn’t be shy about showing it to people who are inked, including themselves. “Roll up your sleeves and show off your ukulele tattoo,” says Jeremy Short, professor of entrepreneurship at the G. Brint Ryan College of Business at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, and a researcher on the study. . could cause others to see you as creative before you even start your pitch.

Short and his co-authors, Marcus Wolfe, associate professor at the University of North Texas, as well as principal investigator and Ph.D. Contestant Paula Kincaid wanted to address a particular issue regarding crowdfunding projects and tattoos. Would displaying tattoos help crowdfunding campaigns raise more money?

The team started by uploading a random sample of 1,500 campaigns posted on crowdfunding site Kickstarter. They removed all campaigns that did not include at least one photo of human beings and sorted the remaining 619 campaigns into artistic and non-artistic groups, based on Kickstarter’s product categorization.

It turned out that tattoos helped all types of campaigns. For art campaigns, showing people with tattoos brought in an average of 128 more contributors than campaigns where tattoos weren’t shown. (One of the campaigns studied by the researchers — started by Ben Bishop to raise money for the sequel to his graphic novel “The Aggregate” — hoped to raise $30,000; instead, it received $53,404 from the share of 471 donors.)

For non-artistic campaigns, the presence of tattoos was even more helpful, attracting an average of 458 additional contributors. Additionally, for non-arts campaigns, revealing tattoos resulted in a big increase in total dollars pledged — nearly $27,000 more in funds raised, on average, than non-arts campaigns. who did not display any tattoos.

That doesn’t mean entrepreneurs reaching out to traditional investors, however, should show their inks, whether they’re their own or someone else’s, the researchers say. The expectations of traditional funders may not be the same as those of crowdfunders.

“In a way, entrepreneurship represents the ultimate form of self-expression, but you won’t see Warren Buffett rolling up his sleeves and showing off tattoos,” Short says. “But you’ll see it in crowdfunding, which allows entrepreneurs to appeal directly to the masses for support and generally attracts creative founders and companies.”