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The "Tattoo acceptance in the workplace" movement


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Maybe it's just with people my age, but frankly it's kind of annoying.

 

I understand their purpose, but if you go get knuckle tattoos, or a skull on your neck, or a facial tattoo and you expect no job/employer to take issue with it, you're nuts.

 

It's a responsibility thing you need to think about BEFORE you do it.

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Why are you annoyed by it, Iced?

 

Personally, I don't mind it but then again, the industry I'm in, tattoo's like this aren't just accepted but maybe even preferable.

 

I was in the hospital getting a test one time and the guy doing the test walks up sleeved in tattoo's. Shocked me at first but he was the kindest, most caring, laid back and easy to talk to guy. Sure made a test on my heart a lot easier!

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Why are you annoyed by it, Iced?

 

Personally, I don't mind it but then again, the industry I'm in, tattoo's like this aren't just accepted but maybe even preferable.

 

I was in the hospital getting a test one time and the guy doing the test walks up sleeved in tattoo's. Shocked me at first but he was the kindest, most caring, laid back and easy to talk to guy. Sure made a test on my heart a lot easier!

 

I'm annoyed by the people who think they can go get some giant tattoo on their neck, and then are not allowed to be treated any differently for it.

 

If you walk into a job interview with a shirt that says "Legalize Marijuana" you will be judged, same as if you have wrist tattoos.

 

My problem is they think no job should be able to take issue with their tattoos, it's arrogant.

 

Some industries are fine, and I personally don't care if my nurse or doctor has tattoos, that's not what I'm saying.

 

I'm talking about the arrogance involved in getting a highly visible tattoo and telling employers they can't be against it.

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I do think peoples bodies are their own and they should be able to choose what they do with it and not be discriminated against. But, as long as the tattoo isn't highly offensive like a swastika on the front of someones neck with the words white power underneath, for instance (I don't even think that should be legal!).

 

I don't see anything wrong with people wanting to be able to walk into a job interview and not be discriminated against because they have obvious tattoo's or wear a legalize marijuana shirt even. I mean, if someone wants to get a unicorn horn screwed into their forehead to be different, so be it.

 

I think tattoos are a form of artistic expression that a person can take with them everywhere they go and it becomes part of them. Most times I appreciate it. Especially when someone loses a child and gets a tattoo in memory or something similar. It's a part of that person.

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The Whole Foods not too far from us ONLY seems to hire people with tattoos and ear gauges. Anyways, appearance is everything to an employer. Even though technically employers are not supposed to discriminate...it still happens. If you're a pretty girl versus a nerdy guy, thin versus overweight....it may have an effect on the interviewer. It's BS, unfair...but the sad truth. You wouldn't want to put a ton of makeup on your face and go to an interview looking like a clown...nor would you want to go without trimming your beard goatee or etc. It comes down to looking professional and how the employers want their customers and consumers to see their business. Some employers don't even want you to have any facial hair...whatsoever. Not even a neatly trimmed goatee or mustache. Some are more relaxed about it. So why would it be fair to hire someone with skull tattoos all over their face when you won't allow someone to have a mustache or goatee? There are also employers who will not allow facial piercings such as nose rings etc. Even small studs. If you want to wear long sleeves each day at your job, more power to you and it's your life. But employers do not have to respect your ear gauges, nose rings or tattoos. That is a personal lifestyle choice.

Edited by pink_sugar
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I'd like to think that most employers would like their employees to be neat at minimum.

Is it the tattoo that bothers you, Ice? Or is it the mentality of the person you describe?

 

I agree that judgment is rampant. We each live a different lifestyle. Some are more easily recognizable then others.

