The Rise of Body Decorations

According to a survey by CareerBuilder, 60% of the employers they spoke to will not hire candidates with tattoos or body piercings. The same study indicated that tattoos were the third most common reason used by employers not to promote an employee, just behind bad breath. In this day and age, can our appearance really hold us back just as much as it would have done 100 years ago? 

Although tattoos have been traditional and popular in many cultures around the world for thousands of years, in the West they were mostly the decoration of choice for sailors, military personnel and prison inmates until very recently. However, in the last 20 years, we have seen tattoos become more and more popular among all types of people, from the man in the local shop to celebrities, entertainers, sports people and even politicians. 

Piercings are also a trend that has become increasingly popular. Traditionally, in the West, women had only their ears pierced, but now it is quite common to see both men and women with pierced ears, lips, eyebrows and noses. Again, this has been a traditional custom in other cultures around the world for many years, but has only gained popularity in the West in the last 20 - 30 years. 

With both piercings and tattoos now so common, why is it that some employers still discriminate against people who have chosen to have their image altered in some way? Is it because they are still stuck in an era when this wasn’t the norm? Or, is it that they believe that employees in customer-facing positions should mirror the customer as much as possible? Whatever the answer may be, altered appearances will soon be more common than not in Western societies, which can only be good news for somebody with piercings and / or tattoos looking for a job.