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Annie's Mailbox: Tattoos in the Worlplace
Dear Annie: The principal of the school where I teach has some big tattoos on her neck. She says they are Chinese symbols for "good fortune." I think they look trashy. I don't mind tattoos, but I don't think large markings on one's hands and neck are appropriate for school. They don't convey authority, and I have a hard time taking orders from her.
The last time she entered my classroom, she pointed to a poster listing class rules and said she didn't like that it had torn edges. I gently said, "I'm sorry, but I've been preoccupied with my students' reading skills, math and grammar, so the torn edges will have to wait a bit." She left the classroom looking uncomfortable.
The school security guards also have tattoos and not simply the names of their girlfriends or boyfriends. They picture playing cards, dice and other motifs that I consider more appropriate for a biker bar. During the last parent-teacher conference, one parent exclaimed, "Did you recruit the security guards from the county jail?"
Why is it acceptable for teachers, court officers and other professionals to tattoo their hands and necks when it makes them look like street thugs? How do they expect kids to listen to them when they look like that? I warn my older pupils that visible tattoos may bar them from certain jobs. Most of them take my advice. The ones who don't are harder to place for summer internships. -- N.Y.
Dear N.Y.: The proliferation of tattoos on the faces, hands and necks of professional sports players and TV reality stars makes this type of artwork seem more mainstream and acceptable. But just as there are dress codes for businesses, there are also dress codes for schools. If the students are not permitted to show such visible tattoos, neither should the administration and security personnel, who presumably set the example. If you believe this undermines the principal's authority, you can register a complaint with the school board.
The last time she entered my classroom, she pointed to a poster listing class rules and said she didn't like that it had torn edges. I gently said, "I'm sorry, but I've been preoccupied with my students' reading skills, math and grammar, so the torn edges will have to wait a bit." She left the classroom looking uncomfortable.
The school security guards also have tattoos and not simply the names of their girlfriends or boyfriends. They picture playing cards, dice and other motifs that I consider more appropriate for a biker bar. During the last parent-teacher conference, one parent exclaimed, "Did you recruit the security guards from the county jail?"
Why is it acceptable for teachers, court officers and other professionals to tattoo their hands and necks when it makes them look like street thugs? How do they expect kids to listen to them when they look like that? I warn my older pupils that visible tattoos may bar them from certain jobs. Most of them take my advice. The ones who don't are harder to place for summer internships. -- N.Y.
Dear N.Y.: The proliferation of tattoos on the faces, hands and necks of professional sports players and TV reality stars makes this type of artwork seem more mainstream and acceptable. But just as there are dress codes for businesses, there are also dress codes for schools. If the students are not permitted to show such visible tattoos, neither should the administration and security personnel, who presumably set the example. If you believe this undermines the principal's authority, you can register a complaint with the school board.
no subject
Whether or not ink looks unprofessional or trashy depends entirely on your profession, your region, and your class. I don't know if I know any librarians under, say, 55, who don't have at least one tattoo. And for school security guards, there is absolutely nothing unprofessional about tattoos, as long as none of them has "1488" tattooed across their knuckles.
That being said, my general attitude is that pedagogy means that educators and school staff should look professional at a level they would expect from their students. We don't know anything about the dress code of the LW's school, nor do we know anything about the race or class of the LW's students. But while the LW is clearly full of it, that doesn't mean there's anything inherently wrong with expecting educators to meet a standard of professionalism and dress that they expect from students. This LW's wrongness, and Annie's similar judginginess about tattoos, doesn't mean that she is wrong about requirements for professionalism among educators.
(I admit I also flinched at the LW's description of the principal's "Chinese symbols for good fortune".)
no subject
But then, I was born in 1967. I had teachers, growing up, who'd been in one branch or another of the US military and only been able to afford to become teachers because of the GI Bill. My first reaction on tattoos, because of my age and background, is to think military rather than thug.
If that makes sense?
The LW isn't wrong that potential employers will judge based on what they see, though, and getting a tattoo or not is usually one's own decision. (I have a couple of pinprick ones because, when they do radiation treatments for breast cancer, they want everything lined up exactly the same every time and need referents that can't be accidentally washed off.)
no subject