29 Mar 2016

You’ve just turned 18 and finally, finally you can book in an appointment for a tattoo. You’ve been sketching up designs in your exercise book for years and now is your time to shine!

Your parents and grandparents refute your desires saying it will affect your job prospects, and may even affect your likelihood of finding a partner (no nanny, it won’t, I promise, tattoos are hot). For them tattoos were a countercultural sign of rebels and gangs and bikers. It’s easy to understand the context of their hesitations.

However, in the modern landscape, are tattoos as taboo as they once were? Will it really limit your career opportunities? Let’s take a look.

Workplaces are striving to be examples of diversity and new age thinking. They look for people from a variety of backgrounds that will contribute different perspectives to their company’s strategies. Many companies adopt the philosophy (and rightly so) that ink doesn’t change the capabilities and intelligence of a person. So in this respect, it is dependent on the employer, which can sway from supa kwl chilla to an uptight, old, suited grandpa. You can’t predict the nature of your employer, but I would say it’s only going to ease further.

As the creative industry is experiencing exponential growth–with employment opportunities in marketing and social media increasing by the day, tattoos have become an expression of the creativity you seek to embody in your career, on social media and in social circles. Tattoos are paraded in these workplaces as identity badges–they’re hard-core or elegant, big or small.

A common misconception is that you’re protected by discrimination laws if you have tattoos. This is false, as per the Australian Human Rights Commission. You’re only protected if your tattoos are inherent to your race. So your employer does have a right to install certain policies, no matter how ridiculous they are (dude, you won’t even see the tattoo on my ass, does it matter?!).

The hands, neck and face are contentious locations, understandably. At a 5-star resort if the concierge attendant has abrasive tattoos on his hands, it may be confronting to patrons. However if the chef out the back does, it may not be an issue at all.

At 18 you probably don’t know what you want to do in life or, if you do, you may not realise how much your path may take a turn in a few years time. While you flock to get inked, I’d advise refraining from your neck (unless you’re Kerser), your hands or face–at least until you’ve found a Big Proper Job and you’ve figured out whether it matters or not.