Don’t Let Your Tattoo Send the Wrong Signal

Tattoos come in all types of shape, sizes, and color. Some have meaning, while others are just a form of art. Coming into the corporate world, your future employer most likely will not appreciate if you have tattoos that are in spots that cannot be covered. They tend to be considered ‘unprofessional’ to have (Kilgannon). What is the main reason behind not letting tattoos show in the corporate world?  Why are the considered ‘unprofessional’? To a person a tattoo can mean a thousand things while to your employer it can just mean one thing; that is a ‘no’ when it comes to hiring you for a job.

Tattoos carry the stigma of being ‘unprofessional’. They also are carried with bad reputations, such as gangs (Kilgannon). When it comes to dealing with gangs that is something no employer wants to take any part in. Having a company see an employee that has a tattoo that is gang related puts a horrible stereotype not only for the employee with the tattoo but also for the whole entire company. Gangs carry a stereotype that is much worse than tattoos because they deal with guns and violence (Kilgannon).

An indicator to an employer that a tattoo can possible be gang related is based on color. In an article in The New York Times it states “To many bosses, red ink on the skin means “gang colors”. The next stereotype that an employer sees is the color of the tattoo they think of the background and history that is carried with that tattoo. No employer wants to deal with a criminal, someone who was in prison, or the violence that they can bring. They will automatically pass judgment and say that gangs are without a doubt ‘unprofessional’.

Having a tattoo automatically puts you in a bad placement no matter what the meaning may be behind it.

Kilgannon, Corey. "When Tattoos Hurt Job Prospects." The New York Times. 2013 The New York Times Company, 1 Apr. 2009. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.

This article is about how having a tattoo hurts you getting a job in the corporate world. The article comes off the extremely popular New York Times website. There are plenty of useful, helpful and reliable information that comes from the New York Times website. The author of this article is very credible he has written plenty of articles for this website and none of them have had false information. As a whole this is a great source to use.