On the fly: Travel tips for excessive travellers

In a previous blog on ‘binge flying’, I noted that as part of my job I do a lot of travel. In the past 12 months as part of my job I’ve been lucky enough to go to China, Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Argentina, New Zealand (twice), United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Finland, Norway (twice), Spain (twice), Portugal, Belgium, Malta (twice), Bulgaria, and Ireland. For me, travelling has become an occupational necessity.

However, I have tried to turn my experiences into something more positive and have written a number of short articles providing tips about travelling abroad for outlets such as the British Medical Journal and the PsyPAG Quarterly as well as publishing a short paper on ‘addiction’ to flying (see ‘Further Reading’ below). This blog uses material from my previously published articles cited below to provide some tips on making travel a little less stressful. While this blog is aimed at other academics, most of the tips are generic and apply to anyone travelling abroad.

Before you travel

• Scan important documents electronically: Rather than photocopying all your important travel information (e.g. passports, insurance documents, etc.), scan all of them electronically and then e-mail them to yourself. You will be able to retrieve them from anywhere at any time if things go wrong.
• Check your plastic: Before your trip, check all your credit cards for wear and tear as you could be stuck in a foreign country without access to cash machines or the ability to buy anything. Also, think about getting credit cards that include air miles, lounge access and upgrades (e.g. Amex cards).
• Don’t get currency at the airport: Pre-ordering your currency will almost certainly be cheaper than the exchange rate at the airport currency bureaus. Make sure you get some low denomination notes and coinage for tips, taxis, etc. However, if the country you are travelling to has a strong currency, it might be better to exchange large amounts of money there rather than in the UK.
• Treat yourself to a ‘Priority Pass’ and get premium lounge access: I’m very fortunate that on long-haul flights I travel business class which gives me access to the premium lounges before my flights. However, on most of my European trips I fly economy but I still like to use the business lounges. For this, I buy an annual ‘Priority Pass’ which gets me into 100s of lounges around the world. There are various levels of membership to suit your needs and they are good value for money.
• Check your insurance: Has the university paid for you or do you need to get it yourself? There is nothing worse than losing your luggage and then discovering that you weren’t properly insured.
• Check the weather forecast: There’s nothing worse than turning up in a country with the wrong type of clothes. Check the medium range weather forecast so that you know whether you will need that coat or jumper!
• Know what you will need to pack: In addition to all the academic things you might require (laptop, memory stick, reading material), don’t forget the necessities in addition to passport, tickets and currency (e.g. adaptors, toiletries, medical supplies). Crease-free clothing can also be a help as not every hotel will have an in-room iron and ironing board. Also, pack some plastic carrier bags for your dirty laundry.
• Check if the hotel has (preferably free) Wi-Fi: There’s nothing worse than turning up to a hotel and finding you have to pay for Wi-Fi access or worse still that there’s no Wi-Fi at all.
• Travel as lightly as possible preferably hand luggage only: Take as little luggage as you can as you will always come back with far more than you went with (e.g. papers, conference programmes, conference freebies, leaflets etc.). For one or two night trips, take all your items on as hand luggage. This can often save a lot of waiting at the baggage carousel. To avoid bulk in your luggage, decant shampoos, etc. into smaller bottles so that you carry only that which is necessary on your trip. Miniaturise as much as possible including toiletries.
• Get easily identifiable luggage: If you have to take non-hand luggage, tie a brightly coloured ribbon or something unique to your luggage so that you will easily spot it on the baggage carousel. Others are less likely to pick up your bag by mistake and may save you time.
• Make sure that people know when and where you are going: Given all the things that can possibly happen abroad, make sure you let both family and the university (supervisor, head of department, etc.) know where you are going to be.
• Charge up your laptops and mobile telephones: Make sure all your electronic items are charged up. Keep your chargers in your hand luggage as you may be able to charge up at the airport and/or the plane itself.
• Check-in online: By checking-in online, you will be able to print your boarding pass and select your seat before you even get to the airport. If you have hand luggage only, this will save valuable time – especially if you are stuck in traffic on the airport bus or your train is delayed.

