Piercings and tattoos at work

Originally posted by navy_vet_stg3
Tattoos, pierced people, smokers, fat people, etc. They're all discriminated against. Bottom line, if you fit ANY of these groups, be careful how you point a finger at someone else in one of the other groups. Eventually, you will be the target. Eventually, they'll make you pay higher insurance for tattoos and piercings, just like they do tobacco users.

No tats, piercing, average weight, but when an employers asks *do you smoke*

NOPE!!

Not me..

Personally I do not think it is there business..

Yep, I got a tongue piercing, two ear tunnels with a size of 13mm and about 50-60 tattoos
Those tattoo's are reworked into two sleeves. And got the names of my mum ( who died some time ago, and daughter), tattood in my neck and some here and there on my legs and back.
Work isn't really a problem to be honest, the work I do as a Hard-Rock / Heavy Metal photographer is the least of the problems Having none would make you stand out of that crowd

But in my work as an IT consultant it would be if I would be working for a boss. but only during job interviews, but when I'm wearing a shirt with long sleeves and a tie, there is nothing to see. The probably will see it aftwards, probably in summer, but I'm not working for any boss, so nobody will say anything about my tatts, except I would myself maybe, like: It's about time to get a new one !

But serious, I decided a long time ago, and it may be naïve, I don't know, to be honest, I don't care to be even more honest, to get tattoos. They can hire me and accept me for the person I am inside, for my qualities and not for the color of my vehicle. If they don't, they don't I don't care. I wanted this, I got my first tattoo about 28 years ago, and I knew it wouldn't be the only one I would ever get in my life. It was something I felt very strongley about it so I just did it, it's my life...it's my body, so I decide. I know who and what I am, and that's for me more important then who's opinion about me and the color of my shell.

I knew before there would or could be people making a problem out of it, of course, but I planned it that way that I could do a job that didn't care about me being covered up in tattoos. So I did everything I could to plan it right, and most of the time it worked out.

Let me put it in another way. When you have a job or you are applying for a job, did you ever judge the uglyness of your interviewer or your boss? How easy would it be to say, I do not want to work for you, cause your real ugly or whatever? And then ugly is meant as a figure of speech, because everybody's taste could be different, beauty and uglyness are in the eye of the beholder.

I just want to say, they ( we all) should accept everybody for what or who he/she/it is. I know people, (and so do 99.9% of all the ATS folks), that are in high positions and are idiots and very ugly, as a human being, inside and outside that is. So what's worse? Us being covered in tattoos or them being idiots and ugly?

My advice would be in general, just do it as long as you got the possebillity to. Who knows what lies ahead ! Do what your heart tells you to do, your brain doesn't matter, it is getting manipulated any given moment of the day.

But I'm just a weird old dude, what do I know about it?

Ukuthula and Cheerz!

Originally posted by ICEKOHLD
reply to post by Evolutionsend

 

yeah. i have a lot of "weird" tattoos AS YOU CAN SEE HERE and catch all kinds of flack about some of them. those aren't even all of them.

know what tattoos i catch the most
bad" looks about? Jesus. the aliens and huge gorilla on my back...i get questions. the Jesus...i either get love or i get a cold shoulder.

Tatoos and piercings are a way to force other people to see your beliefs or what you want shown to the world. If you have them on your face, I won't hire you to meet and greet my clients because I don't want you representing to my clients that your position is my position.

reply to post by banishedfromthisarea


By the same token you better not hire anyone wearing a cross, the scales of justice, sports related apparel/tattoos, any service related apparel or tattoos, or anything like that, or you're a hypocrite. In fact, don't hire anyone at all! Too many things fall under expression and we can't have anyone doing that.

Im not sure if this is okay for me to say on here, as many sites have different rules to avoid lawwsuits and such. But id like to make a case out of many convinience stores\gas stations here in the U.S, namingly Casey's. I know many people who used to work there. They had worked at Casey's gas stations for as long as i had known them. Their tattoos were never a problem. Then all of a sudden they all had to start putting bandaids over their ears and wearing long sleeves, even on humid days. My question, why did this start being enforced so much more heavily? And wouldny you rather see a cashier with a tattoo on the arm and in their ear, that l sweaty with bandaids on their face? Just seems like everythings becoming so strict were going o be in a real dictatorship soon.

Originally posted by Evolutionsend
reply to post by banishedfromthisarea

 

By the same token you better not hire anyone wearing a cross, the scales of justice, sports related apparel/tattoos, any service related apparel or tattoos, or anything like that, or you're a hypocrite. In fact, don't hire anyone at all! Too many things fall under expression and we can't have anyone doing that.

