By Dominic Arthur, Staff Reporter.
Tattoos have always been a bit of a taboo, but body art is becoming almost the norm among younger Americans.
The act of skin-inking has been around for 14,000 years or so, and the first tattoo parlor in our country opened in 1891, serving clientele including sailors, criminals and other rebels.
Today, however, body art has gone mainstream. Long gone are the days of tattoos being poorly done and tucked away from the naked eye.
Just look around Delta College and you’ll see men and women with a variety of tattoos, ear gages, piercings and studs.
Exhibit A: Delta College Economics Professor Eric “Q” Beckman, who has “eighty-five percent coverage” of his skin with tattoos.
“I’ll never be able to work for Disney,” he said.
“Q” can be described as a punk rock business man that’s rarely seen out of suits. Through his colorful button down shirts, his vibrant tattoos peak out for everyone to see. On his arms, the sleeves are a mixture of curvaceous lines and fun patterns that seem to tell a story.
Beckman got involved with the art of tattooing after he turned 18. After he got more involved in the tattooing community, he “was looking for jobs with more importance on what you know rather than what you look like.”
“For me, I look like this,” Beckman said about his colorful array of tattoos. “People can’t have selected prejudices.”
A study done by Pew Research Center shows that seventy percent of tattooed people between 18 and 29 “decided to conceal their body ink under clothing”.
That means that for every three illustrated folks you see, there are seven more walking around with their tattoos under wraps.
Technology offers options for tattoos that many people have never heard of: black light ink that is only visible under an ultraviolet light, watercolor ink, and even 3D technology are options for decorating today’s skin canvases.
Pierced and tattooed Delta College broadcasting student Michael Bernadoni has a strict rule to keep his body art from coming between him and a future dream job.
“I personally keep my ink where I can hide it if I need to,” he said. “No neck, face, or hand tattoos.”
Bernardoni believes businesses prefer to be represented by people whose appearance won’t startle customers.
“I think employers should be able to judge to a point,” he said. They “should be able to decide on if they do or do not want to have visible tattoos. Especially if they’re offensive.”
“I think that it depends on the industry,” said Daniel Segura, Associate Director of Counseling/Advising and Career Services at Delta College. “It depends on where you live. Like, out west, they don’t really care about tattoos.”
Segura continued, “When you have a visible tattoo, you’re making a decision that you don’t care what people think and you’re going to express yourself that way. But don’t blame people for not being able to get a job. You made the decision that expression is more important.”
Daniel Segura also stated that tattoos will be “more and more accepted as time goes on” and that they’re becoming “less and less of a problem every day”.
He also suggests that anyone working with a tattoo “understand how they may be perceived by somebody else”.
Tattoos are no doubt going to be something that we see more often than not. It seems that employers may have no other choice but to get with the times and possibly redefine what constitutes appropriate employee appearance.