Pain + Ink = Dissonance = Awesome

As tempting as it is to write about boys again, I think I’ll have to write about feet tonight. Trust me; it’s still exciting.

The theory of cognitive dissonance states that when an individual’s attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent with one another it creates psychological tension that he or she is highly motivated to reduce, which means either changing the behavior or changing the attitude (Festinger, 1957). Interestingly, there are three different situations under which cognitive dissonance arises: (1) induced compliance, or induced justification, (2) effort justification, and (3) post-decision dissonance.

“Which of these concerns my feet?” you ask. The answer: effort justification. As displayed by Aronson and Mills (1959), effort justification is what happens when we find ourselves loving that for which we suffer. This suffering comes in many forms; it is anything we pay for – with money, our time, pain, stress, and so on.

Every day dozens of people walk through these doors and voluntarily suffer quite a bit.

On Monday, October 13th, 2008, I was one of those dozens. We see it in everything from fraternity initiations to expensive cars – the more we suffer for them, the more we love them. The same is true of tattoos, though most would NEVER admit to it.

I was the last walk-in of the night. I’d talked about getting a tattoo for several years, and decided to finally go through with it while I was visiting my older brother Jonny in San Marcos with my cousin Ped. They both have tattoos, and they both encouraged me. I was terrified of the pain, but now I know it’s the memory of that pain that will keep me loving what I’ve done to myself.

It took Rebecca, my tattoo artist, just $100 and 30 minutes to repeatedly stab my right foot with a needle to produce my permanent foot fixture.


I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream. I did, however, clutch so tightly to the table that my hands cramped up and I might have hyperventilated for a bit. It also certainly hurt like nothing I’d ever felt before. So why would anyone do this to themselves? The answer is simple effort justification; I’ll break it down for you.

Attitude = This hurts like hell and I paid a lot of money for it
Behavior = I’m letting someone permanently mark me

These two concepts are in opposition with each other, so people who get tattoos – including myself – must justify it. Because I suffered so much to get a tattoo – physically and financially – what I got must mean a lot to me, it must be really cool, I must never want to forget these symbols, I must actually like the pain a little bit.

I – just like everyone else sporting a tattoo – has had to rationalize the suffering and effort put into getting their “body art” to resolve their cognitive dissonance. I just hope that I don’t ever forget how much it hurt.

P.S. It's my family's cattle brand (for my Dad and my grandpa) and the sun from the Filipino flag (for my mom).

P.S.S. Don't tell my mom I got a tattoo.
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Aronson, E. & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, 177-181.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.