Attending a tattoo convention: to seek or escape?

ABSTRACT

Utilizing Iso-Ahola’s (S. E. Iso-Ahola. The Social Psychology of Leisure and Recreation. Dubuque, IA: WC Brown Co. Publishers, 1980) seek and escape theory and social identity theory in the context of tattoo conventions, this study examines whether individual and group identity influences personal and interpersonal seeking and escaping motivations and whether these motivations influence an attendee’s self-enhancement and subsequent revisit intention. Based on an online survey (n = 350), structural equation modeling revealed that individual identity influenced personal seeking and escaping motivations, group identity influenced interpersonal seeking and escaping motivations, and personal seeking and interpersonal seeking and escaping motivations increased self-enhancement and ultimately revisit intention. Implications are provided for tattoo event managers based on findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Tattoo convention
• seeking
• escaping
• motivations
• social identity
• individual identity
• group identity
• self-enhancement
• revisit intention
• structural equation modeling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.