IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v199y2025ics0148296325003315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

It’s no skin off your nose: why do consumers tattoo brands?

Author

Listed:
  • Alves, Antonio Pedro Cruz Costa
  • Strehlau, Vivian Iara

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the meanings that brand tattoos have for consumers. Drawing on interviews with consumers who tattooed corporate logos, this paper discusses the interrelations between body, tattoos, self, and brands. The main contributions are related to understanding why people tattoo brands, discussing how brands help consumers create their sense of self, and identifying unique consumer-brand relationships: best friends forever, family ties, childhood buddies, teammates, dealers/addicts, therapists/patients, gurus/disciples, soulmates, partisans, and vintage mates. Consumers develop multiple dynamic relationships with the same brand across realistic, idealistic, personal (inner), and social (outer) dimensions, shaping their identity projects. These relationships can be positively and negatively valenced, influencing how consumers behave and interact with their beloved brands.

Suggested Citation

  • Alves, Antonio Pedro Cruz Costa & Strehlau, Vivian Iara, 2025. "It’s no skin off your nose: why do consumers tattoo brands?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:199:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325003315
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115508
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296325003315
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115508?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:199:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325003315. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.