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The Whole Foods not too far from us ONLY seems to hire people with tattoos and ear gauges. Anyways, appearance is everything to an employer. Even though technically employers are not supposed to discriminate...it still happens. If you're a pretty girl versus a nerdy guy, thin versus overweight....it may have an effect on the interviewer. It's BS, unfair...but the sad truth. You wouldn't want to put a ton of makeup on your face and go to an interview looking like a clown...nor would you want to go without trimming your beard goatee or etc. It comes down to looking professional and how the employers want their customers and consumers to see their business. Some employers don't even want you to have any facial hair...whatsoever. Not even a neatly trimmed goatee or mustache. Some are more relaxed about it. So why would it be fair to hire someone with skull tattoos all over their face when you won't allow someone to have a mustache or goatee? There are also employers who will not allow facial piercings such as nose rings etc. Even small studs. If you want to wear long sleeves each day at your job, more power to you and it's your life. But employers do not have to respect your ear gauges, nose rings or tattoos. That is a personal lifestyle choice.

 

This is a good post...

 

and by the way.. employers while hiring certainly have the right to discriminate with peoples personal choices.

What they cannot discriminate about is race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, genetic information, or age.

 

I'm afraid tattoos do not fall in the protected categories.

 

If a person chooses to ink themselves to the point that it affects their hire ability then that is their CHOICE.

 

The other things I mentioned are not a choice and are protected for that very reason, race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, genetic information, or age.

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or wear a legalize marijuana shirt even.

 

 

:laugh:.... okay...

 

I guess if they wear that T-SHIRT to an interview rather than dressing appropriately then in reality they would be eliminated based on their stupidity.. not their artistic expression.

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That is a personal lifestyle choice.

 

This is it. Once you make a choice you need to take responsibility for it. Not everyone will love it and not everyone will want to tolerate it. It's a choice indeed.

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I do think peoples bodies are their own and they should be able to choose what they do with it and not be discriminated against. But, as long as the tattoo isn't highly offensive like a swastika on the front of someones neck with the words white power underneath, for instance (I don't even think that should be legal!).

 

I don't see anything wrong with people wanting to be able to walk into a job interview and not be discriminated against because they have obvious tattoo's or wear a legalize marijuana shirt even. I mean, if someone wants to get a unicorn horn screwed into their forehead to be different, so be it.

 

I think tattoos are a form of artistic expression that a person can take with them everywhere they go and it becomes part of them. Most times I appreciate it. Especially when someone loses a child and gets a tattoo in memory or something similar. It's a part of that person.

 

I agree with your post, but the problem with tattoos is that they are highly prevalent in people that are considered undesirable. So it becomes a chore for the employer to determine if the applicant is undesirable or not. Just watch one episode of Hardcore Pawn and you will see how every loser in the show is covered with tattoos.

 

SO why do it? Why risk being associated with the undesirables?

 

Furthermore, tattoos are not art anymore. Every other Jane Doe and Joe Blow has a tattoo. So in the end it is quite mundane to have a tattoo.

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I agree with your post, but the problem with tattoos is that they are highly prevalent in people that are considered undesirable. So it becomes a chore for the employer to determine if the applicant is undesirable or not. Just watch one episode of Hardcore Pawn and you will see how every loser in the show is covered with tattoos.

 

SO why do it? Why risk being associated with the undesirables?

 

Furthermore, tattoos are not art anymore. Every other Jane Doe and Joe Blow has a tattoo. So in the end it is quite mundane to have a tattoo.

 

Say what?!?!? By your train of thought, that fact that most households have paintings of some kind means that painting is no longer art... WTF?!?!?

 

ART is not something that only a FEW have! ART is something that is created by an ARTIST. In this case a TATTOO ARTIST! Everyone in the world could be covered in tattoos and it would still be art.

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I think we're talking about different people because (I've never seen Hardcore Pawn) the people I'm talking about are the working class. I'm talking about mechanics, welders, custom painters, guys that do bodywork and really bust their butts all day. These people aren't the undesirables, they are the desirables in the line of work I'm involved in.

 

I own my own business and these are the people I want working for me. In this industry, show up in your work clothes/uniform with your sleeves rolled up and show me what you can do on the spot. Somebody who has a good work ethic probably just isn't going to show up in a "Legalize Marijuana" t-shirt in the first place.

 

These aren't the same people working at Whole Foods. So there are different types of people getting tattoos these days. It's not like it used to be.

 

I think I was in a Whole Foods once so I'm pretty sure I know the type of business Pink Sugar is talking about. If that was my business and I'm letting somebody hire people with tattoos and piercings, it's because I'm trying to make the local population feel comfortable because this is the crowd in the area I'm dealing with. If I have another store in another area that is more white collar? Then I'll only allow clean-cut employees to work there. It would really depend on the area.

