“But you’ll regret it in five years.”
“It won’t look good when your skin gets wrinkly.”
“No one will hire you if they see you have tattoos.”
Raise your hand if you’ve heard any or all of the above statements. OK, you can put your hands down.
I don’t have a tattoo. I’ve thought about it. I know what I would want and where I would get it (although I think I’m too much of a chicken to actually go through with it). But whenever I’ve brought it up to older generations, they say some derivative of one of the above statements. I think the one that bothers me the most is the third one—that employers will be less likely to hire you if you have a tattoo. That may have been true 10 or 15 years ago, when fewer people had tattoos and our grandparents were still doing the hiring.
But generally speaking, that isn’t the case anymore. It’s the people of our parents’ generation doing the hiring now—a generation that is much more tolerant of tattoos than our grandparents. And before long, our generation will be doing the hiring—a generation even more tolerant of tattoos, probably because so many of us have one. According to Reuters, “[As of 2015], 40 percent of millennials have at least one tattoo…” And that seems to be fairly accurate—maybe even a little on the low side. I live in a college house with three other people, and I am the only one without a tattoo. It’s not uncommon anymore. And regardless of how common they are, it honestly seems consistent with discrimination if someone is not hired based on whether or not they have tattoos.
Because who’s to judge what anyone puts on his or her body? As cliche as it sounds, it is truly a form of self-expression. No one gets judged for getting their ears pierced or coloring their hair—two semi-permanent transformations. This is likely because piercings and hair dye have been deemed socially acceptable (who gets to decide that, I have no idea). Tattoos are just a few steps behind.
Not to mention, none of my friends with tattoos have ever regretted getting one. I know—you're probably thinking that we’re still young, and there’s still time for regret to sink in. But I don’t think that will be the case. I’ll admit that there are some people out there who get stupid, regretful tattoos on a whim (i.e. the name of a significant other who later becomes an ex). But for the most part, anyone who gets a tattoo has thought long and hard about what he or she wants and the meaning behind it. After all, we know it’s permanent! Especially after hearing that point reiterated over and over and over again, as if we didn’t hear it the first time.
With more and more people getting tattoos, it’s becoming the new normal. The fact that something has to become “normal” to be accepted by society is pretty sad. But the stereotyping and discrimination that goes along with having a tattoo needs to stop somewhere. And although it's taken a while, I'm glad we're on track to becoming a more accepting, nonjudgmental society.
