About tattoos?

[Morethanalittlebitconfused]

Before I start I need to say I am quite heavily tattooed myself - albeit in places they can be hidden

I've read an article on Facebook today calling for a law to be passed stating people who are tattooed cannot be discriminated against in the world of work. AIBU to disagree with it?

People commenting on the article, and the article itself, say it's unfair people with neck, face and hand tattoos get turned down from jobs due to 'their expression of their personality' and think it's out dated and draconian that people who are capable of working get turned away

So AIBU to think if you want a professional job you either cover up or don't get tattooed in the first place?

I tend to think that someone wanting an employee has the right to pick whomever they deem the most suitable applicant for the position, whatever the reason.

It's their company, their money so surely it's up to them?

I'm heavily tattooed and my OH is a tattooist. I think passing a law against discrimination towards those with visible tattoos is frankly ridiculous. Yes, it doesn't make us any less capable of doing a job, however those with hand and neck tattoos are well aware of the stigma surrounding them and still choose to get them. My OH will not tattoo the neck or hands of anyone who isn't already significantly covered enough to justify it and he won't do faces full stop. Unfortunately celebrities like Rihanna and Cheryl Cole have sparked a trend amongst young girls wanting hand or finger tattoos for their first and we always turn them away for this reason.

Discrimination I believe is generally against those who haven't made a choice, eg. sexuality, disability, age etc. Body modifications are a choice.

Hand tattoos aren't known as 'Everlasting job stoppers' in the industry for nothing.

I know someone who had an accident damaged her arm and got a bad scar on her wrist. When it healed as well as it was going to (and it'd been years) she had it covered by a tattoo. Hand tattoos always put me off until my friend did that.

YANBU, what a stupid idea, and it's minimising genuine discrimination issues.

I went to the doctors this morning and the nice lady doctor had quite heavily tattooed arms (pretty flowers)! I was quite surprised just because it's not something I'd seen before in that environment, but it didn't give me any less confidence that she knew what she was talking about.

Personally unless they are offensive, I have no issue with it - mine are in places that aren't on show during the working day, but I am quite resentful that I work in an office (for a large household name) where although there is no specific 'no tattoo' policy, it is not socially acceptable for anything other than a little tiny one to be on show.

The company you work for may well (over time) shift it's policy on tattoos Mice, after all doctors with sleeves were unheard of not so long ago.

Cultures change and shift constantly, what was scandalous becomes mundane

YANBU

Visible tattoos have no place in a professional workplace.

I am required to wear business dress. No shoulders on display, no toes on display plus all te other standard business dress considerations.

Personally I think I look lovely and smart in jeans, trainers and a nice top. But I'm obviously not allowed to wear that. Should my preference to express myself by wearing bikes and jeans be apwed? Should it be protected? Should it fuck. Want a professional job, dress appropriately.

I think it's sad that we still judge people on what they look likeand how they choose to express themselves through dress or body modifications or hairstyles or make-up or whatever.

At the same time, that's how things are for now, and when someone gets a visible tattoo they've made a choice that has implications that they are aware of. Until society catches up, I don't think you can really justify complaining about the stigma attached to visible tattoos.

I do think things are changing- I work in a hospital and know LOADS of porters, healthcare assistants, maternity support workers, domestic staff and physiotherapists with visible tattoos, including hands. I do however know very few nurses and NO doctors with visible tattoos, which I think shows that whilst visible tattoos might not preclude work entirely anymore, I think certain jobs simply would not accept someone with visible tattoos due to social standing in society.

What about tattoos with unfortunate or discriminatory messages? e.g. having 'I hate niggers' tattooed across your forehead? Or wanting to work at the Rape Crisis Centre with 'I suck cock on your decolletage? Swastikas? Obscene images e.g. of the sexual abuse of children or violence against women?

I get the point, a blanket ban on all tattooed people is unfair and ludicrous. But a blanket ban on discrimination against tattoos doesn't work either. There would have to be a lot of quite nuanced caveats and exceptions.