 

What I do all week, it's perfectly acceptable to have tattoos and the majority of people involved in this industry have tattoos. It's no real indication as to their work ethic, though. The clothes they show up in says a lot.

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I think we're talking about different people because (I've never seen Hardcore Pawn) the people I'm talking about are the working class. I'm talking about mechanics, welders, custom painters, guys that do bodywork and really bust their butts all day. These people aren't the undesirables, they are the desirables in the line of work I'm involved in.

 

I own my own business and these are the people I want working for me. In this industry, show up in your work clothes/uniform with your sleeves rolled up and show me what you can do on the spot. Somebody who has a good work ethic probably just isn't going to show up in a "Legalize Marijuana" t-shirt in the first place.

 

These aren't the same people working at Whole Foods. So there are different types of people getting tattoos these days. It's not like it used to be.

 

I think I was in a Whole Foods once so I'm pretty sure I know the type of business Pink Sugar is talking about. If that was my business and I'm letting somebody hire people with tattoos and piercings, it's because I'm trying to make the local population feel comfortable because this is the crowd in the area I'm dealing with. If I have another store in another area that is more white collar? Then I'll only allow clean-cut employees to work there. It would really depend on the area.

 

What I do all week, it's perfectly acceptable to have tattoos and the majority of people involved in this industry have tattoos. It's no real indication as to their work ethic, though. The clothes they show up in says a lot.

 

Of course line of work definitely plays a big role. If you're shooting for blue collar jobs, tattoos are probably more acceptable. But honestly it's just that particular Whole Foods that only seems to employ those types of people and it's a high priced and high class area...so nothing to do with the area. Honestly I think WF is higher class than Safeway and Safeway is an example of a job that requires clean shaven employees and white collars.

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Say what?!?!? By your train of thought, that fact that most households have paintings of some kind means that painting is no longer art... WTF?!?!?

 

ART is not something that only a FEW have! ART is something that is created by an ARTIST. In this case a TATTOO ARTIST! Everyone in the world could be covered in tattoos and it would still be art.

 

The barbed wire around the arm, the cross in the back of the shoulder (or the dagger), the dragon tramp stamp are a dime a dozen. I just cannot consider that art. IMHO, it is nothing more than copycat people with an erroneous concept of what being cool is all about.

 

 

I do agree that blue collars do fine with tattoos, but I don't see them working in high paying jobs in corporate America.

 

But, you are correct a tattoo means nothing except in the eyes of some employers that will never offer a job to a person with body ink.

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I do think peoples bodies are their own and they should be able to choose what they do with it and not be discriminated against. ...

 

That's where the tattoo-wearer is wrong. Technically their bodies are their own but their image is not. No one gets to control how they are perceived. That's the important distinction that those who think of tattoos as "body art" get backwards. They don't produce the art. Nature produces the body which is the art. We are not led to observe that objectively but subjectively this is very true. People of both genders want the privilege of being able to behold the product of nature (or god if you're religious) and appreciate it for what it is. A person who gets a tattoo takes away that privilege and forces the beholder's eyes to some graffiti they paid someone else to put there. That's like going to some beautiful grotto somewhere for a picnic and having someone stick a billboard in the middle of it basically saying that their message trumps all. These are unspoken dynamics about tattoos and why some people find them abhorrent. It is not that they are particularly ugly or intrusive--although many are--they just trash a beauty they don't seem to value that is there in the first place. That's what "fashion" should be left to clothing and not ink or branding irons. I one likes tattoos all that much, tour a prison where there are plenty of people whom have gotten or taken wrong or bad messages about the value of life on its own terms.

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I'd like to think that most employers would like their employees to be neat at minimum.

Is it the tattoo that bothers you, Ice? Or is it the mentality of the person you describe?

 

I agree that judgment is rampant. We each live a different lifestyle. Some are more easily recognizable then others.

 

It's the mentality, I have a single tattoo and I made sure I got it in a place no one will see unless I'm shirtless!

