HELP!!!Tattoos and work

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Champaign, Illinois

Subject: RE: HELP!!!Tattoos and work

BAMBAM66 - 2007-12-01 8:04 AM

dcossey - 2007-12-01 2:04 AM

As a person responsible for the occasional hiring of others, I would never judge someone for their tattoos... With that being said, your question (and your research) is very difficult because you are actually asking about cultural issues that can be very different across many different lines of individuality, socio-political upbringing, religious influences, and regional customs. This is, in fact, why laws against discrimination are so important. (Although, one would be hard pressed to argue that a tattoo is a judicially discriminatory trait!)

My mom, for instance, would tell you that a women who has pierced ears, one piercing in each ear, is perfectly acceptable, but the same woman having two piercings in each ear is a vulgar person seeking undue attention to herself. A tattoo... well, to my mom that's just Satin painting his mark on the person! LOL. She is very distraught by all of her son's wives (and sons) who have ear piercings, tattoos, and such. (Rebellious damn kids!). This, of course, illustrates the difficulty of such a question. Ultimately, it is why we all need to learn to accept others for who they are and not who we want them to be....

I know... my opinion got a bit out of hand here.... sorry...

I like your part about the cultural differences. Is it okay to quote you on that?

Quote away!! :D

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Subject: RE: HELP!!!Tattoos and work

drchaya - 2007-12-01 11:26 AM

ok, I am a primary care physician, with a small office and have hired people with and without tattoos. What I find is that PATIENTS notice and comment on it when the medical assistant has one - we had an MA who had 'drug free' on her arm, so when she was getting vitals, drawing blood etc it was right there. So for me kind of wasted time (which I do not have much of) discussing it with patients.

>

aahh, your MA is Straightedge!

. So am I, and I definitely would have said something to her about it. Personally, I hate it when nurses or PA's or MAs don't take time to at least make a bit of chat...it just makes me feel like a pincushion freak, not like a human. Aye your time is precious and there's no excuse for dallying about, but still, any sort of dr's appointment is stressful for the majority of people, and anything that can make them feel a bit more relaxed (even if it is a tattoo) is going to be appreciated.

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Subject: RE: HELP!!!Tattoos and work

phoenixazul - 2007-12-01 2:03 PM

drchaya - 2007-12-01 11:26 AM

ok, I am a primary care physician, with a small office and have hired people with and without tattoos. What I find is that PATIENTS notice and comment on it when the medical assistant has one - we had an MA who had 'drug free' on her arm, so when she was getting vitals, drawing blood etc it was right there. So for me kind of wasted time (which I do not have much of) discussing it with patients.

>

aahh, your MA is Straightedge!

. So am I, and I definitely would have said something to her about it. Personally, I hate it when nurses or PA's or MAs don't take time to at least make a bit of chat...it just makes me feel like a pincushion freak, not like a human. Aye your time is precious and there's no excuse for dallying about, but still, any sort of dr's appointment is stressful for the majority of people, and anything that can make them feel a bit more relaxed (even if it is a tattoo) is going to be appreciated.

Not talking about the chatting with her - it was the asking ME about it....I would rather chat about my patient than my MA....I am one of the rare type of docs who actually spends time with patients...(but thanks for assuming I am like all the others out there). I would rather the chats are about triathlon training and how THEY can start, or at least start working out than what the meaning of my MA's tattoo is....

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Subject: RE: HELP!!!Tattoos and work

drchaya - 2007-12-01 3:36 PM

phoenixazul - 2007-12-01 2:03 PM

drchaya - 2007-12-01 11:26 AM

ok, I am a primary care physician, with a small office and have hired people with and without tattoos. What I find is that PATIENTS notice and comment on it when the medical assistant has one - we had an MA who had 'drug free' on her arm, so when she was getting vitals, drawing blood etc it was right there. So for me kind of wasted time (which I do not have much of) discussing it with patients.

>

aahh, your MA is Straightedge!

. So am I, and I definitely would have said something to her about it. Personally, I hate it when nurses or PA's or MAs don't take time to at least make a bit of chat...it just makes me feel like a pincushion freak, not like a human. Aye your time is precious and there's no excuse for dallying about, but still, any sort of dr's appointment is stressful for the majority of people, and anything that can make them feel a bit more relaxed (even if it is a tattoo) is going to be appreciated.

Not talking about the chatting with her - it was the asking ME about it....I would rather chat about my patient than my MA....I am one of the rare type of docs who actually spends time with patients...(but thanks for assuming I am like all the others out there). I would rather the chats are about triathlon training and how THEY can start, or at least start working out than what the meaning of my MA's tattoo is....

