Tat don't impress me much

A recent survey by the British Sociological Association has explored the relationship between employers and tattoos.

Dr Andrew Timming, of the School of Management at the University of St Andrews, interviewed fifteen hiring managers from a range of organisations and discovered that visible tattoos in particular were anathema to a candidate’s chances at interview.

The managers surveyed – who sound as if they all worked for the Daily Mail – were concerned about visible tattoos because ‘customers might project a negative service experience based on stereotypes that tattooed people are thugs and druggies.’

The subject of the tattoo was also a factor in employability, with the managers citing the kinds of design they found especially distasteful.

These included “a ‘spider’s web tattooed on the neck’, ‘somebody being hung, somebody being shot’, ‘things to do with death’, ‘something of a sexual content’, and anything with ‘drug connotations’”.

Unsurprising, other designs likely to cause concern were “‘images with racist innuendo, such as a swastika.”

Patrons ink-onvenienced

Earlier this year, an employee of a Yorkshire department store was fired after getting a visible inking on her arm.

Her employer, Wetherells of Selby, told her that the tattoo was likely to offend their elderly and traditional clientele.

Whether Wetherells clientele preferred facial body piercings, scarification or subdermal implants to tattoos was not reported.

Back in 2011, a survey by CareerBuilder showed that 31% of employers ranked ‘having a visible tattoo’ as the top personal attribute that would discourage them from promoting an employee.

But despite all this bad news, employees with tattoos needn’t worry too much. Recent History is littered with successful individuals who have had their skin pounded to one degree or another.

These include Winston Churchill, George Orwell, Thomas Edison and Franklin D. Roosevelt – most of whom, we’d wager, might even prove acceptable to those picky customers at Wetherells.

About the author

Andrew Baird

Andrew is the CEO of HRville. He is also Employer Brand Director of Blackbridge Communications, Editorial Director of Professionals in Law and an associate of The Smarty Train. Previously, he was the MD of TCS Advertising.