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Jan 09, 2015
I am a fairly average girl, I probably could drink less, I swear more than my mother would like, I stole a freddo bar once when I was 10, and I am part of the large percentage of people who have more than one tattoo. I will be honest, without sounding all fluffy and theatrical, they do add to who I am as a person. All 3 were well thought out, have a personal meaning to me and I believe I won’t regret having them. This however is probably emphasised due to the fact that I have never been forced to defend them. This isn’t the case for a huge percentage of people in society who find certain positioned tattoos perceive them to be aggressive, unreliable, or even criminal. Why do we have these perceptions? Why does a tattoo of your child’s name not portray you in a negative light but a skull does?
Now working in recruitment I meet people daily, I don’t discuss my tattoos and they don’t discuss theirs’, why should we? We don’t discuss the arms and legs we have or the hair that’s on our head – to a tattooed person their ink becomes immaterial and something that is just there. Tattoos are always pointed out by the other person, the staring, the questions, the admiration, is always initiated by someone else. So when someone walks into my agency and says to me that they can’t find work because of their tattoos I do need to take a step back and have a good look. This man has a full sleeve, beautifully done I might add, a tattoo on the back of his neck and one on his hand. He is also a qualified accountant. Do we suddenly not trust this man to sort our finances? Does our brain suddenly go “Woah this man cannot possibly be ok to do his job”? Well actually yes it does. As humans we are predisposed to judge – that is what makes us human. The ability to judge situations based on sight, smell and sound is what makes us different from the many criminal acts that are committed without using judgement. This man however was demoralised – he was married, had 2 children and had been unlucky enough to be made redundant from his job after 15 years. From a recruiters point of view he was gold dust. So why was this man not finding work? His exact words were
“The last guy that interviewed me shook my hand, glanced at the tattoo and dropped it like it was on fire. His words to me then were along the lines of how their clients would find the tattoo unprofessional”
Unprofessional? This extremely qualified, educated and experienced gentleman was disregarded because of some permanent ink on his hand. Baffled. Yes ok I am from a different generation, to say, some of my bosses who also find tattoos career hindering but can we really afford to lose top quality professionals this way? The harsh reality is that tattoos do hinder people’s chances of getting jobs. I have 3 tattoos, all that can be covered up so people I meet never need know I have them. Luckily the clients I deal with and the people I come in to contact with have never made me feel judged for having them – my tattoos do not influence my ability to find good quality candidates, nor do they affect my professionalism or my integrity. Sometimes they have actually been a conversation starter.
So how far is too far? Do we punish the tattoo on the hand in the same way as the tattoo on the face? Now come on we all need to take a good look inside ourselves and ask ourselves the question: Do you judge people for having tattoos? If you say no then forgive me but you are a liar! You may consider yourself to be the most liberal person on the planet, you may have tattoos yourself but in some instances your makeup as a human goes against who you think you are as an individual. Ok so you may not judge the burly fireman with the flame tattoo down his forearms because he’s saved you from a burning building, or the builder with the Spurs tattoo on his bicep fixing your house but you will be judging the care worker with a neck tattoo looking after your elderly mother. Why?? Because tattoos make people crazy, they make us judge, they make us think things that probably are so far from the truth. We can be rational but we cannot change how we instinctively feel. Your elderly mother will instinctively worry, you may instinctively decide this person is a certain “type” of person to have a neck tattoo – this makes you human.
There are some industries that tattoos cause real problems in – sales people find visible tattoos on their hands and neck are setting them up for rejection in interviews, employers make judgements about these sales people based on what they think their clients will say. Your fate is in the hands of the individual employer and it is their preconceptions that are deciding how others will react to your tattoos.
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My point is if you have a tattoo that is visible you should accept that there will be people who find your choice negative. My dad asked me why I chose to mutilate myself, my boss would prefer I didn’t have them but the longer I show my worth and professional expertise the less he notices them. Rightly or wrongly you have made a decision to have a tattoo in a visible place – that was your choice. Is it not then the employers’ choice to choose whether he wants you representing his company? I am neither for nor against tattoos but champion for the acceptance of the idea that they do not solely define anyone or imply anything. Tattoos are no longer classed as a branding mechanism or a group status so why do we still look at them as such? Let’s move forward and see if we can fight against the preconceptions we face in trying to find work……unless you have a spider tattooed across your whole face then you may be beyond help.
Jo Rider
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