Inked
Posted on May 7, 2008
Filed Under Career Development, Gen X, Gen Y
So there I was at the gym today doing my ‘get in shape dance’ and for some reason I couldn’t help noticing how many men and even women were sporting tattoos. I’d say easily 50% of the men and quite a few women at my gym were displaying some kind of tattoo. Of course gym attire being somewhat more revealing than business attire, it wasn’t all that surprising. But it made me wonder where these people work and if their jobs are OK with tattoos. Tattoos are certainly nothing new, but they’ve certainly become more popular in the last decade and I’m especially seeing them on more younger people.
All of which begs the question; do you think tattoos anymore acceptable in the workplace today than they were 10 years ago? From my perspective almost everyone I know from ages 25-45 has at least one tattoo, but none of them are where they could be seen in a typical office environment. That said, I do see more of them in my travels than I ever have before, but I can’t think of a single VP or Director that had ink showing. Which begs my second question; are tattoos acceptable, but career stoppers?
Having spent a number of years working for software companies, their culture tends to be fairly open. I’ve seen plenty of tattoos and various piercings. Now that I’m working for a larger payroll company, they are definitely more conservative. What’s the culture like at your office? Do you see many tattoos or have them yourself? As for me, yeah, unless you stop by my gym, you’ll never know.
Until next time…
Interesting question: There is only one person at my company who has many tatoos, and he is the head IT guy. If he dresses up however, you can not see them. Of our field crews, some of them have arm, motorcycle type tatoos and they are 50 + years old in age, so not the “business type” and are not going to be vice presidents or CEO’s. Our CEO does not have any tatoos. We are not allowed to wear tank tops/or shorts/open toe shoes to work, so thier dress code is strict. I don’t have any tatoos myself. I don’t know if tatoos are more acceptable if you are going for a big career, but for blue collar, it seems fine.
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I tend to agree, lower level and blue collar positions seem to be more accepting of tattoos. I’d be curious if anyone knows of a VP or higher with tattoos. I’d bet they are out there, but I’m also sure they’re covered.