Is Having a Tattoo a Liability at Work? |
Is having a tattoo a workplace liability?
This question was at the center of a study led by Matthew Tucker of the Liverpool School of Business in the United Kingdom. For many, tattoos are intensely personal. For some they memorialize someone they loved and lost, for others they’re a symbolic representation of triumph over adversity. Despite these meaningful origins, tattooed individuals have experienced prejudice and stigma for wearing them — negative attitudes that have been particularly consequential at work. But is that still the case?
To pursue this inquiry, Tucker and his team conducted a survey of 435 respondents who were “knowledge workers” in office settings. Over 90 percent of the respondents were from the United Kingdom, and nearly 86 percent had a tattoo. Most respondents fell between the ages of 25 and 39.
The survey was performed in 2022, two years after work from home (WFH) was first introduced — with almost 40 percent of respondents having gotten a new tattoo since the start of the pandemic. The investigators asked participants detailed questions about their body art, including whether they chose to cover them at work, and other open-ended questions. Tucker and his collaborators then analyzed the participants’ surveys for themes.
What did the researchers find? The analysis yielded six themes:
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