Posted on 07/08/2013 6:54:06 AM PDT by Deadeye Division
LIMA — When Travis Stevick goes to work, he wears his heart on his sleeve, literally.
For the 34-year-old pediatric nurse, his body is a canvas, and the tattoos are all metaphors of his life. Along his left arm, there’s a tiger and cherry blossoms on his forearm, and a coy fish on his upper arm. This is mostly what is exposed when he wears his scrubs to work. Stevick has 20 tattoos in all so far, from his arms, legs, back and chest. He plans on getting more, too.
And Stevick said at Health Partners of Western Ohio, where he works, they’ve been very accommodating with his visible tattoos.
“There’s different nursing homes and other health care facilities that have policies: no visible tattoos, because of contact with patients. But not here,” Stevick said. “It mixes with our clientele. A lot of our patients have tattoos, so they’re not frowned on here. That’s why I’m here. I feel accepted. I like the way they feel with it.”
Ironically, he does immunizations for children. The tattoos are not only a calming mechanism for them, but some children tell him they want tattoos someday, despite wincing from a single shot he just administered.
“It kind of gets their mind off whatever they’re here for, if they’re not feeling well,” he said. “If they have to get a shot, something like that, and they take just a second and look at my tattoos, we relate a little bit. So it helps, I think.”
Self-expression more acceptable
Many agree that workplace tattoos and piercings have become more acceptable in the workplace in recent years. Once thought of as the mark of a degenerate, almost 25 percent of Americans now have tattoos, according to a Pew Research poll from 2010. This likely makes having them in a professional setting more acceptable than before.
“I have definitely seen a shift in the acceptance of tattoos and piercings” in the workplace during the past decade, said Kathy Dickson, Director of Career Development at Bluffton University. “For some employers, it’s still very much a big deal, but it depends ... not only on the field, but the individual employer, because every organization has its own culture.”
There are some fields, though, that have remained more traditional about the issue.
“The business and education fields are still two of the more conservative as far as having piercings and tattoos right out there in front of customers or students,” she said. “Some of the professional etiquette rules are more conservative about everything: The color of your suit, the color of your tie, the color of your shirt when you go to an interview. Whether your shoes are closed tie or open. So when you get to these types of rules, any trainer is probably going to encourage you to err on the conservative side when making first impressions and they’re getting to know you.”
It all depends on the organization.
Lorne Howden Sr., owner of the Tat-2-U tattoo parlor on Elida Road, said the majority of his clients work in professional fields, such as law enforcement and health care. He likes it that way — most of those customers take body art very seriously, meticulously planning what they would like to get and where.
“The newer thing is to have a tattoo,” he said. “Society just need to be more accepting of it.”
Being in the field for more than 25 years, he’s seen a dramatic shift in the kind of clients he gets. He’s owned Tat-2-U in Lima for about 10 years, but had previously owned a shop in Seattle.
“I’ve seen it go from sailors … to professionals,” he said.
Aversion to tattoos, piercings still remain
Angela Wilbert, who mostly has had good feedback from her tongue piercing, once had an informal marketing meeting that left a bad taste in her mouth.
A marketing man said he may have a job opportunity for her at a bank, and could set up an interview. But he had a caveat.
“You have to take out the tongue ring,” he told her.
“I was floored,” said Wilbert, 34, of Lima, who does freelance writing. “It wasn’t in his place to say something to me about my tongue ring.”
Normally, she would have taken it out for an interview, she said. But because this was more informal, she made the decision to leave it in. She had the piercing for years in early adulthood, but had taken it out and had gotten it re-pierced when she was 30. She said she made her own decision, and it’s not easily noticeable.
“No one outside of that ever said anything to me,” she said.
Dickson said the most important thing for young people to do if they decide to get a piercing or tattoo, is to do research about potential companies where they’d like to work someday. Others make decisions on where they work based on whether they have tattoos.
“People set decisions,” Dickson said. They may say: “My piercings are part of my identity and who I am, and if they don’t want to hire me, based on this on this industry, then that’s probably the industry I don’t want to be working in.”
Then again, I’m only 44. Ask me again in ten years.
Also non-Biblical.
Does Disney still prohibit facial hair?
Yuk, definitely a turnoff.
