Social media, permanence, and tattooed students: the case for personal, personal branding

ABSTRACT

This article explores the perspectives of students regarding tattoos as a form of branding themselves. Various cohort groups of students at a South African university participated by completing a questionnaire (with both quantitative and qualitative components) on their behaviour and perspectives related to tattoos and personal branding. Most participants revealed reasons of a highly personal nature for getting tattoos, and the majority of the participants chose not to share their tattoos via social media platforms. The results are evaluated in terms of current notions of branding, permanence, and social media. It is argued that the social media branding perspectives of this study population strengthen the case for the proposed category “personal, personal branding”—especially in relation to tattooing. This study contributes to understanding the role tattoos play in expressing the identities of individuals in communities.

Keywords:

• social media branding
• stability
• personal branding
• personal, personal branding
• tattooed students