Long time ago, tattoos might have been the symbol of hard life, prisoners, sailors, prostitutes and exotic countries, but in todays modern society, one fifth of British adults have one.
Luckily for us “heavily tattooed modern folk”, tattoos are now becoming increasingly harmless across a variety of workplaces and situations.
Starbucks, for example, which used to be the leading business in the mainstream uptightness around the world, has recently (finally) given in and approved tattoos for their staff. In this world of boosting individualism, especially in a city like London, many employers now value our differences and ways of expressing it. Many even see it being good for their business concept that their individuals stand out.
Obviously we are not talking about offensive tattoos here, as those can indeed have an impact on how professional a customer or a future client sees a person. We are talking about little cute things like dolphins around an ankle.
(Did you notice how I used the tattoo of Samantha Cameron, wife of our current PM, as an example here?)
Employers and the perfect world!
In a perfect world all candidates for any position wouldn’t be judged by their appearance, with or without tattoos, but by their professional skills and merits of their work.
However, we do know by now that not judging a book by its cover has never really worked for the business world before, and is unlikely to work any time soon.
As long as “old dinosaurs", the white middle-aged male who ru(i)n the majority of businesses in London, get their way, tattoos will be covered under jackets and skirts, turning the business world into grey mass of emotionless achievers.
“I would never even want a job where my tattoo would be a problem,” said Annika, a Senior Consultant who has a big skull with roses in her left arm.
“It is so important to like the atmosphere at the office and the culture of the company, so I think that in a place where tattoos in general would be a problem, I would not feel comfortable anyway.”
Even though she proudly carries her skull anyway, all the comments about her tattoo have been positive on her workplace.
“If someone is doubtful about the affect of a tattoo in a workplace, then maybe they need to have another thought about having one in the first place. They are forever so you need to be sure in all that comes with it,” she said.
Inappropriate or not?
When looking at the recent statistics, a strict no-tattoo-policy would remarkably cut down excellent candidates for any role so it seems like a no-brainer, but there are other kind of statistics too.
Forbes published a 2011 study by CareerBuilder which shows that 31% of surveyed employers ranked “having a visible tattoo” as the top personal attribute that would sidetrack them from promoting an employee, 76% of respondents felt tattoos and piercings hurt an applicant’s chances of being hired during a job interview and 42% felt visible tattoos were always inappropriate at work.
There has been no reliable statistics from the UK recently, but it has been argued that the amount of people with at least one tattoo was close to 20 million in 2013. What is certain though, is that people in all walks of life have them. We should not try to fit in the same template.
People should stop being afraid of the dinosaurs who fight for their dear lives in the business world. Their time is done and a confident, high achieving woman with a visible tattoo can drive them to extinct better than a meteor ever could.
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