Can Tattoos Hurt a Job Applicant?
To show how society’s view of people with tattoos has changed, comedian Rob Delaney does a standup routine about neck tattoos. He says, “Remember in the old days, if you saw someone with a neck tattoo, you thought, ‘My numbers up. I’m about to have my throat cut.’ Now if you see someone with a neck tattoo you know they got it at their local muffin shop. You were going to duck into an alley and then you think, ‘No, wait, neck tattoo, I’m safe.’ And they’re going to say, ‘Can I read you a poem about my vegan bicycle?'”
Tattoos aren’t safe in the corporate world. Dr. Andrew R. Timming from the School of Management at the University of St Andrews in Scotland found that employers are prone to viewing tattoos negatively, according to an article in The Economic Times.
The article said, “Timming spoke to managers involved in hiring staff about their reaction to interview candidates with visible tattoos. The managers worked for organizations including a hotel, bank, city council, prison, university and bookseller. ‘Most respondents agreed that visible tattoos are a stigma,’ Timming said.” His research included talking to 15 hiring managers.
Yes, tattoos are becoming the source of academic research. Timming’s university bio states he is primarily interested in the twin areas of employee voice (involvement/participation) and employee silence. But he has a secondary interest in the body art industry (though “he’s much too squeamish to get a tattoo himself”). He’s also contributed to this scholarly article: “What Do Tattoo Artists Know About HRM? Recruitment and Selection in the Body Art Sector.”
Timming made his presentation before the British Sociological Association conference on work, employment and society. According to a press release from the association, “’Most respondents agreed that visible tattoos are a stigma,’ Dr. Timming told the conference. One woman manager told him that ‘they make a person look dirty.’ Another male manager told him ‘subconsciously that would stop me from employing them.’ Another male manager said, ‘Tattoos are the first thing they [fellow recruiters] talk about when the person has gone out of the door.’”
It’s not personal biases at work, the scholar found in his conversations. According to the release, “The managers were concerned about what their organizations’ customers might think, said Timming. ‘Hiring managers realize that, ultimately, it does not matter what they think of tattoos – what really matters, instead, is how customers might perceive employees with visible tattoos.'”
There’s some hope, though, if you already have a tattoo prominently displayed for the world to see. It all depends on what the job is or what the tattoo looks like.
Timming told the conference, “The one qualification to this argument is there are certain industries in which tattoos may be a desirable characteristic in a job interview. For example, an HR manager at a prison noted that tattoos on guards can be ‘something to talk about’ and ‘an in’ that you need to make a connection with the prisoners.”
Spider web neck tattoos can be a turn off, he added, but butterflies and flowers are OK, as well as tattoos associated with military service. He added, “Examples of distasteful tattoos given by the managers included:
- a spider’s web tattooed on the neck;
- somebody being hung, somebody being shot;
- things to do with death;
- face tears, which suggest that you’ve maimed or killed;
- something of a sexual content;
- anything with drug connotations; and,
- images with racist innuendo such as a swastika.”
Have a tattoo and you’re not sure what to do? Timmings said time is on your side. Younger hiring managers are more likely to tolerate them as older managers retire.