Black Lives Matter tattoos: Would you hire an applicant with this tat?
Is hiding your tattoo considered hiding your political stance?
Imagine walking into a job interview knowing that 49.39% won’t take you seriously if they see your tattoo. Reading that poll result from Workopolis caught me a little off guard. It’s not that I’m unaware some people don’t like tattoos. It’s more that the average person I meet these days has at least one tattoo, so I’ve grown pretty desensitized to seeing them. I also don’t care if someone has a tattoo. In 2020, I hired 10 people after interviewing at least 20, and I can guarantee you that body art didn’t phase me.
In all fairness, there are a couple of reasons for that. The first, and probably most important, reason is that I have a tattoo — technically I have five tattoos. They’re just all in the same spot. I got so many cover-ups in the same spot that my grandfather used to call me “Etch A Sketch” and a former co-worker called me “ComEd” (electricity company in Chicago) for getting laser surgery so much. I didn’t want a bunch of tattoos all over the place, so I’d just redo the same tattoo over and over again when I didn’t like it.
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I’m also the artsy type who can get lost painting ceramics for hours and turned a simple bathroom wallpaper job into decorating my fuse box and entire hallway. I like creativity. Without standing up to count them, I have no idea how many framed paintings are on my wall, and that’s not even including the photographs from the days when photography was my minor in college. (I can fill up a bookshelf as tall as me with photo albums.) Besides writing, artwork is my thing. But what if your “thing” clashes with finding a job, specifically political or social justice stances? Are you more invested in the statement or more invested in a paycheck?