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Professional dress code and Tattoos
Business Tips by Burleson Consulting |
With today's young people
going into "Body Art", the question arises about how these people can advance
within American professional careers. Many corporations have a strict
policy against visible Tattoos, especially companies that must make a good
impression of the general public.
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Here is a
photo of my good friend, Dan Shaw. Dan is blind and the victim of
bad peer pressure. Dan has no idea how ugly his tattoos
are, especially when they extend to the back of his hand where they
cannot be hidden, even by a long-sleeve shirt.
Dan wonders why no
companies will hire him . . .
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Tattoos have a
curious history
- 1850 - 1900 -
Tattoos used to be the bastion of carnival freak shows, with people flocking
to the circus to see the amazing tattooed Lady.
- 1900 - 1950 -
Tattoos in the early 20th century indicated a Sailor or Marine and they did not have any
social stigma,
except that tattoos were generally indicative of enlisted men. Few Navy
or Marine officer dared to draw on their body.
- 1950 - 1960 - In
the early 1950's tattoos became popular with the criminal element, mostly
bikers, social outcasts and the mentally ill, and Tattoos took-on a more
ominous reputation.
- 1960 - 1990 - This
was the age of "prison tats" where having a tattoo indicated to some people
that you were a tough, ignorant, convicted felon.
- 1990-2007 - Today
we see hoards of low-class young people drawing on themselves with free
abandon, (almost 30% of people in the 1980's). These people do not
understanding that a tattoo may effectively prohibit them from pursuing a
professional career, regardless of their other qualifications.

Today, a prejudice still exists
within corporate America about tattoos, especially since there is a clear and
direct correlation between income, education and the percentage of those
populations who have tattoos. It's no surprise that tattoos are more
popular among the poor and under educated.
Don't kid yourself about the
importance of hiding or removing tattoos. If you look at middle management
and above in any of the Fortune 50 companies, you will hard-pressed to find any
managers that have tattoos, hidden or otherwise.
Corporate Dress Codes
and tattoos
A study by Careerbuilders shows the perils of tattoos for aspiring
professionals, and conforms the conventional wisdom that Tattoos are a sign of
immaturity, bad judgment and bad taste:
- Over 42 percent of managers said their opinion of someone would be
lowered by that person's visible body art. Personally, I think that
the actual figure is much higher.
- Three out of four respondents believe that visible tattoos are
unprofessional.
You don't have look hard to find hundreds of corporations which have banned
employees with tattoos.
San Bernardino County
California, bars all employees from wearing denim, having visible tattoos, and
any piercing in the nose, lip, or tongue that contains jewelry.
In sum, tattoos send a message to corporate America that you are ignorant, low-income, that you have
have bad taste, and worst of all, that you may have a criminal record.
Hiding tattoos is important in corporate America
Many tattooed people think that they are protected by their First Amendment
rights to freedom of expression. Unfortunately, this is not true in the
workplace.
Corporations have every right to discriminate against "optional"
appearance-related traits, and many large corporations ban long hair, beards and
visible tattoos.
As a corporate manager myself, I've seen that hiding a tattoo is not enough.
I've seen cases where an employee reveals a tattoo at a company softball game to
the horror and disgust of their manager, who, in turn, find other reason to
terminate the employee. If you live in an employment "at will" state,
remember that you can be fired for no reason at all.
First Amendment Freedom of Expression and Tattoo laws
This article titled "Body
art in the workplace" confirms that companies have a constitutional right to
ban employees with tattoos:
Companies can limit employees' personal
expression on the job as long as they do not impinge on their civil
liberties. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),
employers are allowed to impose dress codes and appearance policies as long
as they do not discriminate or hinder a person's race, color, religion, age,
national origin, or gender.
There is a strong legal basis for discriminating against the tattooed,
especially if the employers fears that having tattooed employees might hurt
their professional image:
In the landmark court case
Pik-Wik
Stores, Inc. v. CHRO, the Connecticut Supreme Court established the
standard for reviewing dress codes under the Connecticut Fair Employment
Practices Act.
In Pik-Wik, an employee complained about a grooming standard that
required men to wear their hair "off the collar and above the ears." The
employee argued that the policy discriminated against him on the basis of
gender because women were not subject to the same standard. The court
rejected the argument concluding that the grooming standard was
non-discriminatory because it did not deny equal employment opportunities on
the basis of an immutable characteristic, e.g., sex, race, national origin,
disability or religion.
This Kentucky
case verified that employers can fire employees who have exposed tattoos:
A dress code that required tucked-in shirts and covered tattoos for
Kentucky State Parks employees did not violate the civil rights of three
fired maintenance workers, a federal appeals court ruled.
However, regardless of the legalities and rights of people to look like a
convict, many states have "at will" laws. These statutes allow you to quit
at any time, for any reason, and fives allows corporations to fire employees at
any time, for any reason, or no reason at all.
Are attitudes towards tattoos changing?
This WSJ article titled "Tattoos
and Piercings
Come Out at the Office", notes that attitudes in corporate America may be
changing to become more tolerant of tattoos in the lower ranks, and the
prejudice towards tattoo owners is also fading, but "discrete" tattoos still
remain the most popular:
"Mr. Hempel, the Inverness lawyer, says he
"doesn't flaunt his tattoos around the office." According to a 2001 survey
on tattoos in the workplace from the Internet site Vault.com, which deals
with work issues, the most popular placements of tattoos are areas that can
be hidden: the backs, arms and legs."
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COMPANY |
TATTOO POLICY
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COMMENT
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Boeing
Chicago |
"Non-offensive" tattoos permitted
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"I've seen people at all levels with
tattoos and piercings," says spokeswoman Barbara Murphy. |
White & Case
New York City |
None |
"There are undoubtedly people who have
tattoos (but) it's certainly not conspicuous," says spokesperson Roger
Cohen. |
Wal-Mart Stores
Bentonville, Ark. |
"Non-offensive" tattoos OK to show
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"If they're not offensive, I don't see it
as an issue," says spokesman Thomas Williams. |
Tenet Healthcare
Santa Barbara, Calif. |
None |
"The key point in our policy is that the
appearance must be appropriate to the position," says spokes-person
Steven Campanini. "What we do is rely on local hospitals to enforce what
is appropriate." |
Ford
Motor
Dearborn, Mich. |
"Non-offensive" tattoos permitted
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"It's left up to people to use their own
discretion," said spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari. |
Subway Restaurants
Milford, Conn. |
Discrete tattoos permitted |
Company literature specifies:
"Non-dangling earrings in the ears only. Any other visible parts of body
may not be adorned with jewelry." |
This article it also talks about a senior
executive at Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. who has tattoos and is rather
proud of the fact.
For
more insights, please see my related notes on
Professional Dress Code,
Professional dress and Tattoos,
Professional Perks,
etiquette requirements,
Cross-Cultural
Guidelines, forum
guidelines and
obfuscation requirements,
Inappropriate corporate sponsorship of charities,
professional golf etiquette
and
Professional Corporate Tipping tips
Tattoo Comments:
Hello my name is jack, and I run a watch dog
company to check in on people who use general stereo-types to push their moral
majority agendas on the general public. With your very generic article you have
offended a number of my clients, some of which are rather high ranking police
officers in my city.
The officer that directed me to your site
actually has quite a few more tattoos than me. If you would like to have such
narrow minded, completely ignorant, opinions towards people who are different
than yourself maybe you should get on your high horse and head out because we
are going to be the majority soon and you will be fading away like an old
sunburn.
And that's going to feel great because sunburns
are only irritating for a short while, and then they're gone.
Jack Thrasher