Could - no. The answer is they do adversely affect normal employment opportunities. Horror movies not considered normal employment in the business world :)
Posted on 04/03/2006 8:42:51 PM PDT by presidio9
Tattoos and piercings are ways for an individual to express their personality, but most employers are looking for presentable employees.
"I think that appearance is very important, [because] it lets the employer know that you know how to take care of yourself," said Eric Constantine, the manager of Athlete's House in Nashville.
It can be a very difficult choice whether or not to have your ears pierced or to get a tattoo, as Lisa Stevens, a freshman, found out.
"I really wanted the lifeguard job at the local pool back home," she said. "The only thing was that I also wanted a couple of tattoos that I could get, now that I was 18. I had to make the choice between the two because the pool wouldn't allow any visible tattoos. I second guess my decision a lot."
More and more people are getting tattoos than ever, and more and more of them are having to find ways to cover them up at work.
Tyler White, a Jackson, Tenn., freshman, was trying to find a summer job when a friend of his told him about an opening at a local car shop.
"I went in for the interview and everything seemed to go well, then the manager asked me about my tattoos," he said.
"I had to wear a long-sleeved jumpsuit all summer," White said.
It is important to realize that getting a tattoo is permanent and can hinder one from doing some of the things they might want to, like getting a job.
There are places that are appropriate to receive tattoos that are almost never visible.
Most employers say it would also be a good idea to stay away from too many piercings if one doesn't want to have to remove them every day before work.
Constantine said, "The employer pays a lot of attention to your appearance.
"It is important to look your best for [an] interview, even if that includes passing up getting a tattoo or an extra piercing," he said.
Overall, most people think it's okay to get that extra hole in one's ear or that barbed wire around a person's arm.
However, students are urged to know that career options might become limited because of many visible tattoos or piercings.
Anyway, she has a shamrock with flowers across her lower back, and she just got started on a double tattoo on both sides, about 3 or 4 hibiscus flowers. Mind you, she's 5'3" and weighs about 108, just a little thing, and I really think she's not taking her size into account when she designs these images.
For the record, I allowed her to get the first tattoo last summer (she was only 17) because it was Irish, but it quickly evolved from a little shamrock into an ornate one, which was a surprise. Now I think she's going overboard, but there's nothing I can really do at this point.
Where I am, people with tattoos pretty much live up to their preconceived reputations.
The exception to that, for me is girls with a tongue peircing...
I've never understood the whole "piercing thing" in the first place. I know that I spend the majority of my days trying NOT to get stuck with sharp objects.
Mark
I run into these people EVERY DAY here in Freaktown LA. Of course, it is either that or they people dont speak any English.
Typically the people most driven to "make a statement" have nothing to say. If people go out of their way to make themselves look bizarre and ugly they should be prepared for rejection.
I understand your point, but there's something you need to understand. I train people to be firefighters. I tell them flatly that tattoos will damage their chances of getting a job. I strongly caution them that IF they have to get a tattoo that they should get it in a location that can be covered with a short sleeve shirt and a long pair of pants.
In my profession, and in many, we don't offend anyone. We don't offend La Raza, we don't offend the Nation of Islam, we don't offend the Ku Kux Klan, we don't offend the little old blue haired ladies, the homosexuals, the feminists or the rednecks. When we arrive on scene, people shouldn't be able to look at us and tell what kind of music we listen to, who we vote for, or what we think about the important issues of the day. We're the people who are there to try and make the worst day of their life better.
There are a lot of professions like that. They're simply not the proper avenue for self-expression. You're committing yourself to a different calling.
There's a whole subculture of tattoos. The tear below the eye supposedly means you've killed someone. Many of my Hispanic students have memorials to relatives tattooed on themselves. It's usually a name or initials in old English, or a well done portrait. The tattoos on the skin between the thumb and index finger usually mean a gang affiliation. Brands on the upper shoulder are a sports team or fraternity initiation. Some people get a tattoo to honor each of their children. Chinese script is generally something like "Lone Wolf", although I know many of the Chinese tattoo artists like to play jokes. I heard of one guy who got a Chinese script tattoo and later found out that it meant "At the end of the day, this is a very ugly boy." I know them. I understand them. They still hurt your ability to get a job.
Piercings aren't a problem because you can take them out at any time, and unless you've done something really bizarre, the hole isn't noticeable.
Could - no. The answer is they do adversely affect normal employment opportunities. Horror movies not considered normal employment in the business world :)
gg, there would be no music "industry" if artists couldn't be managed. And I'm married to an artist who manages artists, so not only do I know it can be done, I know some of the principles one uses to do it.
Frankly, artists are often closer to "idiot savants" than ANYONE would care to admit.
And that's pretty much what it's all about isn't it? Personal life experiences. Biases formed by those experiences. As for me, the people I personally know who have tatoos, are God's gift to me. Most are elderly, and some are young. All of them are good, decent people...and God love 'em, they are even Republicans. LOL ;)
I have been reading this thread and thinking along those same lines.