Actually, I hired a woman who shortly thereafter started "preaching" Jesus. So I fired her.

reply to post by Evolutionsend


It does get pretty silly sometimes. I have always colored my hair and got hired in my last job with dark blue hair... a month or two later I was told I could Not redye the roots that had grown out. Another job didn't notice my tounge ring until a year later....and then asked me not to wear it on the job-I did anyway...you can't see it unless I open my mouth really wide.
I feel like we are being socially acceptable to the wrong things....For example: I wouldn't stare at someone who has a a facial person, but I would at the Guy at wal-mart who's so fat he has to ride around in a scooter...what's even healther? Why do we see piercings as heathenism and are forced to see something as weight as OK instead of irresponsible!

reply to post by banishedfromthisarea


Good on you for sticking by what you believe in! If I met any persons that have no opinions, views, or desire for self expression in any way, I'll let them know you're hiring.

Right i have been reading ALOT of this thread and so far made the effort to say nothing, i need to say stuff now i think the OP is wrong.....

Now before you get the wrong idea of me... i have tatoo's not lots, back top and bottom, tops of arm (both), left thigh (whole thigh) right calf and shin, im booked in for a few more... i love tattoo's more importantly i have four very good friend who are tattoo artists, i hang about the shop on days off or if i want an idea for somthing new.. point being im very much into tattoo's.

however i am also a business man, i work in IT, i have my own company and i work on Contract to a large American based multi national company, in here a few of the IT guys have tattoo's and any time i've been at the shop i get to show them off and they like a chat about them... this does nto take away from the fact in meetings tattoo's do not come across as proffesional,

I am only young (turning 27) i have a beard and long hair, however when i go to a meeting i expect the attendee to b smartly presented and i always make the effort to look the same, i dont expect them to be in there personal clothes, and i dont expect them to have there personal opinions on show (tattoos or excesive piercings)

I dont think business will ever overly change in that respect its just the person who looks like they are making more of an effort to be well presented gets the jobs.


i cannot stress my best friend is a tattoo artist and i spend alot of time with tattoo artists, they are covered in them ,there industry permits and encourages that they are.. mines does not.

reply to post by GonzoSinister


A lot of employers do not even allow men to grow a beard, or have hair that hangs below the top of the ear. I'm glad for you, I really am. It doesn't change the fact that a large section of the country isn't allowed the privileges you enjoy.

Originally posted by Evolutionsend
reply to post by ThePeopleParty

 

So it's a case of the private sector putting it's influence on it's workers? Why do we as a society allow it? Why, in a world of self expression and tolerance, are we still allowing this to go on?

Whoa invite me to your planet. Tolerance and self-expresion, WOW!

I'm a scratcher and a collector and I should be protected by the government someday from discrimination, but who cares?

I got tattoos knowing I would be my own boss and if I wasn't I would be motivated to become so again very soon. Can't run a business and make money? I wasn't going to hire you then, but maybe I can tell you it' the tattoos and let you down easy!

the number of jobs i've been fired from
or just given huge hassles at
because of the way i dress outside work, or my hair, or my piercings....
one time i was fired from a job i'd had for months when the auditors came through...
because my hair was "incorrectly" coloured.
that's what he put in the report. incorrectly. he would not tell me what colours were correct.
oh noes, i had a green streak in my fringe
clearly i am the personification of all evils that beset man.

i'm finding it almost impossible to find a job now, partially for the ink/hair/piercing thing
partially for a much more insidious form of discrimination that i can do as little about.

at what point does the colour of my hair or the ink on my arms
affect any of my abilities?
should that not define "proffessionalism", as opposed to the ability to emulate an ideal of dress from the past?
i mean i undewrstand business owners can hire and fire whoever they want based on whatever they feel.
i just wonder where this view that i am less of a person comes from.

also; to all you saying tattoos are fads and we'll all be sobbing regret later, get over yourselves please.
every single one of my tattoos is an incredibly personal mark of the journeys i have taken, each one weighed and considered for months and chosen for the meanings and the connections my personal experiences have endowed them with. i look down at my arms and i have a palpable reaussuring sense of my history and my self.
and the same is true for every one of my tattooed friends.
please. just because they're not to your taste
or because you never took it seriously

which man can judge any other?

Having worked as both a manager and an employee, I think I can answer the ops question about piercing and tattoo’s.

A lot is based off of the business that you work in and the people who they are servicing, the clients. Many of the upper businesses are trying to set an image to attract customers. In that endeavor, they have to look at what is and is not acceptable to the customers, as it affects the bottom line. In some places of work, such is very much acceptable, as they are concerned with output and production. Businesses such as piercing and tattoo shops, book stores, and other shops, where the customers have such, you are more likely to be allowed to have such, as that is the kind of people that the business will attract, and to them it is the norm that they are accustomed to seeing.

