By Rylee Soapes
A Pew Research Center study found that four in ten people between the ages of 18 and 29 have at least one tattoo.
According to marketplace.org, Meredith Haberfeld – an executive career coach – said visible tattoos can send a message of rebellion to potential employers.
Margaret Williams, dean of the Rawls College of Business, said while the college does not prohibit students from having visible tattoos, there might be encouragement to avoid them depending on the industry a person chooses to find work in.
“If your CEO is wearing custom suits,” Williams said, “you need to fit in with company culture.”
Williams said there are factors that weigh in to whether it is considered acceptable to have visible tattoos at work.
“I think the idea is, if you want to keep your options open, with respect to putting your best foot forward in the job market, its probably better to avoid visible tattoos,” Williams said.
According to Williams, tattoos in a more professional business setting can serve as a distraction from one’s ability to perform their job.
“What we try to do is give students advice to put them in the best possible position they can be to launch their careers and to get the jobs they want to get when they graduate,” Williams said.
Williams said getting a tattoo may be a risky move for one’s carreer as people from older generations holding positions of power in the business world may not understand the appeal of tattoos.
“What is it about that person that made them want to get a tattoo?” Williams said. “It seems very foreign from the baby boomers’ experience.”
Nikki Lytle, a business major, said she was given some advice on personal appearance when attending career fairs.
“A lot of the employers were going to be of an older generation who weren’t used to seeing a lot of tattoos,” Lytle said, “so it was advised to us to cover up our tattoos.”
Lytle said she believes tattoos should not be considered unprofessional and shouldn’t be a factor in how hirable a person is.
“I think that they are a person’s expression of themselves, and you’re not hiring them based on how they look or based on what they have on their body,” Lytle said. “You’re hiring them for the work that they do and their ethical values.”
Lytle said it is not an employer’s place to judge someone based on piercings or tattoos.
“If they have tattoos,” Lytle said, “it shouldn’t have any affect on their work as long as they’re good at their job.”
In an email, Jamie Pitman, the student development program director for the Rawls College of Business, states the Career Management Center tells students to cover up any and all tattoos.
“Some places of employment do not allow you to show a tattoo,” Pitman said through an email, “so you may even have to be prepared to keep it covered on a daily basis in the workplace.”
For more information on the Career Management Center, visit http://www.depts.ttu.edu/rawlsbusiness/about/cmc/.
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