Does your job allow tats?

My current job as a cafe server allows you to have visable tattoos even though the four I have are not visable anyways. I've been trying to figure out what kind of work I want to do and my family keeps telling me visable tattoos will make employers not want to hire me. Careers I am interested in going into include medical, working with animals, culinary, and possibly computers.

I would like to have more tattoos. More elaborate ones than those I have now. Right now I have a Wadjet eye on my right ankle, a cat on my left ankle, a dragon on the inside of my left ankle and an equal sign on my back, just below my neck.

I am considering many other tattoos, one I am certain I want. I want a large backpiece that is a dragon clinging to my back. It is my reward to myself once I lose the weight I want to lose. I would love to have tats on my arms and legs as well.

Would employers really not hire me because of some tattoos? Especially in the fields I want to work in? And these would not be offensive tattoos. We are talking artistic, meaningful designs.

Sometimes I hate society. :mad:

I've had the argument with someone over the "bias" towards tattooed folks.
I do not see it. I've seen nurses, doctors, chefs, servers, bank cashiers, bank managers, police officers, fire fighters, office workers, groomers, hair stylists, construction workers and others.. all with visable tattoos that I noticed. Obviously none of them had any issue getting hired.
I think that hand tatts, and facial tatts might detract from your image in some positions. Most manager type positions can wear long sleeves if you wanted to cover tattoos. A few places DO have policies that prohibit visable tattoos(I think one is disney.. but I'm not certain).
Overall, I don't think tattoos would stop anyone from hiring you.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

My current job as a cafe server allows you to have visable tattoos even though the four I have are not visable anyways. I've been trying to figure out what kind of work I want to do and my family keeps telling me visable tattoos will make employers not want to hire me. Careers I am interested in going into include medical, working with animals, culinary, and possibly computers.

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A friend of mine is a doctor and he has a tattooed wedding ring on his finger, because he can't wear a real one at work.

My sister has several tattoos, including one on her wrist, but the Block Buster policy states that employees can have no visible tats, so she wears a watch. (It is a temp job while she saves for Uni, anyway.) Although I have seen other employees at another Block Buster with elaborate tats and piercings, all quite visible. I guess it depends on the manager.

My sisters Tattoo artist works days as a legal aid, and although she has quite elaborate tats - including half-sleeves and full back - she has none visible when wearing regular business attire.

I doubt there are any laws about whether or not you can have tats, but whatever company you plan to work for can set their own standards and policies, and if you happen to land in one that is anti-tat, you won't have much of a leg to stand on if they decide not to higher you base on your tat-status.

It sounds like you have many interests and a lot of great ideas for future careers. However, it might be more advantageous for you to hold off on getting any major visible tats just yet, until you narrow down the field of interest and learn about the official (and unofficial) policies regarding visible tats.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world~ Gandhi
Powerful words. Are any of us brave enough for this challenge??

All my tats but one are visible. I have a full sleeve on my left arm, 3 tattoos on my right one, one on my leg and one in my mouth. I also have my ears stretched to an inch and an 8th right now. I can't find work. But then again I work for myself so life is good.

I manage a company that places over 40,000 people into jobs each year here in Central Florida. The basic answer to your question is "yes", some (many) employers do not hire individuals with tats - it is not against the law - no discrimination claim can be made for not hiring because of tats.

Based on my experience with employers and how they hire, their level of acceptance of tats is based on quite a few things:
1. What's the economy like? Is it an employee market (low unemployment rate, employers can't find enough people to fill their vacancies)? If so, the employer will usually be more lenient and hire an individual with tats cause he/she needs soemone.
2. Do you have much interaction with the public? Behind the scenes jobs tend to have more flexibility than ones that meet and greet the public all day.
3. Is it a large employer or a family owned small employer? Many times large employers have more strict rules to cover everyone.
4. How young is the management staff? Younger managers are more tolerent of tats than those that "grew up in the business world" when tats were taboo.
5. What part of the country that you live in. Many places are more tolerent than others

The advice I gave my daughters is to get their tats (one has 9 the other 4) where employers wouldn't see them just in case. So their tats are on their back, upper thighs, breasts, etc. No arms or legs.

You are very smart Jay_Bunny to think about it now. Good luck!

I ride horses, so it's a pretty non-discriminating job. You can either ride, or you can't. I have two tattoos, one of which MAY be visible if I'm riding in a tank top, but that's it, the other one is always covered by jeans. If you want to be a waiter and wear short sleeves, some people are really turned off by sleeves and that sort of thing. There are some jobs where it just wouldn't be appropriate to have tattoos, just think if you didn't like tattoos and you had to see them on someone, would you want them to be serving you food? It really depends on the job.

I hate the bias against the tattooed that still exists today. People who have tattoos are not dirty scumbags just because they have tattoos :(
My husband is a tattoo artist, fulltime. He gets people form all walks of life; nurses, lawyers, etc.
But it sounds like the tats that you have/want are easy to cover up. Back pieces and ankle/leg designs are not visable underneath a normal workplace outfit of pants and a top. Granted, some girls like to wear skimpy tops to work, but I am not one of them :) If it concerns you, I would stick to tats that you can cover up easily (upper arm, back, etc)

It all depends on the company, I have a tribal sleeve (comes past my wrist), a partial sleeve(starting on the top of my hand), one on the side of my neck and my labret pierced and still have a job :D

The only place I know of that doesn't hire because of visible tattoos is Disney Land.

Worked a lot of places (Medicine, Law Enforcement, Food Service), have hidden tattoos, never had a problem :)