But in a majority of the businesses, such is not the case, many of whom to not view such as acceptable. I know, as I do have a piercing that is above the belt as it were, and it is expressly stated in the employee hand book about what is and is not acceptable to view and see in the employees. As the customer base is a large slice of the entire general population, so while some of the younger customers would not object, the older ones would, and thus we have to be presentable to everyone at all times.

Image in businesses is important, no matter what it is, the more famous business that has undergone different law suits, and successfully defended against such, is Hooters for example. Their image is of the female employee in a tight shirt and shorts servicing the customers, as they are trying to attract men to come in, eat and drink. The male employees are not allowed to be servers, rather they are the staff in the kitchen and clean up.

reply to post by sbctinfantry


It's called "everywhere that isn't Texas", try it sometime.

Originally posted by Evolutionsend
reply to post by sbctinfantry

 

It's called "everywhere that isn't Texas", try it sometime.

People like you are the epitome of nausea on this wasted planet. I grew up in Mass, lived in five other states for over a year each, served in the military at home and abroad for four years as a knowledgable leader and infantryman and all-in-all saw more of this nation than most my age.

What I don't et is why someone like you is going to judge me?!

What a loser. I'm sitting in a VA hospital recovering from shoulder surgery and I stayed awake in pain on max dose of ambien, morophine, hydrocodone and a nerve block so I could educate you.

No wonder you don't get respect and or the job. Sheesh.

I chose Texas for now becase I was born here, my kids were born here, and I am a disabled veteran, a tattoo artist, a print and sign business co owner, a t-shirt and hat startup owner, and a salesman of hard to medicines, a father of three and divorced, and ; do odd jobs like remodeling, sheds and rooms, plumbing, cooking for my kids and large groups as well as a small food business when I need cash. I am learning to bake and I made my first key lime pie. I make my kids birthday pastried from scratch no storebought.

Of course that's just what I'm doing right now.

reply to post by sbctinfantry


Who judged you? I'm saying that you live in Texas and see largely conservative folks.

Honestly, go to sleep. I can't stand your attitude displayed in this and other threads. The only thing you're teaching me, is to stop taking your insults said in anger personally, and to not take your viewpoint seriously until you're a little less angry at life.

Not get the job? I have the job honey, you didn't even read the posts on the first page of the thread, but you came to educate me? Sounds like you're in a great deal of pain and looking to take it out on someone.

reply to post by banishedfromthisarea


Yeah, that's happened to me a few times. So most people on here know I'm gay, married with children. I hired this guy a few years back, had a perfect interview, highly qualified and highly recommended.

2nd day on the job I'm walking by the lunchroom and he's telling a story to my employees abou how he and his friends had gone out the night before and harrassed some gays at the gay bar and almost followed one home to "teach him a lesson."

He was promptly removed from the building by security.

Some people's kids eh?

~Keeper

Hi there,
I don't have any tats or piercings so can't comment personally on what it's like. I have however worked in the private sector for 20+ years so in that respect I can comment.

If you are public facing, ie you come into contact with customers as part of your job, it is usually expected that you are "presentable". I put that term in quotes because it's really a case of perception as to what one deems is presentable. For me it doesn't actually have anything to do with tats or piercings, more about clothing, body odour (lack off) and persona.

However, the greater majority of institutions, much like society mind, think presentable is a very specific thing. It's almost out of a catalogue. That is why tats and piercings are shunned.

Piercings to a certain degree can be removed during working hours, so .. that makes them an easier target. In the grand scheme of things though, almost all employees have a dress code they must adhere to, whether it's right or wrong becomes somewhat irrelevant when YOU sign on the doted line.

Lots of things in our society are screwed, this really is one of the least important ones in my mind.

T

I tried to work in a bar this summer to earn some money to go places but i was rejected because of my 30mm fleash tunnels i have in my ears .... The explanation was that they just could be too shocking or repulsive to customers so i could affect sales just by having them ...

I reduced their size to 20 since then ... but they stil consider them repulsive and shocking ... The sad thing is i am only 18 and i just hate the thought of them affecting my future ...

Originally posted by Evolutionsend
reply to post by ICEKOHLD

 

I'm not talking about anything as over the top as yours, I'm just talking about the average young person with a few facial piercings and some small tattoos. I respect your choice to express yourself, but I'm not talking about large and obvious things, I'm talking about smaller and fashionable things that we as a society are being denied by our employers.

Because those other people will file discrimination lawsuits frivilously and win. Like this guy:

poundedink.com...

Great eployee, fantastic, his employers got the best reviews about his special tattoos. This guy deserves some affirmative action because I think he deserves YOUR job, 'HONEY'. I mean he was a hard worker.

Accuse me of ignorance if you want to, but if I missed a nugget of knowledge it was because I was sifting throush something less appealing. I'm interested now, so do share?