Ryan Davis was 18 when he sought out his first tattoo.
Now 28, the kitchen worker is a little wiser about how his most visible "stains" affect first impressions.
"This" -- he motions with his heavily inked hands toward a zipper across his neck -- "doesn't help me out, I admit."
Those hands, when their knuckles are joined together a certain way, form a larger, intricate pattern. Davis thinks the zipper is rather silly now. The hand designs are cool, but even so, he says he probably wouldn't do it again.
"You're always going to notice the hands," he says. "People stare at me all the time."
Indeed, local experts suggest that in-your-face tattoos might be an extra career hurdle.
Ryan Watson coaches a lot of job hunters as an account representative for Personnel Partners in South Bend.
He works with military veterans -- who have a long tradition of tattoos -- and in fact has six tattoos himself from his own military days.
"But I placed them accordingly so they can all be covered up at work, nothing visible," says Watson, 38.
He advises job seekers to be aware of lingering attitudes, especially in professional or office settings.
"Regardless of how common tattoos get, there's always going to be that stigma," he says.
Watson has a theory about why successful people, those "making decisions in the world" -- don't ink up: "Their expression of self is their drive, what they create. There's something else that drives them," he says. "Not tattoos."
Chuck Knebl, communications manager for WorkOne of Northern Indiana,
which works with unemployed people and companies seeking workers,
offers another reason that managers are leery.
"Importantly, from the employer's perspective, a person who makes a
statement of individualism runs counter to the employer's goal of
strengthening the cohesion of a workplace team," Knebl wrote in an
e-mail. "Thus, many employers would frown on visible tattoos in job
applicants."
Some employers might be more lenient with positions that don't face
the public. But Watson points out that once an employer starts making
exceptions for some tattoos, deciding which are tasteful enough and
which are not, they're entering a thorny area.
South Bend police spokesman Capt. Phil Trent shares that belief.
Potential police candidates are not allowed any visible tattoos, he
says, and that's the same with law enforce-ment agencies across the
country.
"If I allow one tattoo and don't allow another one, I become, no pun
intended, the tattoo police," he says. "We're better off just to say,
'Keep your views to yourself.' "
Police officers often are former military, too, and many of them --
Trent included -- carry tattoos from those earlier days.
But if they're not covered, what might be personal or seemingly
innocuous images to the wearer -- a tribal or religious tattoo, say --
might mean something else to those an officer encounters.
"When the police walk into the room, they're supposed to be fair and
impartial and bring their fairness and impartiality with them," Trent
says. "If they want to know who I am and what I represent, they're
going to have to communicate with me in some other way."
Watson says he'll advise job candidates to take out piercings for job
interviews and to cover what tattoos they can.
"We'll say, 'You're excluding yourself with a visible tattoo,' " he
says. "Legally, you can't be excluded for cer-tain reasons, but as far
as I'm aware, tattoos are not a protected class."
Contact Virginia Black:
574-235-6321
vblack@sbtinfo.com
facebook.com/tribune.virginiablack
Now 28, the kitchen worker is a little wiser about how his most visible "stains" affect first impressions.
"This" -- he motions with his heavily inked hands toward a zipper across his neck -- "doesn't help me out, I admit."
Those hands, when their knuckles are joined together a certain way, form a larger, intricate pattern. Davis thinks the zipper is rather silly now. The hand designs are cool, but even so, he says he probably wouldn't do it again.
"You're always going to notice the hands," he says. "People stare at me all the time."
Indeed, local experts suggest that in-your-face tattoos might be an extra career hurdle.
Ryan Watson coaches a lot of job hunters as an account representative for Personnel Partners in South Bend.
He works with military veterans -- who have a long tradition of tattoos -- and in fact has six tattoos himself from his own military days.
"But I placed them accordingly so they can all be covered up at work, nothing visible," says Watson, 38.
He advises job seekers to be aware of lingering attitudes, especially in professional or office settings.
"Regardless of how common tattoos get, there's always going to be that stigma," he says.
Watson has a theory about why successful people, those "making decisions in the world" -- don't ink up: "Their expression of self is their drive, what they create. There's something else that drives them," he says. "Not tattoos."
Chuck Knebl, communications manager for WorkOne of Northern Indiana,
which works with unemployed people and companies seeking workers,
offers another reason that managers are leery.
"Importantly, from the employer's perspective, a person who makes a
statement of individualism runs counter to the employer's goal of
strengthening the cohesion of a workplace team," Knebl wrote in an
e-mail. "Thus, many employers would frown on visible tattoos in job
applicants."
Some employers might be more lenient with positions that don't face
the public. But Watson points out that once an employer starts making
exceptions for some tattoos, deciding which are tasteful enough and
which are not, they're entering a thorny area.
South Bend police spokesman Capt. Phil Trent shares that belief.
Potential police candidates are not allowed any visible tattoos, he
says, and that's the same with law enforce-ment agencies across the
country.
"If I allow one tattoo and don't allow another one, I become, no pun
intended, the tattoo police," he says. "We're better off just to say,
'Keep your views to yourself.' "
Police officers often are former military, too, and many of them --
Trent included -- carry tattoos from those earlier days.
But if they're not covered, what might be personal or seemingly
innocuous images to the wearer -- a tribal or religious tattoo, say --
might mean something else to those an officer encounters.
"When the police walk into the room, they're supposed to be fair and
impartial and bring their fairness and impartiality with them," Trent
says. "If they want to know who I am and what I represent, they're
going to have to communicate with me in some other way."
Watson says he'll advise job candidates to take out piercings for job
interviews and to cover what tattoos they can.
"We'll say, 'You're excluding yourself with a visible tattoo,' " he
says. "Legally, you can't be excluded for cer-tain reasons, but as far
as I'm aware, tattoos are not a protected class."
Contact Virginia Black:
574-235-6321
vblack@sbtinfo.com
facebook.com/tribune.virginiablack
