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 Health & Beauty | May 2006 
Tattoo Blues
 Jessica Pasko - Associated Press
| | (Paul Warner/AP) |
For Jacky Kirkpatrick, 24, preparing for work each day as a hospital secretary takes a little extra work. First, she has to take out her nose ring, then make sure all of her 16 tattoos are covered up.
Short-sleeved shirts are out, and skirts and pants must be long enough to cover the tattoos on her calves, feet and ankles. A chunky watch on her left wrist covers the lines of poetry tattooed there. Her long hair is left loose to cover the large Aries sign on her neck.
It's tricky in the summer heat, but Kirkpatrick is insistent: "I can't show any of them at work."
Many young employees find themselves in the same boat.
It seemed like a great idea in college to get that tattoo of a giant tiger on the forearm or that silver barbell through the lip. But now that they're entering the "real world," potential employers aren't quite as enthusiastic about body modification.
Randall Hansen, a career adviser and professor of marketing at Stetson University in Florida, says, "Although opinions of tattoos may have softened a bit in the last one or two years, the vast majority of employers prefer to err on the side of conservative."
What to do? There's laser removal of tattoos of course, but that's expensive and tedious. Besides, maybe you don't want to permanently remove your body art or jewelry.
Mark Spallone, 24, works at an engineering firm and keeps his five tattoos hidden under a shirt.
A tattoo artist suggested Spallone think carefully about being able to cover them up, if need be, for job interviews and meeting new girlfriends' parents. It was good advice.
"Sometimes certain white shirts are too sheer, but for the most part, I can cover them," Spallone says.
Employers are usually even less lenient when it comes to piercings, except in some creative fields where the corporate culture is more relaxed.
But if you are insistent on keeping those piercings intact, there is an option: A retainer can take the place of jewelry in their piercings while at work.
Retainers are typically clear acrylic or quartz glass pieces that are put in just like jewelry but are much less visible.
They can be bought relatively inexpensively (under $20) at most places that do piercing and/or sell body jewelry.
For septum piercings (the part of the nose that separates the nostrils), there are short metal U-shaped retainers that can be slipped in and flipped up inside the nose.
Kirkpatrick, who hopes to become a midwife, compromised by taking out the labret (center indentation between lip and chin), the septum ring and the second nostril piercing.
But the extra work is worth it to her.
"Each tattoo has a lot of significance for me," with some representing the people she loves, she says.
"I'm planning on getting a sleeve covering most of my arm next." |
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