On the plane itself

• Go vegetarian: If you want to maximise sleep time on long-haul flights, pre-order the vegetarian option as these are usually served first.
• Take food and water on board with you: If you are flying on a budget airline, buy a ‘meal deal’ at the airport (or make your own sandwiches) as the food on board will be more expensive. Buy a bottle of mineral water at the airport as you cannot get liquids through baggage checks and on-board drinks may by pricey.
• Book an aisle seat: On long-haul flights, always book or ask for an aisle seat if you’re not in business class. This means you will be able to get up and move round at your convenience rather than have to keep asking people to move.
• Eat and drink alcohol in moderation: It is very tempting to drink free alcohol and eat anything that’s placed in front of you on long trips. However, you should try and limit yourself as you could suffer both dehydration and indigestion.
• Beware the in-flight entertainment: The in-flight entertainment service may not be to your liking so take some interesting reading and/or a few DVDs (and play them on your laptop). DVDs and a Netflix account are also useful if you are in a hotel that has no English language television stations!
• Wear headphones: If you want a peaceful stress-free journey without talking to anyone next to you on the plane, wear mp3 player headphones (even if you are not actually listening to anything). If you are going to actually use headphones, then invest in noise-cancelling ones as they will be better for the journey (and better than the ones provided by the airline itself).
• Bring your own eye mask and ear plugs: If you are on an overnight long-haul economy flight, bring your own ear plugs and eye mask as the plane may not supply them and even if they do, they may not be of good quality. An inflatable neck pillow can also be very comfortable. Wet-wipes can also be useful in helping you feel refreshed after a few hours of sleep.

At your destination

• Find the local university: If you are short of money, try to find out where the local universities are in a city. The canteen is likely to sell cheap meals and the students will tell you about the most economical places around.
• Avoid internet roaming charges: As soon as you are in the country of your visit, turn off your data roaming on your tablet computer (e.g. iPad) or smart phone (e.g. iPhone) to avoid charges for things like emails and web browsing. In European countries there’s free roaming at the moment but that will change after Brexit!
• Make use of the hotel facilities: If your hotel gives free access to its facilities (e.g. business centre, gym, swimming pool), then take full advantage and use them. Use the business centre to email if the hotel charges in-room Wi-Fi access.
• Adjust to the local time as soon as possible: On the plane, change your watch to the local time and try to stay up and go to bed at your ‘normal’ time. If you get home in the daytime, resist the urge to have a nap as you will feel much worse for it later. Medical supplements such as melatonin may also help overcome jet-lag.
• Ask where your room is in the hotel: If you don’t ask where your hotel room is located you might end up being right next to the lift or in an outward facing room where you hear all the noisy traffic. Alternatively, take some ear plugs with you, just in case.
• Know a few words of the native language: Learning even a few basic words of the country’s language will help you in most situations.

On getting back

• Have convenience food to hand: Make sure you have something easy to prepare for eating (e.g. a ready meal in the freezer) for when you come back as you may get back late when no shops are open.
• Get in touch with your new contacts: When you are back home, email your new contacts along with anything you promised to send (like the paper you gave at the conference) to help facilitate new working relationships.

Dr. Mark Griffiths, Distinguished Professor of Behavioural Addiction, International Gaming Research Unit, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

Further reading

Griffiths, M.D. (2003).  Tips on…Business travel abroad, British Medical Journal, 327, S38.

Griffiths, M.D. (2012). Tips on…Conference travel abroad. Psy-PAG Quarterly, 83, 4-6.

Griffiths, M.D. (2017). A brief critique of ‘flying addiction’. Global Journal of Addiction and Rehabilitation Medicine, 3(1), 555602.

“I ink, therefore I am”: A brief look at ‘tattoo addiction’

“When I first told people back in 2016 that I was getting my first tattoo, the most common response I got from those who were already inked themselves was ‘You’re going to get addicted to getting tattoos’. I found this notion a little ridiculous – I was nervous enough just getting a small one on my ankle. I couldn’t imagine getting hooked on something that was not only expensive, but painful and permanent. Fast forward to 2019, and I’ve since gotten two more tattoos, each one progressively larger and more detailed, and I’m already planning my fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. As I was warned, I have indeed gotten hooked. For me, it’s both because I love how it makes me feel about my body, and because I’ve gotten to discover a new form of expression in my mid-30s. According to a 2018 report from Statista, roughly 46 percent of Americans have at least one tattoo, and 30 percent of these people have two or three –19 percent have up to four or five. Clearly, other people love getting inked just as much as I do. But while tattoos can be fun to have, are they actually addictive?

This opening quote is by Amy Semigran, a journalist who interviewed me earlier this year for an article she was writing on addictions to tattoos for the online magazine Mic (‘Are tattoos really addictive? There’s a reason you keep coming back for more’). Regular readers of my blog will be aware that I’ve written various articles on the psychology of tattoos over the years including articles on stigmatophilia (sexual arousal from a partner who is marked or scarred in some way, which can also include body tattoos), the use of extreme tattooing in films, a look at the TV programme ‘My Tattoo Addiction’, and an article on whether having tattoos makes women more sexually attractive.

In my interview, I told Semigran that in order for a person’s behaviour to be deemed an addiction, it needs to meet my six specific criteria: salience (where tattooing becomes the most important thing in a person’s life), mood modification (e.g., the euphoric feelings that accompany tattooing), tolerance (the gradual build-up of tattooing with the individual spending more and more time engaged in tattooing), withdrawal symptoms (negative psychological and/or physical consequences as a result of not being able to get tattooed such as extreme moodiness or irritability), conflict (tattooing compromising other areas of the individual’s life such as personal relationships and education/occupation), and relapse (returning to tattooing after a period of abstinence). Therefore, I told Semigran that tattooing does not meet my criteria for addiction. I also added that while many behaviours can become impulsive, addiction relies on constant rewards or reinforcement. Alcoholics, gambling addicts, or drug addicts feed their habits with frequent rewarding experiences (at least in the short-term) but even the most heavily tattooed people are not engaging in the behaviour regularly.

However, it is feasible that tattooing could be a behaviour that results in constant preoccupation (e.g., constantly thinking about getting the next tattoo, looking at tattoo designs, reading tattooing magazines, talking with other heavily tattooed individuals and sharing experiences, working as a tattooist, etc.). However, constantly being preoccupied by tattooing is (in itself) not a problem, unless of course it starts to cause serious conflict with other day-to-day activities. Semigran also interviewed Dr. Daniel Selling (a psychologist at Williamsburg Therapy Group in New York) for her article. He was quoted as saying:

“The word addiction in the context of tattoos is misused…while you can’t have a tattoo addiction, per se, it can be a dependence where you feel some elements of need and withdrawal…and perhaps spend too much time or money getting work…Being tattooed can also lead to an adrenaline rush of sorts. It’s the body tolerating annoyance and pain coupled with excitement and change”.

I agree that some people can spend too much time or money or spend money they don’t have on getting tattoos, but this is not addiction (and I would also argue that it is not dependence either). For many people, getting tattoos might be more of a passion than a problem, and there is nothing wrong with being passionate about what you do. I am passionate about work and some people describe me as being addicted to work or of being a ‘workaholic’ but given there are almost no negative consequences of me working hard and loving my job, it certainly can’t be viewed as an addiction.

As Semigran pointed out in her article, for many people, their passion and interest in tattooing is something that enhances their lives rather than interferes with it (this is exactly the same as my assertion – published in a 2005 issue of the Journal of Substance Use) that healthy excessive enthusiasms add to life whereas addictions take away from it. Semigran interviewed Lisa Orth, a Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Lisa Orth who has around 100 tattoos). She said:

“It’s an incredible feeling to be able to permanently customize yourself with artwork. [The] feeling of self-expression can be an empowering experience…It’s one of the main reasons [my] clients come back again and again. Tattooing can be a way of engaging with, and taking possession of, one’s body in an active way…[It] can allow people to define themselves visually in a way that forces the observer to see a person as they most authentically see themselves. That’s a big draw (so to speak) for those who repeatedly get inked…Getting tattooed is one of the remaining rituals in our culture that are physical, mental and emotional challenges, where you come out transformed on the other side”.

