Tattoos in the workplace... Do or Don't?

Over Christmas dinner my family started talking about tattoos. I currently have eight, the most of all my family members and my mother laminated about me not getting any more. True confession, I really want a small heart on my shoulder, but that is neither here nor there. The entire conversation started me thinking about tattoos in general. What’s the history, why are they addicting, what is the current cultural acceptance in society and in the workplace. So in typical Alicia nerdiness I started researching the answers to my questions. I quickly discovered I can write an entire dissertation on this and if I ever decided to finish a PhD, tattoos in the workplace may be a topic I consider.

REALLY really brief history:

Tattoos date back thousands and thousands of years. The oldest evidence of human tattoos is believed to be from between 3370 BC and 3100. The Smithsonian magazine has an article if you want to read up on this https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/tattoos-144038580/.

Let’s get to the primary focus of my blog, tattoos in the workplace.

Tattoos used to be considered part of a counterculture. Tattoos were once thought of as for only bikers, prisoners and gang members but today they have wider acceptance. Even with wider acceptance according to Salary.com 42% of employers think visible tattoos are inappropriate at work.

There are many employers that have a policy against visible tattoos and for the most part this is not illegal. Employers can set their own dress code as long as they don’t discriminate based on protected class. Title VII of the Civil rights act of 1964 is a federal law that prohibits employers from discriminating against their employees based on sex, race, color, national origin.

This can get tricky when it comes to religious tattoos because if a tattoo is part of a sincerely held religious belief or practice and that practice prohibits the employee from covering the tattoo the employer may need to allow an exception to the no visible tattoo policy. That is because employers are obligated to reasonably accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs and practices unless doing so causes an undue hardship to the employer.

The truth is visible tattoos can impact your employment, when you interview that person may make a judgement based on you tattoo location, design or the mere fact that you have a tattoo. Tattoos on your face, neck and hands tend to be judged more harshly than ankle tattoos or tattoos on your arm. I am not saying this to discourage you in any way. I love tattoos, I think they are beautifully illustrated stories and walking works of art. When I interviewed for a job at Blue Cross 14 years ago I covered my wrist tattoo with a bandaid. I no longer feel the need to intentionally cover my art although it can be covered by my clothes depending on what I am wearing, and that was intentional when deciding on size and placement of all my ink.

My best HR advice:

I think the stigma of tattoos is slowly disappearing, I know I don’t make judgments on visible tattoos, but I have advised students to research companies and err on the side of caution when they are interviewing for positions. Many private companies with customer facing roles will have a no visible tattoos policy. You may decide if the company cannot accept you and your tattoos you don’t want to work for them, and that is perfectly ok, an interview is a two-way street, but if you want the position at the company than the interview is not the place to break the rules. I have also advised a student that he should get his finger tattoos removed by laser because the expletive written across his hands when he had rock star dreams would be a job stopper at, well anywhere but a tattoo parlor. Which brings me to my next point, think about your ink.

When my son was 16 he wanted his first tattoo, he even showed me a design. I vetoed it swiftly, I knew his 30-year-old self would regret his 16 year-old whims. That and you can’t get a tattoo with parental consent until you are 18 in this state. For two years he thought about his first tattoo and for his 18th birthday he chose a tasteful cross. That was his birthday gift.

As more and more people with tattoos get into positions of power the policies on tattoos may change, I personally know a tattoo doesn’t impact the person’s ability to do a job and one day this will be the norm.

Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash