“Times are changing.” We hear this phrase every year as tattoos become more acceptable in the workplace. Looking at 2022, one would hope that we already find ourselves in a world where offices are dominated by baggy sleeves, face tattoos, colorful hair, and piercings on every part of the body without anyone batting an eyelid. We may not have reached our goal yet, but the vision is becoming more real than ever.
Recent research and countless testimonials from workers have shown that notions of professionalism have changed since the pandemic began. At the same time millennials—the tattooed generation– are finally seeing spaces where they can express themselves as their whole selves, alongside Gen Z, who are embracing deep values of diversity and inclusion.
To put more oil in the engine, a bill has just been introduced that would outlaw tattoo discrimination against employers and landlords in New York City. The legislation was proposed by District 7 Councilor Shaun Abreu and has the co-sponsorship of Councilors Natasha Williams, Justin Brannan and Kevin Riley. If passed, tattoos would be protected from discrimination, as would gender, race, age and sexual orientation. Exceptions to the bill would be tattoos that contain hate speech or symbols associated with racism.
“We should focus on merit-based work,” Abreu told ABC7 New York. “Can you do the job? If the answer is you can do the job, what does it matter if someone has a tattoo?”
For decades, previous generations had to deal with tattoo discrimination in the workforce. Donshia Evans, a business development manager with real estate and marketing experience at Colliers International and PingPong Digital, spoke of getting his first tattoo on his back at 18 as a sign of his African heritage. “I got it because I wanted it and it had a deep meaning for me,” he says, “but then when my mother saw it, the fear and anxiety about my future [crept in] about my ability to get a job.”
Evans is one of those 50 percent of Americans under 40 who have tattoos in 2022 and has watched the landscape of inked workers change. “I’ve spent a lot of time with wealthy individuals,” he says, “and those who are younger have tattoos from the wazoo.” After working abroad for years and then returning to the US, he was reminded of how much more normal tattoos are here, especially compared to countries like South Korea and China. “[Back in the States] It got kind of cool because we bonded at certain companies with certain guys — for me, being in sales, because we had tattoos.”
Since the pandemic began, LinkedIn research has been published in Bloomberg News showed that 60 percent of working Americans agree that what counts as “professional” has changed. The study, which surveyed about 2,000 workers, showed that Gen Z are least likely to favor a “traditionally professional” look in the office, with less than 40 percent believing you need to maintain a “conservative” appearance that includes covering up includes tattoos.
Tattooed employees also do not have the negative impact on companies that was previously thought. The Journal of Organizational Behavior came out this February a study entitled “Do employee tattoos leave a mark on customer responses to products and organizations?”, where researchers found that visible tattoos on employees did not negatively impact customer attitudes or purchasing behavior in some white-collar jobs—in fact, customers who stereotyped tattooed employees as artistic and creative were more likely to view the employee and their company in a positive light.
Robert Pauliny, a New York-based project manager at Turner Construction Company, has tattoos from chest to ankles despite serving in a client-facing corporate role. In his work, he had to find the balance of owning his tattoos without them interfering with his work. “I didn’t get any arm tattoos and I still don’t have any really visible tattoos,” he says. To maintain a professional appearance, he began covering his chest, ribs, back, and legs—things that would be covered on a typical workday.
“When I started the company, it was a button-down shirt and tie, and maybe you roll up your sleeves a little bit, and that was sort of the dress code,” Pauliny continues. “It’s relaxed in the last 20 years I’ve been there, from shirt and tie to polo and jeans or khakis. So that opened up the possibility of seeing other people with tattoos a little bit easier.”
Although Millennials are the most tattooed generation, Gen Z is catching up fast 32 percent to have at least one tattoo. By 2025, Gen Z will make up 27 percent of the workforce, and as they take their place in the workforce, other moral standards will be introduced as well. A recent Forbes article Von Ashley Stahl called this generation “a generation that is shaking up business culture and work as we know it.”
Working with Gen Z clients, Stahl found notable differences in the way the group perceives work compared to other generations. They operate with a strong values-based approach to career prospects. Gen Z also tends to have a more negative perception of the tech industry and are more likely to only buy from brands that align with their values. Generation Z is also the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in U.S. history and, as a result, has higher expectations of diversity, equity and inclusion when making workplace choices.
