About one in three Spaniards today have one or more tattoos on their body, a type of body modification that is common and often used as a method of expression. However, although they are now commonplace, until recently and still today some people link them to crime. This also has an effect on the working environment.

Does it cost more to find work with tattoos? Let’s discuss it throughout this article.

Tattoos: the basic concept

Tattoos are all those drawings, marks or texts that are made on the body of a person or animal through the injection of some type of pigment under or on the skin. This is a type of body modification that can be permanent or temporary , depending on the method used to draw it.

The tattoo is mostly used today as an element of artistic expression, but its function and the consideration it has received throughout history has been very diverse and changing through time and cultures: it has served to symbolize the passage to adulthood, as an element to frighten enemies, as a magical protection, as a method of connection with the spirits and in religious events, to identify social position or to mark criminals or prisoners.

Classic Vision

Although tattoos have been used since ancient times in very different cultures and traditions and for different purposes, the truth is that in much of Western society they have been used initially by sailors and later adopted in sectors that have traditionally been associated with violent or marginal lifestyles .

This type of thinking has remained throughout history until practically the present day, something that has permeated the mentality of more than one generation and the vision of tattooed people as dangerous, even if today the function of the tattoo is in almost all cases merely aesthetic and expressive. This has clearly affected tattooed people in many ways, one of them being at work.

In this regard, when it comes to applying for a job, many people have been turned down outright, largely because they are tattooed, especially in public-facing positions. Some of the reasons given for this are the image of the company for being considered rude, unprofessional and not very serious , or the consideration of which tattooed people are dangerous or what they set a bad example.

Many of them ask to have a concrete image, associated to formality, which rejects the realization of body modifications. In fact, even if today it is not such a marked handicap as in the past, companies often demand that in case of wearing tattoos these are covered with clothing or are not visible.

Modern Vision

The previous way of considering tattoos is still in force in some sectors of society, but the truth is that little by little a change in the social consideration of these body modifications is being observed . The fact is that the increase in their popularity and the fact that a great part of the population has some of them makes the prejudices towards tattoos decrease and improves their social consideration.

Today, they are increasingly seen as a mechanism for expression, in many cases being linked to something meaningful for those people. Companies are increasingly permissive and tend to put less and less obstacles in the way of candidates who have them given their great popularity . In addition to this and given the high percentage of people with one or more tattoos, if this type of population were ignored now, companies would lose a large percentage of the candidates.

However, it is a tendency, and even in part of the population the belief of the tattoo as something negative and pejorative for the person who wears it persists.

Another aspect to take into account is the progressive development and the increase and rise of less traditional and more alternative companies. Also have increased greatly the companies with more modern and young mentality , with greater adaptability and flexibility to the times and with an aesthetic and a profile that seeks to be more fresh and current, able to have their own ideas and give added value to the company.

Does it cost more to find a job with one or more tattoos?

The answer to the question that gives its name to this article is the following: not always, depends on the job and the company in question .

Many of the companies that still demand a specific image, such as banks or highly prestigious multinational companies in direct contact with the client, still demand that they either do not wear tattoos (nor piercings or other body modifications) or that they are hidden. Also in sectors such as medicine or education, they are usually less valued or they are requested to be hidden. In addition, in cultures such as the Japanese one there is more discrimination (since the tattoo is associated with local mafias), even preventing access to some civil service positions.

On the other hand, there are more and more companies that do not give importance to having or not having tattoos, and there is less and less discrimination in this respect. This change can also be explained by the greater prevalence of younger and alternative businesses, as we have indicated above.

In fact, in some cases, having a tattoo can even help in hiring, giving a more current , close and natural look. This is especially visible in the case of young men.

Bibliographic references:

  • French, M.T., Mortensen, K. & Timming, A.R. (2018). Are tatoos associated with employment and wage discrimination? Analyzing the relationships between body art and labor market outcomes. SAGE Journals.