"I work in a fairly conventional industry where a professional appearance is expected, and think a neck tattoo very clearly states that the wearer is either insensitive to social conventions or doesn't care about them."

This just about sums it up. I think it will take another generation to die out before current attitudes change.

I work in a similar environment. A lot of people I work with have tattoos, but they aren't obvious, and none of them are on hands, face or neck.

This is the type of look I was referring to earlier that I think many people would find rather threatening and intimidating.

I've got friends with tattoos but I'm not keen. For me the visible ones would depend on the type of tattoo and the job the person does. I tend to think I'd prefer my dentist without a dragon up the side of her face.
Some look very artistic but others are a bit grim. I don't understand why people have lots of different ones in one area that don't match to anything, looks a bit like graffiti on a bus stop.. Only my opinion but there you go.

I'm a sleeved nurse btw and it's actually more the older patients that love them! Mainly because they are so much better than the way they used to be done. Tattoos have come along way and they won't age the way they used to because of various things like the techniques used by tattooists and the quality of ink used. Anyone to with half a brain that loves tattoos looks after them I.e I don't roast myself in the sun. My tattoos from ten years ago look as good as the most recent ones. Also touch ups are usually offered for free by the same tattooist the first time but after if you notice fade it's up to you to touch it up every decade or so. Some never need any though.

What about tattoos with unfortunate or discriminatory messages
surely that's similar to wearing a t-shirt with the same slogan.
Few would try and suggest that t-shirts are inherently offensive and should be banned.

Offensive slogans are offensive because of the message they convey, not because of the medium used to convey it

Suzannewithaplan the difference is that a t-shirt can be removed A tattoo cannot without considerable effort and expense.

yes tattoo's are permanent but that is besides my point.

My point being that 'Offensive slogans are offensive because of the message they convey, not because of the medium used to convey it'

Yes it is the message that's offensive BUT few people would turn up for work wearing such a t shirt, they would wear it in their own time. The same cannot be said with visible skin.

But if someone chooses to wear something offensive that's the problem not the tattoo. You can cover tattoos with new tattoos so if you had a swastika eg from prison then you'd cover it if you weren't a nazi!!

Downstairs It would be nice if you were right about new style tattoos not ageing like the old ones, but you can't possibly know that for sure yet. No-one can. That sounds a bit like wishful thinking bollocks to me. Not to mention that even if the tattoo itself doesn't deteriorate the designs will date dreadfully. They already are dating - the designs that were all the rage ten years ago are not the designs people are choosing now. You will no doubt be aware that there is already an element of snobbery in the tattoo world where certain things that were once fashionable are now considered passé or naff.

The thing I find most unappealing about tattoos is the short-sightedness and naivety of so many of the people who get themselves very visibly inked and are totally convinced they will never regret them and that they will never date or go out of fashion. EVERYTHING DOES. Everything. I'll wager that in the next 5 years the fashion followers will be lily-white (no fake tans) tattoo-free (or at least wishing they were) and with a full er…head of hair as it were, in the pubes department. One of the most coveted and sought after looks will be the un-gilded lily of tattoo free skin - I promise you as day follows night it will happen. Brides will be paying for photographers to photoshop out all their tattoos in the wedding photos (bet that already happens a lot actually) and hundreds of thousands of silly women will be crying their eyes out because they are stuck forever with some regrettable fashion decisions they made in 2011, that they can't cover up unless they wear trousers and high necked long sleeved tops 365 days a year.

Once anything becomes mainstream the trendsetters always do whatever they can to reverse it and do the opposite. Tattoos are just not cool or different any longer - they are mundane and common and ubiquitous. And that state of affairs will always lead to a sharp reversal. Always.

