Tattoos Should Be Allowed in the Workplace Essay

Tattoos might look cool but they can cause some difficulties later on in life. People automatically make assumptions about someone covered in body art. Not to mention, many employers do not want their customers to get the wrong idea about their company. Overall because body ink is not widely accepted people aiming to get one should really think about it.

The art of tattoos has been prevalent in several ancient cultures and represented various meanings. Until around the mid-20th century, tattoos were seen in a very negative light; mainly associated with circus freak shows, bikers or outlaws. In more current times, tattoos are becoming more accepted overall. With this change there is a debate of body art in the workplace. If a person chooses to have visible tattoos, it should no longer be seen in such a negative view among assorted careers today. Tattoos are continuously becoming more popular with each generation and often have some personal meaning. Some companies that have recently started to accept appropriate body art in the workplace are seeing positive benefits related to their new policy changes. This debate has also led people to file discrimination lawsuits against their employer. There are occasions, however, that the subject matter or the placement of a tattoo on the body may not be professional for certain types of jobs. The discussion of visible tattoos needs to be evaluated by each company, and often each individual situation, to determine if body art can be accepted at that business.

Dave Kimmelberg, a Boston lawyer, wrote a book called INKED Inc., which is about people who go to work with concealed tattoos. He feels that in many businesses, it is like a “don’t ask, don’t tell” understanding between the workers and their bosses. Now that he has written the book, many people know that he has tattoos that cover most of his arms, but he still chooses to cover them when dealing with anything professionally (Goodman). Similarly, a Starbuck’s employee named Ron Carter has tattoos on his arms. He gladly covers them up with wristbands in order to keep his job. He understands that in a business relationship, he must follow the rules set by the company, so that they can gain the most profit, and he can keep his job (Feldstein).

Tattoos are becoming very popular amongst the people of my generation, but now they seem to be creating more buzz than ever when it comes to today’s job market. Jon Kelly and Rachel Hennessey wrote articles covering this topic presenting the views of employers and their policies against tattoos. In both articles, they discuss how employers frown upon the art of employees inking. The biggest reason is because, some employers feel that tattoos deliver an unprofessional look to the customer and that can ruin the image built and portrayed by their prosperous companies.

Rachel Hennessey, her article, Tattoos: no longer a kiss of death in the workplace, tattoos have become accepted with employers, tattoos do not affect the performance or some very skilled employees. A lot of companies

Garrett Kennedy is a representative for the employers and senior executives in all aspects of employment-related litigation; a complaint that helps deal with situations that involves an employee being treated differently at his or her job. In this case, Kennedy is representing the people who are being discriminated at the workplace because of their body modifications. Kennedy acknowledges that, “...studies reflect negative biases against individuals with tattoos which include assumptions that they are less intelligent and attractive, and more rebellious. Not surprisingly, 60% of human resources professionals reported that visible tattoos would have a negative

People feel that there is no way that you can have job if you have tattoos. Some people will take people with tattoos less seriously if they have tattoos seeing them as childish or naïve. To back up these accusations, here is a quote: “No matter how much meaning they have for the owner, they are just not attractive nor professional looking. It does affect my decision-making process when hiring.” Emily Olson, who was a bus girl at a restaurant in Wisconsin, was great at her job. Her employer promised to give her a promotion when she turned eighteen, which would take her from a busser to a waitress where she could earn more money. On her eighteenth

People argue that tattoos should never be shown in a professional setting. Most places of employment even have a dress code that requires you to cover them while working. Employers, in some settings, say that tattoos would or could be offensive or obscene. It was hard to find any article that was against tattoos in the workplace. After a while of searching the internet and databases, I found an article titled “Tattoos in the Workplace: The Research Forbes Was Too Lazy To Do” by Annie Singer. Written on February 26, 2016 and updated February 26, 2017, Singer’s research found that “consumers showed a preference for non-tattooed front-line staff.” She also found that “visible tattoos had a predominantly negative effect on employment selection, driven by the hiring manager’s

Tattoos first originated in the west by a captain and his sailors. This group of Navy men returned home with their new pieces of art and were looked at as “oddities” by the people of their hometowns (Burgess 746). Much time has passed and a lot of things have changed since this event in the 1700s. However, looking at people with tattoos differently than people without tattoos has not changed. The main issue is people with tattoos are being discriminated against in the workplace. The number of people with tattoos has increased dramatically within the past decade. Tattoos have now reached a new audience including men and women of many different occupations. Although there are people with tattoos currently in many occupations

Have you ever been turned down for a job because you have tattoos? I have a family member that has twenty-four tattoos and currently has a job that he has worked hard to obtain. He keeps his tattoos covered when working allowing him to remain on a professional level and still have the ability to express himself in his free time. Although tattoos should be allowed in the workplace they may be considered unprofessional and inappropriate in both image and language. On the other hand, tattoos are personal and should not affect the person’s career choice. If we accept the growing number of tattoos, cases that discriminate against those who have tattoos and healthcare jobs being affected the most by people who have tattoos. Then we should accept that it is necessary for people with tattoos to be protected by the federal government with discrimination laws in place.

“In 2011, 31% of employers nationwide told job website Career Builder that having a visible tattoo would hinder a candidate's likelihood of being promoted.”(2014) This is still clear evidence that the public says it is okay to have tattoos but still sees it as distasteful. It’s almost like interracial marriage, it is fine if other people do it unless it affects me and then it’s a problem. We say it is not right to judge someone who is Mexican, Asian or Black, but then it becomes acceptable if a person has colorful ink on their skin. Yet, the companies of this day and age do have a point to a certain extent when it comes to how far of a line people should

"Having tattoos and being an old punk rock musician is part of that." In a Careerbuilder.com survey, 31 percent of human resource managers said visible tattoos could have a negative impact on their decision whether to hire someone, but bad breath weighed even heavier in the survey. O'Grady said the issue of tattoos on the job is an interesting example of how business traditions, new social norms, and legal issues collide in the modern workplace. Wrong." Other tattoos Trono is thinking of having removed have been on her body for more than twenty years. In most cases employers can legally refuse to hire people with visible tattoos, O'Grady said. They are: the belief that an employee will not be taken seriously by tradition-minded clients; the

In an article of Pearman (2015) titled Tattoos in the workplace, are they really taboo in 2015? on LinkedIn, she cited that more and more people from every range of work fields and industries are now having tattoo. "Tattoos have become much more widely accepted in recent times, both in general society and in the workplace. We see a wide variety of different people from every walk of life and every age group. That can be anything from tattoo collectors to doctors and lawyers. Tattooing has become less of a taboo for

Different tattoos have different meanings to different people. What one person may view as being unprofessional and vulgar, another person may view as beautiful. Where would the regulations begin and stop? Art is interpreted differently by different people. Our minds work profoundly that no one could put a regulation on art. Our bodies are a blank canvas and tattoos are the art of our lives and the stories we all tell.

Over the years tattoos were not as popular as they are today. Tattoos were genuinely for a few specific group or behavior. The image tattoos usually give were associated with gangs, bikers, rappers, and rockstars. Now tattoos are looked at in a completely different way. They are a form of expressing yourself, showing your love for art, and the most common reason people get tattoos is to honor someone or something. According to a similar article, a lot of people who hold entry level jobs, work industrial jobs, along with high executive positions have tattoos. Now that tattoos are common for women and men questions are now going unanswered.The ongoing question in this article is, “what is an employer to do when it comes to employees having body art? Do tattoos speak say something about the individual? (Gross, Barrie. “Tattoos in the Workplace: What’s an Employer to Do?” )