Tattoos in the Professional Setting

Not only are tattoos controversial in a general sense, but they are also controversial in the workplace/professional setting. One common belief is that if you are going to tattoo your body at least make it so that you can still work a 9 to 5 job, meaning that they can be easily hidden. It is illegal for an employer to not hire someone because of visible tattoos. With that said, however, it is still done in the professional world based on some biases or opinions towards the topic.

For this section of tattoos in the professional setting, I interviewed Chris Youngie, principal at Colvin Run Elementary School located in Wolf Trappe, Virginia. Principal Youngie has experience with interviewing teachers who have tattoos. When asked about how he would go about bringing such a controversial topic up in an interview or meeting he said that it was protocol and that although it is an elementary school, they hire teachers based on their professionalism and skill level as opposed to their appearance. This goes to show how open the professional world is becoming to things such as tattoos. However, Principal Youngie did state that if an interviewee had vulgar or inappropriate visible tattoos then that would be cause to not hire.

Here is an elementary school art teacher from Tennessee showing her tattoos at work:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2AqZZzbKFh_z1keuts246F9SaeBCjD3LzF_lEHPnFLWM-nY9CmmV6S7Bt1zUskJPa6ZN7a2rxYdGjmQ_zn_-lnoMWnmd00_5CgNDcmssmOuJT4m0D71y6n3gMfP4wEMu1ORE20-0ioWfg/s1600/art+teacher+clothes.jpg

Similar to the school environment, many other professional jobs view people with visible tattoos in a negative way. Unfortunately this is just the society that we live in. How can freedom of expression be frowned upon? Just because someone has tattoos on their body for whatever reason it does not make them any less capable of doing their job or responsibilities. This is another reason why I chose to focus on this topic because many people feel that their tattoos may thwart their chance at getting the job they want because they chose to express themselves in a certain way. This is the 21^st century and outlooks have changed. Tattoos no longer stand for something horrible or taboo but instead represent individuality and freedom of our rights.

Here is a picture of a young, business professional woman with tattoos:

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/forbeswomanfiles/files/2011/10/0723_tattoos-faux-pas_380x278.jpg

This link is to an article in the Economist about what it's like to have tattoos in the business world and statistics of business professionals with tattoos:

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21610334-body-art-growing-more-popular-though-few-employers-are-keen-ink-blots

Here is a video from WPTV on the growing tattoo trend in the professional world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix52KLjrCq8