Again, this explanation has nothing to do with addiction and everything to do with self-identity and passion. Many addiction psychologists, would also add that if he behaviour causes harm or injury to the individual, it may also be a sign or symptom of possible addiction. However, Semigran quoted American psychologist, Dr. Tracy Alderman from an article she wrote for Psychology Today examining the extent to which tattooing and body piercings can be classed as self-harm.

“[E]njoying a rush is different than participating in self-harm. Since tattooing is a needle penetrating skin, that can potentially feed someone’s desire to feel pain or change their appearance due to unhappiness with themselves…Once in a while there will be cases in which piercing and/or tattoos do fit the definition of self-injury. But overwhelmingly,self-injury is a distinct behavior, in definition, method and purpose, from tattooing and piercing”.

I read Dr. Alderman’s article and her views mirror my own when it comes to the psychology of tattooing:

“[A] main issue separating self-injurious acts from tattoos and piercings is that of pride. Most people who get tattooed and/or pierced are proud of their new decorations. They want to show others their ink, their studs, their plugs. They want to tell the story of the pain, the fear, the experience. In contrast, those who hurt themselves generally don’t tell anyone about it. Self-injurers go to great lengths to cover and disguise their wounds and scars. Self-injurers are not proud of their new decorations”.

Semigran also quoted Dr. Suzanne Phillips who recently wrote an article for PsychCentral entitled ‘Tattoos after trauma-do they have healing potential’. Dr. Phillips notes:

“[A tattoo being used] to register a traumatic event is a powerful re-doing…It starts at the body’s barrier of protection, the skin, and uses it as a canvas to bear witness, express, release and unlock the viscerally felt impact of trauma”.

There’s no doubt that tattooing has become part of mainstream culture over the past two decades and there are a number of scholars who claim in the scientific literature that getting tattoos can be potentially addictive (such as Dr. Ivan Sosin; Dr. Allyna Murray and Dr. Tanya Tompkins; see ‘Further Reading’ below) but based on my own addiction criteria I remain to be convinced. However, whenever I think about the psychology of tattooing, I am always reminded of the saying: “Tattoos are like potato chips … you can’t have just one”.

Dr. Mark Griffiths, Distinguished Professor of Behavioural Addiction, International Gaming Research Unit, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

Further reading

Alderman, T. (2009). Tattoos and piercings: Self-injury? Psychology Today, December 10. Located at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/the-scarred-soul/200912/tattoos-and-piercings-self-injury?amp

Griffiths, M.D. (1996). Behavioural addictions: An issue for everybody? Journal of Workplace Learning, 8(3), 19-25.

Griffiths, M.D.  (2005). A ‘components’ model of addiction within a biopsychosocial framework. Journal of Substance Use, 10, 191-197.

Kovacsik, R., Griffiths, M.D., Pontes, H., Soós, I., de la Vega, R., Ruíz-Barquín, R., Demetrovics, Z., & Szabo, A. (2019). The role of passion in exercise addiction, exercise volume, and exercise intensity in long-term exercisers. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-018-9880-1

Murray, A. M., & Tompkins, T. L. (2013). Tattoos as a behavioral addiction. Science and Social Sciences, Submission 26. Located at: https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/studsymp_sci/2013/all/26

Phillips, S. (2019). Tattoos after trauma-do they have healing potential? PsychCentral, March 27. Located at: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/healing-together/2012/12/tattoos-after-trauma-do-they-have-healing-potential/

Semigran, A. (2019). Are tattoos really addictive? There’s a reason you keep coming back for more. Mic, July 3. Located at: https://www.mic.com/p/are-tattoos-really-addictive-theres-a-reason-you-keep-coming-back-for-more-18166085

Sosin, I. (2014). EPA-0786-Tattoo as a subculture and new form of substantional addiction: The problem identification. European Psychiatry, 29, Supplement 1, 1.

Szabo, A., Griffiths, M.D., Demetrovics, Z., de la Vega, R., Ruíz-Barquín, R., Soós, I. &Kovacsik, R. (2019). Obsessive and harmonious passion in physically active Spanish and Hungarian men and women: A brief report on cultural and gender differences. International Journal of Psychology, 54, 598-603.