title: Traditional facial tattoos disrupt face recognition processes.
abstract: Factors that are important to successful face recognition, such as features, configuration, and pigmentation/reflectance, are all subject to change when a face has been engraved with ink markings. Here we show that the application of facial tattoos, in the form of spiral patterns (typically associated with the Maori tradition of a Moko), disrupts face recognition to a similar extent as face inversion, with recognition accuracy little better than chance performance (2AFC). These results indicate that facial tattoos can severely disrupt our ability to recognise a face that previously did not have the pattern.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Massey University, Private bag 102 904, North Shore Mail Centre, Auckland, New Zealand. h.buttle@massey.ac.nz
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Buttle
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: East
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013653:Tattooing