Izaba Paras, Manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging at Opportunity@Work, an organization that brings fulfilling careers to skilled workers through alternative avenues, recently shared a LinkedIn post That went viral from her stunning headshot, which showed off tattooed arms and pink streaks in her hair. The post listed things she’s been told throughout her career, including, “Cover your tattoos, you work in HR. You have to make a mark” and “PINK HAIR?? Isn’t that a bit unprofessional?” In response to all of this, she insisted it was time to look beyond what we traditionally know.
LinkedIn photo of Paras
“The biggest thing for baby boomers was tenure or loyalty to an organization,” she muses. “Millennials are looking for work-life balance. We wanted a job [where] when it was five we could clock out. Gen Z is looking for work-life harmony.”
Harmony, according to Paras, refers to a lifestyle in which employees no longer strictly separate work and private life. Rather, it emphasizes how seamlessly a job fits into the rest of the day. “Now Gen Z is saying, on my lunch break, I want to go to the gym, do some yoga,” Paras explains. “One o’clock, log in. And then, 3 p.m., time for a mental health walk…which I think is so important because it tells us there’s so much more to life.” It’s easy to see that newer generations don’t like a job , which is inconsistent with the rest of her life, including her views on tattoos.
As a tattooed HR professional, Paras sees himself as living proof of progress. She also cites her organization’s HR director as having tattoos on her shoulders that let everyone know they can be themselves. “We see people as they are,” says Paras. “When someone walks in with tattoos, our eyes don’t immediately go to their tattoos. We say, “Hey, great smile. Thank you for showing up. It’s almost normal for us because we’ve embraced diversity so much.” She continued, “Organizations are actually missing out on amazing talent and great and innovative people when we start putting up barriers.
“I would never want to work in an organization that requires me to be someone other than myself, because if I need to be different from who I really am, that will show in my work,” Paras continues. “I can save that energy for my job and not have to worry about what I wear, how I do my hair, how I speak.”
Paras firmly believes that employees feel empowered when companies stop trying to control the looks of their employees. “You’ll see employees who are high achievers,” she says. “They are more committed. You will see a great retention. You will also see happier employees who genuinely want to invest in the success of the company.”
Portrait of a businesswoman using smartphone in the office
The acceptance of tattoos in the workplace is in a transitional phase, and there may still be times when you need to compromise your appearance for the convenience of others. More and more often, however, people are asking themselves, “Do I really want to hide parts of myself or sacrifice things that hold special meaning to me for a job that doesn’t want me to be myself?” Companies are starting to listen and adapt accordingly by changing the look of the workplace.
Evans theorizes that our culture is in a period of transition. “I think that’s just the natural order of things, and that’s where we are with the stigma attached to tattoos,” he says. “I think it’s more of a generation thing. Tattoos are beautiful and inspirational, but they have also been used for decisive and destructive means. So it’s just who is telling the story.”
Pauliny visualized what it would take to destigmatize tattoos in work environments. “I think it’s going to be as we start to embrace inclusivity [in the] Jobs for everyone,” he says. “So it’s probably going to come down to maybe one day you’ll have an HR seminar on this: How do you perceive people with tattoos? Do you think negatively about her when you first see her? do you think about it at all There’s an unconscious bias that you probably don’t even know about.”
Paras tells us that seminars of this type have already taken place. At her company, her team manager trains an entire board on unconscious bias. “We train our hiring board that it doesn’t matter if someone has a tattoo. Can they do their job? (…) So when we have a kid that shows up with tattoos, piercings…since DE&I is embedded in everything we do and because we’re all trained in it here at Opportunity@Work, it’s almost like second nature .”
People are beginning to realize the absurdity of scrutinizing every movement and appearance in the workplace. Encouraged by the way the workplace has changed since the pandemic hit, many workers are finally taking a stand and saying the way we look and how we do our jobs shouldn’t matter. Momentum is gathering faster than ever as legislation such as the new tattoo discrimination ban is proposed. Embracing tattoos in the workplace is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception, and it’s about damn time.