Right now these young people have nice firm skin but one day, and it will come, gravity takes over and along with wrinkles and probably a few rolls of extra skin, those tattoos are going to be really pretty... NOT
Two elderly women were having lunch one day and couldn't help but overhear the two young things at the next table rave about the one girls tattoo she had just had put on her left boob. A beautiful rose bud. One women said to the other. In forty years she will have a long stem rose in a hanging basket.
Exactly. If you see someone walking around with a "White Power" tatoo, you can be pretty sure that that person is not worth talking to. If someone looks like they just barely survived an explosion at a pin factory, one can assume that the person is into pain and likes to make an exhibit of himself. Our hedonistic culture has gone off the deep end -- now people are seeking pain because they can't feel anything else.
And yeah, I have some of the same types of people in my life too, but lets face it, drawing a parallel between my grandfather the WW2 vet and the girl next door is tenuous at best. You wouldn't parallel a young man wearing lipstick and mascara to your blue haired grandmother, would you?
I am just relieved to see they did not spend a ton of tax money figuring this out...
Your post to me is the most informative and educational one I've received on this thread. Thank you for your perspective and I do understand your point as well. My experience with people who have tattoos is far different than the subculture you mentioned.
BTW, thank you for training firefighters! If you have some real good ones, please send them to Alaska this summer. They're predicting another hot, dry summer for the Interior and that scares me more than anyone with a tattoo. LOL
The car salesman? ;)
"Typically the people most driven to "make a statement" have nothing to say. If people go out of their way to make themselves look bizarre and ugly they should be prepared for rejection."
Thank you.
Tattoos have their place, in cultures and societies, and while I don't have one, nor plan to get one (I'm an artist, there's nothing I could live with the rest of my life), I'm not against them, per se. I've seen some great ones, that had meaning, and fit the person, and were placed with thought and consideration. Sadly, that's about .1% of the ones I've seen.
What I am against is the fad they have become. Most tattoos are done on a whim, mean nothing, are retread designs from books tattoo shops buy and copy from, and are done quickly and with little skill. The little boys and girls running in and out of these shops can't afford the GOOD guys, like Robert Benedetto. I'm an artist, I get asked all the time to design them, but unless there's a lot of thought and meaning behind them, I won't be part of it.
I also think tattoos on a woman mar what God made beautiful in the first place. I've never seen a tattoo on a woman that enhanced her, they only make women look cheap. Maybe it's social conditioning, or my artist-snob mentality, or the glut of BAD tattoos on beautiful bodies.
The woman in post 81 has a beautiful face, and she's destroyed it. It's depressing to wonder what in her life made her disrespect herself so much that piercing herself like that would have any meaning other than a red flag that she has no self esteem, and puts decoration and fad before herself. That's truly ugly, and I feel so sorry for her, that the best she can express in life is to make herself ugly. The guy she's with? I've dealt with guys with that look in their eyes...
Well, this all goes hand in hand with the liberal mindset, and their lack of self esteem...but that's another thread, and another novel...
Seems a lot of people got scared by someone with a tatoo--or maybe the pictures of African tribesmen in National Geographic--at an early age.
Many of them haven't figured out that the person emptying their bedpan, taking their BP, administering their meds, reading their medical images, etc. in the future is going to have been of a generation that viewed all this as the 'in' thing to do.
From subtle tatoos to ear plugs that would be the pride of the Ubangi, to simply pierced ears, like it or not, they are here.
Apparently they ignore the fact that there will be a significant segment of the population who will not feel exceptionally comfortable around people without piercings or tatoos, and might not do business with them!
That is OK, not everyone will ignore that business opportunity.
I guess they can ignore that demographic at their peril.
A small fraction, the proportion depending on where you live, of tatoos have gang/prison/criminal/satanic significance.
The remainder are souvenirs. Something people can take with them. Impulsive? Sure, often, but not always.
Something to deem someone a pariah by? Perhaps in some cases where those tats have significance as noted above, otherwise a preference as common as people coloring their hair.
I sure am glad I work in a performance oriented industry where all that does not count for squat, even though I have neither tatoos nor piercings (just hair to my belt).
If you get the job done right, on time, and on budget, no one cares squat what you look like.
The things that count are there.
If the office building denizens wish to surround themselves with only that which is pretty, they will have plenty of nice packages around, and maybe even some with contents worth their paycheck.
" Rest of comment removed by poster, or else the Moderator would have done it anyway "
I don't know about that. Remember this old thread?
"Vanity- Tongue piercing
Posted on 11/24/2002 7:07:38 PM CST by Trust but Verify
We have an 18 year-old daughter who wants to get her tongue pierced...." http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/795218/posts
That is OK, not everyone will ignore that business opportunity.
I guess they can ignore that demographic at their peril.
Nope, that adolecent "be nice to people with AIDS or you'll catch it" flapdoodle never gets old...
You'd think by now someone would have come up with a catchy name to designate the Jerry Springer concept of karma.
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