Tattoos! You’ve heard of them, I’ve heard of them, we all know what they are. They’re becoming more commonplace as the years go by, yet businesses and other organizations still tend to frown on them. Why is that?

I have a tattoo on my right bicep, and I love it. I think it’s a really awesome piece of art done by a really awesome artist, and the design is unique to me and has personal qualities to it. So I like to show it off and talk about it. Yet when I go to work, I have to cover it up. Tattoos are typically disliked in professional environments, and I think that is pretty lame.

I know what tattoos were associated with back before they became more common in the public. And that’s just it: they’re much more common, yet workplaces refuse to let people show their tattoos while they’re working. I understand the policy if they were overly offensive or racy, since that would be covered by other policies anyways, but what’s the problem with a little ink in someone’s skin? They just wanted to express themselves similar to how someone would style their hair or put their makeup on. Even piercings have less stigma than tattoos. The big difference between these things and tattoos is that tattoos are permanent.

Now, why is it that tattoos are so taboo compared to piercings and other things? I feel that, personally, employers tend to view tattoos as “life decisions” because, to be fair, they’re pretty permanent. You’d have to get the skin entirely removed or get laser removal surgery for it to go away. However, the flipside is that someone made the decision to get this, so it’s kind of a big disrespect to say that they can’t show it because of policies or whatever excuses they have. People get tattoos because they want something unique they can express and identify themselves with. Also, if someone has the confidence and determination to decide and stick with something embedded in their skin for the rest of their life, and they make it something they care about, I don’t see why that’s a bad thing. Even a great piece of art or design tattooed on someone is pretty interesting and they wouldn’t get it if it didn’t give them some sense of happiness or pleasure.

The prejudice for tattoos is still around too. Tattoos were, and sometimes still are, associated with bad life decisions, gangs, junkies, and basically every other negative image out there. And while people within those groups sometimes have tattoos, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the tattoos cause this behavior, or this behavior means someone will get tattoos.

A great counterexample would be my parents. Both have several tattoos, with the smallest amount on one of them being around five. My dad was a systems administrator for a bank and now is working tech for the U.S. Navy. My mother is a clinical social worker with her Master’s. Both are productive citizens of society, and both have several tattoos.

The one thing I can agree on when it comes to tattoo policies is that getting tattoos in certain places may be inappropriate. I’m not one to think that face tattoos look great. I think that’s taking a bit too far. My mother has one behind each of her ears, but I think that’s about the limit. I just think it’s lame that I can’t wear short-sleeved t-shirts because then I’m showing a tattoo. I would love to get sleeves at some point in my life, but I don’t want to have to wear sweaters or long-sleeved shirts all the time to try and cover up something I’ve put time, thought and a bunch of money into.

Tattoos are great ways to show off who you are and really commit to something awesome. Employers and others alike should not be able to force you to cover them up. That is, as long as you’re not trying to be offensive for the sake of being offensive or anything along those lines. There is a level of common sense to this. In the end, the large majority of people tend to get tattoos that are not crazy, off-the-wall gross things, so it would be nice if we were allowed to show them without worry of bosses and higher-ups getting upset about it.

-Cameron MacDonald