I thought you meant they spent time chatting with her and therefore being late for their actual appointment w/ you. I didn't say that you weren't diligent, I just meant that it always makes blood draws and such go much easier for others when there's a chat going on, based on my reading your previous post as they were chatting to your MA about her tattoo. No offense was meant.

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Subject: RE: HELP!!!Tattoos and work

BAMBAM66 - 2007-12-01 11:12 AM

marmadaddy - 2007-11-30 4:37 PM

briderdt - 2007-11-27 12:28 PM I will be getting a tattoo in the near future (a few months -- wife and I will be getting matching tattoos), but I will have it in a place that doesn't show while wearing normal polo shirts (my normal office wear) and pants or shorts. Engineers... Not many tattoos among them.

We're doing the same thing for our 10th anniversary in June. Still haven't decided where to have it placed. I'll be paying attention to this thread.

And yes, it's discrimination but that doesn't mean it's bad. I discriminate amongst people all the time. I teach my kids to do the same. Generally it's based on how someone behaves. I sometimes discriminate based on their appearance and the specific environment, but I'm pretty much a 'live and let live' kind of guy.

Can I use this bolded statement in my presentation on Monday?

Of course.

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Subject: RE: HELP!!!Tattoos and work

OK I sent my presentation to my professor this afternoon like I was supposed to. I got an email back from him that he apparently misunderstood what I was doing for my project and that, as it stood currently, it didn't meet the requirements. He is the one that approved my project and now he doesn'r like it. So now I'm waiting on him to email me back to tell me what I'm supposed to do.I've had problems with this professor in another class and earlier on in this class. I can't decide if I should talk to my advisor about it or not (he happens to be the department chair).

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Brooklyn, NY

Subject: RE: HELP!!!Tattoos and work

mman - 2007-11-30 2:22 PM

MrsUSMC - 2007-11-30 10:58 AM

ScottoNM - 2007-11-29 1:24 PM

mman - 2007-11-29 2:21 PM

I did not hire someone one time because she was too pretty. She was highly qualified, beautiful and was dressed to show it off. We were a two man sales office, usually with only one of us or neither of us there. I didn't figure our wives needed the stress nor did we need the distraction.

Is that sort of discrimination legal?

No, it's not legal.

As a small business (3 people) we aren't subject to the same laws as a big business. The EEOC primarily applies to larger businesses. And even at that, I didn't choose to not hire her because of any stated discrimination laws. I didn't hire her because she'd be a distraction. So, no, it's not illegal.

Sorry, but that's incorrect--it is illegal under the EEO.

EEOC applies to everyone, regardless of the size of the business. You aren't a deep-pockets target (I assume) so it's probably not in anyone's interest to sue you, but you ought to be careful. All you need is one claim brought against you, regardless of merit, and you'll have the EEOC up your butt for the rest of your life.

The reason it's discrimination is because, according to the EEOC, you didn't hire her because she's female. A "good-looking" man, presumably, wouldn't be a distraction, and therefore, the argument goes, probably would have gotten the job if he'd been similarly qualified. That's why it's illegal.

Look, companies practice "look-ism" all the time (though usually it's the better looking people who get the jobs, not the other way around). You think the girls who work at Hooters got hired because of their experience serving beer and wings? I work in the fashion industry, which is rife with it. But don't delude yourself that it isn't discrimination, because it is. Even if you'd hired a (less attractive) woman for the position, you still could have been sued successfully by the candidate.

Sorry for the hijack. The tattoo project sounds interesting. I do a lot of retail recruiting, and almost every company I know is scrambling to update their handbooks to adapt to the popularity of tattoos and piercing. I successfully got my last company to change the dress code which wouldn't allow any visible piercings other than one in each earlobe and any visible tattoos. It had become impossible for field managers to recruit sales help in certain markets (SoCal, Vegas, e.g.)

Edited by jmk-brooklyn 2007-12-02 10:54 PM

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Subject: RE: HELP!!!Tattoos and work

BAMBAM66 - 2007-11-27 11:35 AM

condorman - 2007-11-27 10:10 AM

What if your applying to work at a Tattoo parlor?

Thanks for the laugh! I had a hard enough time convincing my professor to let me do this that if I throw in something he views as ridiculous (this would be it) he could and probably would fail me. He doesn't deem tattoos as appropriate and tattoo parlors are not professional in his tiny view.

I suppose the tattoo artists making more money than your professor don't really care what he things.

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