 

Employers do have the right to dictate how you look to the world if you're representing them, it's part of the contract. If your employer is okay with it, that's fine. If you're a construction worker, I doubt anyone will care if you have visible tattoos. It's the people in jobs that do care that think they should be able to look however they want that come across as extremely arrogant.

 

I don't mind tattoos, I mind people who get them in places they can't hide while they complain everyone should be okay with it.

Edited by IcedEarth
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It's the mentality, I have a single tattoo and I made sure I got it in a place no one will see unless I'm shirtless!

 

Employers do have the right to dictate how you look to the world if you're representing them, it's part of the contract. If your employer is okay with it, that's fine. If you're a construction worker, I doubt anyone will care if you have visible tattoos. It's the people in jobs that do care that think they should be able to look however they want that come across as extremely arrogant.

 

I don't mind tattoos, I mind people who get them in places they can't hide while they complain everyone should be okay with it.

 

I would agree with this. The big facial tattoos practically scream "Don't hire me!"

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I would agree with this. The big facial tattoos practically scream "Don't hire me!"

 

Or the knuckle tattoos, I think of bikers and tattoo artists but if you're going to be some corporate lawyer? You might be in trouble.

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tattoo-acceptance-in-the-workplace/184318681626429?ref=ts

 

This is what made me make this topic by the way.

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Of course line of work definitely plays a big role. If you're shooting for blue collar jobs, tattoos are probably more acceptable. But honestly it's just that particular Whole Foods that only seems to employ those types of people and it's a high priced and high class area...so nothing to do with the area. Honestly I think WF is higher class than Safeway and Safeway is an example of a job that requires clean shaven employees and white collars.

 

 

Pink Sugar, this I can't explain other than I think someone dropped the ball in management somewhere and whoever is doing the hiring isn't making sense! Normally an employer wants to hire "the locals" and make it obvious so the people going into their store easily recognize that you're giving the local population jobs and it also creates a more comfortable environment for everybody.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if one day that particular Whole Foods fails to make the same money other Whole Foods are in other areas and they close it down but never figure out what went wrong! :rolleyes:

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I would agree with this. The big facial tattoos practically scream "Don't hire me!"

 

 

Hey! I'm sure the circus is hiring! ;)

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A person walking down the street with a noticable tatoo, who is dressed in cheap clothes: you will not think they are a doctor or laywer.

 

A person dressed in great quality, designer work clothes ( such as a black pencil skirt and lovely white blouse, with an expensive looking handbag) with a tatoo that is not all that offensive? If they dress well and do not have a huge tatoo all over their face but rather a small tatoo on their hand or arm: they could very well have a high paying, corpprate job.

 

It is all about perception. A lot of the idiots ruin it for everyone. A high prevalance of people that commit crimes, for instance, have tatoos. Less lawyers or doctors have tatoos when compared with petty criminals.

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Complaining about employers not liking the tattoo on your face ("art"?) or hands is asinine. Should work places not be allowed to have dress codes then? Should I be allowed to show up to the office in cut off jean shorts and a bikini top? I mean I am just expressing myself, and it is very hot in Arizona.

 

Just because one person thinks they are an artist, does not mean they are creating art. I mean fk in that case I could pick up a tattoo needle and squiggle "yolo" on a teens knuckles and call myself an artist.

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I'm surprised how long this fad has held on, much like I am surprised by the droopy pants fad hanging on so long.

 

What is wrong with skin color? Do you want the same art work up on your living room wall for 60 years? No; you will get tired of it and it will go out of style at some point. I think it's smarter to keep your options open and not invest a lot of money on mere fads. It has been proven that tattoos negatively affect the immune system. People don't appreciate their health until it's gone, unfortunately.

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GorillaTheater

George Carlin's take on tattoos:

 

"Never do anything that will make it easier for the cops to identify you."

 

Well said, George.

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I got one tattoo at 18 and did it when it still wasn't everyone doing it.

 

Now? I know so few people without tattoos in my age group. When I got mine it wasn't a super popular thing yet, but now everyone and their mother has a tattoo.

 

Some claim they're "addicted" to getting them. How silly is that?

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