Mrs WBill pithily (and ironically) observed, "Well, there goes his career as an investment banker."
Massive grommets and facial piercings and full sleeve tattoos say one thing to me - "This person has issues making good decisions." Prejudice? Probably. However, a job is mine to give. If a person doesn't like that, they probably should not have chosen to tattoo gang symbols on their forehead.
Sez me, if the tats can be covered up, then probably I'd say "No Problem". It would be a concern for any customer-facing employees, since it's at best, a distraction. It also depends on the tat...I'm more likely to approve of a heart with "Mom" on it, than a heart with "Creeping Death" on it and bloody dagger through it.
Played drums in Rock/Metal bands from 1974 to 1997. Had very long MTV hair. No tattoos. One August it was Africa hot. Too much hair. Wasn’t going to wear a pony tail. Just cut it off. Can’t do that with ink. BTW, the week before I had proclaimed I would never cut my hair because it was my “Rebel Yell”.
I think this is debatable both ways. Certainly the OT says not to do it but is that part of the moral law which continues after the NT or is it a ceremonial or Jewish law which doesn't. I personally don't know and perfer not to have a tattoo myself because of this but I am not prepared to say it is a sin for someone to get a tattoo. From a secular standpont I think a physically fit human body is one of the most beautiful things in creation so I prefer to decorate my body by staying in peak physical condition. To put on a tattoo would be like putting a moustache on the Mona Lisa as far as I'm concerned. But, to each his own.
We went to the water park on the 4th of July. It seems that nearly 70% of the people I saw had tattoos. Nearly 90% of the blacks I saw had tattoos, at least 70 to 80% of the hispanics I saw had tattoos, at least 50% of the whites I saw had tattoos. In fact, it seemed easier to count those WITHOUT tattoos. They all look disgusting—like graffiti-—. I don’t get it. I never will. I don’t know how these people find jobs and why they waste so much money looking perfectly disgusting. Some people had gang insignia for their tattooes. Others had a boyfriend or girlfriend’s name as a tattoo. I kept thinking to myself: what are you going to do if you end up breaking up with your boyfriend or your girlfriend and you are stuck with that tattoo? What really fries me is in the supermarket. Watching people pay for their groceries with food stamps and they also have tattooes. Somehow they managed to find money to pay for their tattoos but they use taxpayer money to buy their food. And the young people in this country are in for a rude awakening when they discover that their tattoos don’t age very well and look even worse on on wrinkled and sagging skin. This country is sinking to new lows with each passing day IMHO.
I remember twenty-five years ago working for a boss who absolutely HATED tattoos of any type. I recall once he went on vacation and while he was gone his assistant hired a very attractive blonde girl.
He was not back more than an hour from his vacation when he spied this new employee (from at least 30 feet away) and began turning red. He pulled his assistant into a closed-door meeting and was in there blowing his stack for at least an hour. At the conclusion of that the assistant went to this blonde girl and let her go, telling her it “was just not working out”.
What was the cause of all this? A tattoo of a rose on her ankle, no bigger than the size of a dime. A middle-aged candidate for bifocals, he spotted this from more than ten yards away and blew his top.
Tattoos on women are plain old ugly to me. Tattoos on men look stupid to me. Might as well wear earrings and primp/preen in the mirror all day, because that’s the first thing I assume you do if you’re sporting anything other than an ugly old “I got drunk in the Navy one day” tattoo.
Pure BS. Maybe in fast food...
“It wasn’t in his place to say something to me about my tongue ring.”
Who would hire someone with that logic.
So much for getting a job as a speech teacher.
Not sure, but I’m thinking the Yankees still have a no beard policy.
I believe it was Tertullian who argued the position that it was sinful to alter your body in any way.
When I see someone with just massive tattoo coverage ( face, neck, hands, thighs, etc) and huge piercings, my first impression is that that person has emotional problems and self loathing issues.
When I see someone with just massive tattoo coverage ( face, neck, hands, thighs, etc) and huge piercings, my first impression is that that person has emotional problems and self loathing issues.
They hired a girl where I worked. She was all conservative and everything. After a few weeks it was clear that her interview persona was a sham, and she was a disrespectful slime with tattoos, piercings, weird clothing, bad hygiene, etc. They asked her to empty the trashcans around the office. She was gone after one more day.
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