Tattoos in a conservative work place

[KAllen]

Meanwhile, in the real world, do you think anybody on the following link would get hired over a lesser qualified person? 

http://www.holytaco.com/25-insane-face-tattoos/

 

I'm all for ink. I have 2, that can be covered easily, my choice of location. I also plan on getting more. However they will be able to be covered. I used to be a teacher so I needed them covered.  Now I'm a cop and I still want them to be covered to maintain a professional appearance.  My wife has 14 and depending on what she is wearing, you can see anywhere from 4 to 12 of them.  She's also a Bond agent, so it's not as important to cover w/ her job. 

 

I know a bunch of y'all are "F the man", but like I said, "Real World" you're probably going to have problems.  Is it right, not really. Is it reality...yup!!!

[cline]

Meanwhile, in the real world, do you think anybody on the following link would get hired over a lesser qualified person? 

http://www.holytaco.com/25-insane-face-tattoos/

 

I'm all for ink. I have 2, that can be covered easily, my choice of location. I also plan on getting more. However they will be able to be covered. I used to be a teacher so I needed them covered.  Now I'm a cop and I still want them to be covered to maintain a professional appearance.  My wife has 14 and depending on what she is wearing, you can see anywhere from 4 to 12 of them.  She's also a Bond agent, so it's not as important to cover w/ her job. 

 

I know a bunch of y'all are "F the man", but like I said, "Real World" you're probably going to have problems.  Is it right, not really. Is it reality...yup!!!

 

wow. 

 

I'm all for F the man and then one day I said to my employees "shit.  I just realized I'm the man...."  they thought it was hysterical.  A part of me died that day.

[I-Jo]

^^^ same boat

 

lol

 

although I haven't made that realization yet on a larger scale- I am presently part of the working cog system known as "the state" LMAO

[Errah138]

It's not about F the man it's about the golden rule. The majority of the demographic people keep referring to the middle America over 45 white rural family would probably much rather talk to a tattooed white guy then a black or Hispanic person. Does that mean they should be avoided as well when making employment decisions? Of course not that would be considered amoral. Now why is that? Because over the last hundred years or so people have come to realize that judging someone based on their outer characteristics is wrong. Hmm.

In the original post I believe the woman wanted to get a tattoo on her ankle. If someone fires you because you get a tattoo on your ankle and then wear a skirt then that is absolutely ridiculous. If someone with full sleeves and does not cover them and then won't hire someone ( pretty sure it's on page one not positive thought might be two)because they have tattoos that's hypocritical and stupid. If you get the word racist tattooed across your forehead and then complain about being looked down on and passed over for a job because of your tattoo your also a hypocrite. Most of the people in that link were serving life sentences (I recognize them from lockdown which I watch very regularly)

Edit- I was mistaken about the guy with the piercings

[Errah138]

I also believe that a few of them are from actual circus style freak shows so they should have no problem with their chosen career paths

[MissMormie]

People may have been intimidated by this mans appearance but as they became more comfortable around him they would have gotten over it. By putting a less qualified applicant into a position above someone they are intimidated by your company's machine will not be running at its optimal efficiency meaning you will in turn lose money. 

 

I do not agree with you here. People do not work in a vacuum, they work with other people, whether they are clients, colleagues or something else. You can be good at your part of the job, but in basically every job there is also a part that is interacting with other people. If you appearance makes that hard, then even though intrinsically you might be the best person for the job, in reality you are not.

 

Also, people do not just get more comfortable around someone, even assuming that you would always have the same few contact person and no new people come in. There's is such a thing as confirmation bias. You, me and everyone else make a snap judgement about people and from then on we are looking for proof of our judgements. Unless you spend quite a bit of time with a person you will not just change your mind. If you look at the confirmation bias from a interview point this means that someone with a lot of tattoos might be judged in a second to be more of a party person and hence the interviewer will ask more questions in that direction getting the overall impression that the person is likely to come in late and have a hangover on Monday. While, that same interviewer after not seeing the tattoos might think that you are a very introvert person and ask questions to see if you are shy or not. In an interview you get to determine the first impression you make, so think carefully about what you want that impression to be. It's not people being mean, it's psychology. 

[Why not?]

 I call shenanigans on that because I'm pretty sure that the fact that I have tattoos doesn't have anything to do with my intelligence, work ethic, or ability to perform my job. Just sayin'. 

There's this saying you may have heard, "perception is reality". It often matters more how you are perceived than how you actually are.  Particularly in sales-type professions, to give one example.

[Estrix]

I've done some legal work  in the UK, and a friend of mine was ejected from the court for having a visible tattoo, which is crazy but not surprising. So my tats (4 of them) are all in places that I can cover as long as my shirt sleeves reach to about my elbows. But then I can show then off at the beach...although in the UK that doesn't happen much lol.

 

I've also had friends report issues with tats in fields where you think no one would care that much, builders, plumbers, even scuba divers who've all been given a hard time over tattoos that they've had on display. Though given the images some of them have it's not so surprising I guess.

 

I had an old sales boss that used to say it didn't matter what my opinion was, or even his, it was about the 80 year old head of the company thought about tattoos. And what our our custoemrs might think. That was the basis for no tattoos no piercings. We have to be that which people expect us to be if we are going to sell to them. To appeal to the braodest possible range and create the trust and relationship needed quickly to make and close a sale you can't risk something that might alienate a potential buyer so why risk visible tattoos and piercings. Well, that was "the talk" we got anyway.

[Timmy M]

if asked say your tattoos are temporary, then a few months down the line if you're asked again let them know that everything is temporary...

[Draezin]

I have 3 tattoos. Two of which are easily covered at work, a maple leaf over my heart, a underwater scuba scene on the back of my right calf. 

 

My third tattoo is a forearm piece on the inside of my right forearm. It isn't small. It isn't easily covered (I DETEST long sleeve shirts). It is colourful. It has black, red, yellow, orange, white and blue. Though on closer inspection now, the orange is starting to fade...

 

I work for my territorial government here in the Yukon as law enforcement. I am very lucky that the Yukon government is very liberal when it comes to personal expressions, be it hair colour, tattoos, piercings, that sort of thing. Somethings are too much, even for us, but most is accepted without a second glance. 

[KAllen]

Wow...my department won't let you have beard/goatee. Some will in the areas but 90% don't. So I shaved off all my facial hair, because I think I look like a total dufus w/ a 'stache.

Now if you want to know what is sad. New Orleans PD (NOPD) just passed a "no show" reg on tats. So that means you either get one of those spandex covers or wear long sleeves. NOLA, summer when it's often 95 - 105 w/ 97% humidity and having to wear long sleeves. SUCK!!!

[insanity]

Wow...my department won't let you have beard/goatee. Some will in the areas but 90% don't. So I shaved off all my facial hair, because I think I look like a total dufus w/ a 'stache.

Now if you want to know what is sad. New Orleans PD (NOPD) just passed a "no show" reg on tats. So that means you either get one of those spandex covers or wear long sleeves. NOLA, summer when it's often 95 - 105 w/ 97% humidity and having to wear long sleeves. SUCK!!!

Walmart had an underarmor-like shirt that I use to wear when I was on the construction gang for my work. It was skin tight, but would wick sweat away and help keep the heat off your skin. I wore this in pretty much the same conditions you mentioned (south Florida in the summer) and it was nice, was better than going sleeveless and mine were black as that was the only color walmart had at the time.