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Shelby Colville

Professor Cassel

ENG 1201

03 December 2017

It Is Not Always About Looks You Know

As a kid, I had always wanted tattoos. My mom had a lot and to me there were cool and

different. When I grew up I asked her for my eighteenth birthday if I could get a tattoo and she

said yes. It was so exciting and it made me feel special and like I could show the world who I

was without saying anything. That in itself meant alot to me because of how shy I am. Fast

forward over a year and three tattoos and a nose piercing later, things got a bit difficult when

getting a job. My dad always told me I would have a problem getting job with body art on me,

but I didn’t care. What was on my body did not tell you my work ethic, or my personality, it is

just ink under skin.

During the two interviews I had each with a seperate business, said my tattoos and nose

piercing was going to be a problem and that I would need to cover up and take out the jewelry.

Neither of these places were fancy, just run of the mill casual restaurants. I could never

understand why it was such a big deal. Neither things would keep me from being able to do my

job well and professionally. Tattoos and piercings are not accepted in the workplace because

society says they symbolize rebellion, gang affiliations, and unprofessionalism. These claims are

not accurate because body art does not show someone’s ability to work hard and be professional.

Tattoos have been seen as far back as 7,000 years ago, and the most most famous man to

ever been seen tattooed is Ötzi the Iceman, who died in the Italian Alps more than 5,000 years
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ago. (Lobell et al. 42). It is difficult to see how even after all this time, tattoos are still not

socially accepted. It is known that twenty-one percent of adults, that being sixty-five million

americans have at least one tattoo, and that number doubles if you take people who are forty and

under to have at least one tattoo. (Perzanowski 2).

The stigma here is that tattoos are deemed unprofessional and affiliations with gangs and

rebellion. There may have been a certain time where the majority of people could have seen this

as true, but times and society has changed, maybe this stigma should change too. However, there

is still a long way to go for it to no longer be an ongoing problem in not only society, but in the

workforce. Hobbs and Jones states, “ In an age of marketing and brand recognition, it is probably

unsurprising that most businesses will seek to retain a level of control of their public image. This

includes the presentation and appearance of their frontline or resident facing staff” (Hobbs, Jones

103). This statement says that even though tattoos and piercings are more accepted, there is still

some types of discrimination towards people who have them.

A lot of people get treated as less in the workplace because of having tattoos and

piercings. In the workforce, there are terms of indirect and direct discrimination. Indirect

discrimination is “where a ‘provision, criterion or practice’ of the employer is applied equally to

all employees, but has the effect of causing less favorable treatment to those with the protected

characteristic” (Hobbs, Jones 103). The example they state is a policy that only provides full

time working hours. Since women are more likely to have to deal with the responsibility of child

care than men, and from that work part time, can be seen as discriminatory on the basis of

gender.

Another example more relating to body art is if an employer has a policy of only long

sleeve shirts during work hours, it’s spread among all employees equally. It could be considered
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as a form of discrimination because they might have tattoos on their arms. Direct discrimination

is described as “When an employee is treated less favourably as a result of a protected

characteristic” (Hobbs, Jones 103). For example, if you had tattoos and piercings and a manager

or coworker made rude comments or unfriendly looks towards the body art, that could be

considered direct discrimination.

With body art dating thousands of years ago, why are there still such strict rules for body

art to be shown in the workforce? A lot of corporations and businesses worry about their public

image, and wonder what customers will think when they see someone covered in tattoos.

Another big problem is the most basic and obvious: stereotyping.

Stereotypes about tattooed people also affect current employees. One group

member describes how a customer reacted to a “cuff” tattoo around his wrist: I haven’t

been turned down for a job, but I have had people call my bosses and want me fired for

the one on my wrist. I work in retail, at a chain store, as a cashier/supervisor. I have a

cuff bracelet, and some lady was offended by it. She left the store and called my Employ

Respons Rights J (2015) 27:101–113 105 boss and told him that I had encouraged her kid

to get a tattoo. Which I would never do. I don’t care if my kids get one, but I wouldn’t

encourage someone else’s to. When asked what I said, she said nothing, but by having

one visible I was encouraging anyone who saw it. Which is BS. Luckily my boss stood

by me, and didn’t fire me (Hotchkiss 2010).

This example shows how finicky it can be to have tattoos showing in the workplace. It does

not however excuse that tattoos and piercings really have nothing to do with who you are and

how you work. Even though there are a lot of people with body art that employers really would

rather not hire, know that can be a very bad idea. There could be a very promising candidate for
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a job. Someone with good ethic, determination, smart, and overall just really great at what they

do. It would be a shame to waste a good talent just because of the way someone looks and what

you have on your body.

Currently, the amount of places in the workforce that still have rules for covering up body

art is still at a high amount. Their reasoning is about looking the part. These rules are still stuck

in the past because they don’t realize that tattoos and piercings do not equal danger or dangerous

people. With all of the stereotypes that had spread years in the past, many believe it’s just not

appropriate. In the past, tattoos were always associated with people like sailors, bikers, and

carnival workers (Elzweig, Peeples 13). This alone has allowed employers to keep rules in place

that body art to not be shown, even though so many people in modern times have some sort of

body art. “In non-modern Western cultures tattoos are important in one's’ identity. In Egypt

tattoos were commonly found on women, usually showing their social status, or on people who

were being punished. Being tattooed as a punishment is not uncommon; in Japan men were

tattooed, as a punishment, for committing a crime and is now common among people in the

Japanese mafia. Other cultures are tattooed for religious purposes, to show survival of war, and

to show social status such as slavery” (Ramion 4).

The stigmas around tattoos, when really thought about, do not make any sense. Since

tattoos and piercings are thought of as a horrible and despicable thing, there’s the question of

what the other side of this argument thinks about this issue. There are many that think tattoos and

piercings should be covered. [Dennis Dwyer, a tattoo artist in Tucson, Ariz., warns his customers

about the effects that tattoos may have on their careers. “Most of the people getting tattoos are in

an age group from 18 to 25, and they're not looking at all the complications that go along with
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it," he says. "They don't care. They flip from one job to another. But the consequences are there.

Not everyone is going to approve of tattooing, nor will it ever get to that status.] (Dotinga).

The issues with this though, is who says that people with body art flip from one job to

another? Who says that young people do not have any responsibility or know that body art can

come with consequences? Just because someone is young and gets a tattoo for the rest of their

life does not mean that they’ll regret it, and that they do not care about their work life and their

professionalism. People do not always get tattoos and piercings just to be rebellious. For some, it

has deep meanings. Things that connect them to their family, friends, and moments in their lives

that are significant. Yes, tattoos can show who you are as a person. However, it does not say how

the person works and acts in a professional workplace.

Using body art as the final verdict to who gets hired and who does not is discriminatory,

and just does not make sense. Again, if there was an individual who had years of experience in

certain trade, compared to someone with only a couple: Would it do any good to hire the person

who does not have the experience with no tattoos and piercings, or the person with many years,

with body art? It does not do any good because the employer would not be putting the best into

the company. Looks are a big part with any business. But when it comes down to it, you want the

person who is going to do the job right, and excel at it to help the business grow and thrive.

Most businesses are not looking at the big picture, all they see is the past and what

worked back in the day. Times change, people change, the world changes. It might be time to

change the rules now as well, even though there are still some very strict rules in place for body

art to be covered at work. We as the human race become more and more progressive. There

could and more than likely will be a time where the only things that matter while getting a job
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are the most important aspects of said person. What they like to do, how their work ethic is, and

how they are able to keep a professional attitude while at work.


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Works Cited

"Branded in the workplace; Shoulder tattoos and pierced tongues may have gained acceptance -

but not in the office, where firms say, 'Tone it down!'." Christian Science Monitor, 13

Sept. 2004, p. 13. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Accessed 21 Dec. 2017.

Ellis, Aimee Dars. "A Picture Is Worth One Thousand Words: Body Art in the Workplace."

Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, no. 2, 2015, p. 101. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1007/s10672-014-9254-1.

Elzweig, Brian; Peeples, Donna K. S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal; Corpus Christi Vol.

76, Iss. 1, (Winter 2011): 13-23,2.

Lobell, Jarrett A. and ERIC A. POWELL. "Ancient Tattoos." Archaeology, vol. 66, no. 6,

Nov/Dec2013, pp. 41-46. EBSCOhost.

Jones, Nick and Matthew Hobbs. "Tattoos and Piercings – Are They Compatible with the

Workplace?." Nursing & Residential Care, vol. 17, no. 2, Feb. 2015, pp. 103-104.

EBSCOhost.

Perzanowski, Aaron. "Tattoos & IP Norms." Minnesota Law Review, vol. 98, no. 2, Dec. 2013,

pp. 511-591. EBSCOhost.

Raimon, Savannah. Tattoos: “The Road to Acceptance in Western Society: An exploration of

gender, misconceptions, and workplace acceptance”. http://www.indstate.edu.

“Too Tattooed to Work?” CNN,

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/06/19/too.tattooed.to.work/. Accessed 14

November 2017.

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