I worry that in 20 years time there will be an awful lot of women in their fifties with very unattractive, greenish, blurred, blocky and frankly indistinguishable total messes all up and down their limbs. Nothing stays bright, crisp and perfect forever. Your skin won't for a start. It will stretch and sag, you'll get much fatter with age, or much scrawnier, the texture of your skin will change and the tattoo will change with it.

Having said all that, it is undeniable that some tattoos are things of great beauty and skill. They are. But that's not a good enough reason to commit to wearing them for life imho.

Facebook - as my dh says I'm sure when he gets to 80 and his skin is more wrinkled than a tinned prune he will care not a jot what his tattoos look like and more whether he can get to the toilet independently etc.

In the grand scheme of things how a tattoo ages in 40+ years is little reason to choose to have one or not.

I would also bet that most tattooed people like myself and my dh have tattoos designed and worn not for other people so it matters very little what other people think at all.

I'm not sure tbh.

I saw a man on the beach last week almost completely covered in tattoos, even his head if shaved and he had an intricate design on his scalp that followed where his hairline should have been. I was fascinated and couldn't stop staring.

I'm not sure how I would feel about arranging a mortgage from him but that is probably because I'm not used to it.

My daughter's primary carer at nursery had lots of very nice and tasteful visible tattoos. I didn't think twice about it and it certainly didn't make me think she wouldn't be a great carer.

Hmmm.

Anyone that got tattooed to be fashionable or thought they were a trendsetter deserves to wallow in regret!

I don't think its reasonable to pass a law protecting against discrimination on tattoos, as all types of other discrimination is allowed on appearance which isn't choice. It smacks of attention-seeking behaviour and not a true concern regarding discrimination.

Can anyone tell me what is it with the men that get garter straps tattooed on their legs and even arms? Is it a sign to other men? I've seen a few of them in the gym and out running and it is surely a feminising thing, even when the "garter strap" is comprised of barb wire or something? (if anyone remembers Pamela Anderson's tattoo of the same thing).

but that's the irony chubby. No-one does. They pretty much all think they are slightly unique, possibly the trend-setter, never the fashion following sheep. They all think they are going it to please themselves, to express their individuality (hahaha, [hollowlaughemoticon] and to stand out from the crowd. And once upon a time that was probably true for a relatively small handful of people, but the truth is that the vast majority of people being tattooed now or in the last few years are doing it because it's fashionable - they've been indoctrinated. Not because it's art, or because it has some deep and personal meaning to them - even if they think that's why they are doing it. It's because it's fashionable.

But in a few years time it really won't be. What will be VERY cool indeed is plain, unadulterated skin. And within a certain age range it will only be attainable to (probably) a minority of people, which will make it even more cool. There's nothing quite like wanting what you can't have.

The people who practically live for tattooing (and other forms of modification) as an art form and as a method of self expression take it very seriously, I know, it's practically a religion for some, and I have more respect for them than for the fashion-tattooers, but I still think many of them are deluding themselves that ultimately it is anything more than today's zeitgeist. It's no coincidence that the people who are into it are also generally not into very mainstream music, politics, food or anything else.

They mare much more likely to live an all-round alternative lifestyle, have ideas that challenge the mainstream - all fine and good. But their 'freedom of expression' (i.e.. the thing that used to get them stared at in the street by boring 'normal' people, much to their delight, because it reinforced how cool and different they were) has been so influential as a look that has defined a time, that it's been hijacked by the masses. Everyone from oiks to managerial types in Audis to middle class 6th formers to women in their 60's in mobility scooters who play bingo, to the Tory Prime Minister's wife. And if there's one thing 'alternative' people don't like, it's being just like everyone else. Especially people who appal them. So there will be a change of direction. In another 5 years or so tattoos will start to fall out of favour and in about 5-10 years it will be extremely cool and different for people in certain age groups to to be able to say they have none. You watch.

Well if it's garter of barbed wire then it is a celice, a religious self-flagellation thing to show devotion through pain and suffering.

Although I'm not sure what the relevance to that is in a tattoo!