To date our most popular blog, by a longshot, is our post on Tattoo-Friendly Employers. We take this to mean that Biola students are greatly interested in finding companies that are okay with tattoos, piercings, etc.
We would like to expand our information on this topic and to do so we are asking for your help.
Do you have a work-related tattoo story? A company that is cool with them? Some companies that aren’t? Did you lose a job because of a tattoo or do have to cover it up at work? We want to hear your experiences so far in the work-world as someone with tattoos. How did you break the stereotype and land the job you wanted?
For a long time Christianity and tattoos were at odds. In an age when that is changing, how do we as Christians represent Christ in the professional world without sacrificing our right to express ourselves through tattoos, fashion, piercings, and hair dye?
Send all of your stories, thoughts, and comments to me at alex.k.sparks@biola.edu or reply in a comment below.
What does having a tattoo have to do with getting a job? Does having a tattoo mean your some kind of unreliable person?
Not at all. I have tattoos myself. Unfortunately, many employers view tattoos as a sign of irresponsibility and many companies won’t hire candidates with visible tattoos. I think it is important for those of us with tattoos to work hard and prove that how we look has nothing to do with our work ethic. Thanks for the reply!
Tattoos;
My personal view after 60 years of supervision, hiring (never needed to fire),
Courses in “Interviewing and counseling”, “Human factors in management”, etc
Personal studying of human behavior and consequences;
Hiring Part time help from Biola students – so far very impressed with Biola students.
None have quit because of my views or actions.
1 Our body was created in the image of God and is truly beautiful in all aspects.
How does one improve on the handiwork of God??
2 Tattoos, excessive or unusual anything is a distraction from who you are.
That includes wild hair style or color, nail color, clothes, jewelry
If you have to prove that a stud in your tongue does not say anything about you, your priorities or views, both the stud and the “proving” distract from the business at hand.
3 No. I don’t want customers to wonder about who you are or what my company does.
It takes a long time to overcome that first impression.
4 Ditto for “I have a right to personal expressions and actions” at work.
I am as old fashioned as the New Testament.
I am an old lady with delightfully tatted, pierced & wild haired young friends. Indeed I have no overt spiritual battle with this new again trend in western fashion (Yep! I saw it the first time); and I enjoy the interesting dialog on how our ache for individuality most often presses us toward a new conformity. Honestly, we all know tats, body piercing, neon hair and fashion do not define who we are, nor are they benign signals to a bifurcated world, most of whom live in fear.
If we are in the work place with servant hearts we cannot be the focus of attention; we must be prepared for service. I write because I own a business that needs to hire young people; for context we are in the service industry with a hugely diverse clientele. We’re in SoCal who doesn’t have a diverse clientele?!? For our office I hold to what is deemed a strict (even archaic) dress code and won’t make Biola’s list of ‘Tat-Friendly Employers’ because we are in a relationship business.
Muslim, Jew, Christian, Pagan, Prisoner, Socialite, Young & Old all walk freely into our office able to focus on solving the problem that brought them through our door. They come with intensely personal important needs and should not be required to process an employee’s fashion statement with its inherent implications.
Coming to work with servant hearts our priority is on being present, trained & focused on the customer, not changing the world through our outward appearance. .. and I’m hiring.
I’ve worked in customer care and seen some tattoos on co-workers, so just having a tattoo doesn’t mean that one cannot get employed even in customer service jobs, but I can still see where many of the employers are coming from.