From schools to Buckingham Palace: How tattoos became acceptable at work
By Madeleine Ross
Whether it is the name of an ex-partner, a football logo or a badly spelled saying, there are plenty of reasons why it’s a bad idea to get a tattoo.
Historically, having an inking made getting a corporate job more difficult, as hiring managers and supervisors did not see them as professional.
Tattoos have been creeping into boardrooms and become less taboo in the workplace.Credit: Getty
But tattoos have been creeping into boardrooms and become less taboo in the workplace. A YouGov poll last year found that more than a quarter of Britons have tattoos and 11 per cent have visible ones. Younger people are much more likely to be inked and one in three workers have at least one tattoo.
Virgin Atlantic became the first UK airline to allow crew to have visible tattoos in 2022 and several police forces have become more permissive.
While the British Army does not allow offensive or obscene tattoos, it changed its rules in 2022 to allow inkings on the back of the neck and hands, which, alongside face tattoos, were previously considered “job-stoppers”.
Many other workplaces have also relaxed the rules on covering up in recent years, as younger employees become more open about having tattoos.
London-based Miriam Kuepper, 24, who works in media, said that her mother warned her against getting tattoos on her hands.
“When I got my first finger tattoo my mum said I would have a harder time finding a job but that’s not been my experience,” she said.
When she previously worked as a teacher in Switzerland she got some pointed questions about it from older teachers, but said she did not feel that she needed to cover up.
Kate Harding, 34, who works as an administrator at a financial services firm, has tattoos on her chest, arms, hands, legs and neck.
Visible tattoos are no longer considered an impediment to getting a job.Credit: Scott McNaughton
She said it hasn’t caused her any problems finding jobs but that she regularly hears comments from clients about how she doesn’t look like they expected.
She said the traditional “no neck, no hands” rules are old-fashioned. Parlours will usually refuse to tattoo in prominent places unless their client already has tattoos.
“There will always be people that see them as trashy or unprofessional but I genuinely believe that since I was 18 getting my first, the corporate world has become a lot more accepting,” she said.
Manicurist James Reeve-Shillito, 34, has tattoos covering much of his arms and neck, alongside face tattoos.
He said he rarely encounters any problems, despite being warned when he was younger not to get prominent inkings.
“Occasionally I have had the odd comment on why would anyone allow me to work there. The vast majority of people say how much they like it as it’s relatable and moving with the times,” he said.
Ronia Fraser, a former accountant and head of finance, said she would have struggled to get a job in her native Germany with her full sleeve tattoos but that she never felt pressure to cover up while working in London.
“When I was working in corporate, nobody was supposed to look the way I did, being an accountant,” she said, adding that: “The culture has become much more casual anyway.”
But there are still professions where being tattooed remains a taboo.
There are still some jobs where tattoos remain taboo.Credit: Getty
Harry, a 22-year-old nurse from Devon, said his leg tattoo is typically hidden by scrubs, but that he worried when he briefly worked at a GP practice that he would get in trouble when he wore shorts.
“The only people who made comments were an elderly lady, who commented on how she liked it, and my boss,” he said. “I did have a consultant psychiatrist comment on it when I told him I had them and he didn’t seem to approve of me being tattooed as a professional.”
Emily Pomroy-Smith was told to hide her ink when she worked at an estate agent in West London from 2010 to 2015.
She said it was often down to individual managers to set the rules on tattoos in the office and described one making a trainee cover a neck inking with a plaster.
“It was made very clear to me by that manager that the dandelion on my leg needed to be covered, which meant I had to wear trousers or tights, even on the hottest days, not great when commuting on the Tube,” she said.
But Ms Pomroy-Smith said attitudes were already changing by the time that she left and that she is comfortable with her own employees having tattoos.
Lecturer Tracy Richardson said that after she got a full sleeve on her arms, an email went around reminding employees that tattoos should be covered. She said she hadn’t thought much about it before then, as many of the staff and students had ink.
“It’s not a protected characteristic so even though not in my contract, it was deemed ‘unprofessional’,” she said. “Over time it was clear to me that judgments were being made by colleagues who I had never expected them from.”
Now self-employed, she said she gets compliments on her tattoo sleeve but that she recognises that some clients do not want to work with people with inkings.
Entrepreneur Eleanor Meadows said one of the key reasons that she wanted to work for herself was that she has faced “genuine discrimination” as a result of being tattooed in the office.
She said: “Some places I have worked have outright said I must cover my arms as ‘it looks unprofessional’ whereas other places can be a little less subtle: ‘You’re not right for this job,’ immediately after I take my jacket off.
“I have had customers call me ‘a disgrace’ and have lost count of how many times I’ve been told it makes me less attractive.”
But she said her response to the judgement is always that the royals did not seem to mind.
“When I was working as a housemaid at Buckingham Palace I found myself on a few occasions standing in front of a royal with my tattoos on display and not once was it an issue.”
The Telegraph
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