Are Tattooed Martial Artists Stronger or Weaker?

gangster tattoo

Tough? Or Creampuff?

Well, isn’t this the most fascinating observation: it appears that Martial Artists with the most tattoos on their bodies lose more matches.

Mind you, this isn’t a scientific survey, just an observation based on watching a few UFC fights. The results of this unscientific survey, however, indicate that perhaps a deeper study is in order.

To be specific, out of the last three UFC fights I viewed on television people with the most tattoos lost their matches, 67% to 33%.

Two thirds to one third, that means the untattooed fighters are winning twice as much.

There are a couple of things that I had to take into account in this analysis, and these factors could skew the results, and perhaps severely.

One factor was deciding, when two fighters with tattoos were in the ring, which fellow had the most skin tattooed. Usually, but not always, this seemed fairly straightforward.

Another factor that seemed to figure in, be it loosely, was the type of tattoo a martial artist sported. This factor is very hard to pin down, as the fighters are constantly moving and the camera doesn’t always pick out and define the tattoos. The single thing that seemed to prevail, however, was that people with religious tattoos seemed to lose more than people with straight forward (not sure what that means, but there it is) tattoos.

Now, here comes the speculation as to why this is so.

One thing that immediately came to mind was the fact that members of the famous Yakuza organization, when they do reach old age, tend to die of organ failure–I believe it was liver. One doctor surmised, with graph and thick reports, that the ink on the body stopped proper oxygen intake. This would indicate that the liver depends on oxygen ingested through the skin more than other organs. This was presented as a straight forward study, but I have a lot of questions, and would like to get a copy of that document. And then perhaps even be able to read the ‘medicalese’ involved in the study.

The other factor that might figure in in this idea that tattooed MMA fighters lose more than non-tattooed fighters, has to do with being ‘symboled.’

When somebody gets a tattoo, the sole reason is that it ‘looks neat.’ This would indicate that a person is more concerned with appearances than function; would indicate that learning to fight is secondary to looking good. This is an intriguing point, and one which I would put more credence in than the previously mentioned medical opinion.

At any rate, I will be glued to the tube, come the next UFC contest, searching for factors that explain this phenomenon. Who wears what kind of tattoo? How many tattoos? What percentage of the flesh is inked? Can punching power be linked to inkstain? Is endurance suspect when a fighter has more artwork on his skin? Obviously, a sizable door has opened here.

The best way to be tough is to be competent. The best way to be competent is to learn martial arts. Check out Monster Martial Arts.

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