Tattoos. These are an ancient, sacred art form, prevalent since ancient Egypt. The term first originated in Polynesia from “tatau” which means “To write”. Today tattooing is a very common practice among the youth and otherwise, yet they still hold a stigma.
Tattoos are a form of expression through art that are permanently etched onto a person’s body. Every drop of ink that is injected into every cell of skin has some sort of significance, whether personal or otherwise. They were never intended at being offensive unless obviously someone got a giant, “F*** You” tattooed across their forehead. The point is that these are symbolic patterns that become infused into the human anatomy for the purpose of a catharsis, a remembrance, a revelation, or something meaningful that the person wishes to hold on to for the rest of their lifetime. Despite being more accepted today, they are still criticized by skeptics as being inappropriate because they aren’t a part of a person’s body innately. Many view it as an impurity that has tarnished the temple that is a person’s body. “I think it’s wrong, because you can’t judge someone by their body art, it’s body art[sic],” says Dean from New York City. He works in construction which is why it has never proved to be problematic for him to have tattoos on his arms. However it is a different matter for offices. Being professional spaces, it is imperative to maintain a dress-code. But what if the tattoos were covered well, or even blended into the dress-code without becoming offensive or even flashy?
We live in a world today dominated by “tech companies” where often times the office is a giant warehouse space with a foosball table and the CEO is in a button-down shirt –untucked- faded jeans, and boat shoes and yet there is no negative effect on productivity. Even someone working in the field of medicine, could have a tattoo and it wouldn’t have affected their productivity as long as the person took the correct measures to care for their ink. The navy as of April 30, have amended their tattoo policy allowing certain visible tattoos as long as they aren’t outrageous. The Army, Marine and Air Force policies have also eased up allowing tattoos as long as they are not racist, indecent, sexist, masochist or extremist. According to Allison, another resident of New York City, “I don’t think that there should have to be like any covering up, like as long as the tattoos aren’t offensive. It shouldn’t be an issue especially with like seasons changing and people wanting to wear like clothes they’re comfortable with as long as like it still meets dress-code.[sic]” Both her, and her boyfriend Justin have multiple tattoos and, “There is a story behind some of them,” however neither of them are offensive.
It is quite unfortunate that tattoos are deemed unacceptable by certain people that follow conservative ideals. They believe certain tattoos are disrespectful however they need to be educated in the fact that these marks represent the individual’s freedom of expression through an unconventional form of art. Moreover their faith in tattoos remains unrenewed due to certain ignorant, careless or inconsiderate individuals that provide these services without maintaining a standard thus becoming responsible for spreading diseases such as Hepatitis-C. This has created an ingrained fear in the minds of those conservative few that lead them to discourage tattoos further. Justin, a resident of Long Island with an array of tattoos believes that, “They should definitely be more accepted. You shouldn’t be discriminated by like where your tattoos are, you should be judged by the skill of your work and what you can do. The people judging you on your outer appearance is just stupid.[sic]” His girlfriend Alia agrees with him regarding the “stupid” part commenting that, “It will take a little time.”