Walking on a college campus everyday, you see a variety of things. One of the most prevelant things that you see on college campuses nowadays is a variety of tattoos and piercings.

I've grown up in a family where tattoos and piercings aren't nearly as accepted as I would like. Dad, if you're reading this, you should probably just stop and wait for next week's article.

We are in times of change.

I hate to say this to the generation before me, and I don't mean any disrespect by this, but having multiple tattoos and piercings doesn't have any hold on your work ethic. In fact, my favorite professor in college had both of his arms fully tattooed. He is one of the most reliable professors out there (shoutout to Doctor Gethings), and is in class to ensure that everyone is learning the material that is important.

With that said, some may say that having multiple piercings and tattoos just isn't professional. To some degree, I can understand this. But this is also a problem, because this all goes back to the fact that we judge people based on their looks WAY too much. We are all guilty of it, but this has got to stop. There are very professional people out there who have no good ideas and can't present a plausible idea, while there are some heavily tatted and pierced people who have great ideas. Looks don't mean everything, people.

I think what irritates me the most about the stigma behind tattoos is that tattoos are a form of art. We often look at art as something highly valued and impressive, but for some reason as soon as we put it on our bodies it becomes "highly unprofessional" and "irresponsible". This just doesn't make any sense to me. Essentially by getting tattoos, people are setting themselves apart because they are getting a piece of unique art permanently on their bodies. Almost every tattoo I've ever seen has a deeper meaning behind it, and when you find the deeper meaning people often think it's the coolest thing ever.

Going back to people saying that tattoos are 'irresponsible', I can't see this at all. In fact, I don't think there's anything more responsible than taking time to think about getting something on your body, paying money for it, and knowing that it will be on your body forever. That's a permanent decision that is hard to reverse, and the most responsible decisions are the ones you can't reverse because you have to think long and hard about them.

We have to turn around the stigma that tattoos have an effect on people's work ethic and instead, see them for what they really are, which is art. Tattoos aren't a defining factor for people. We need to stop looking so much at image and start looking for ideas that people have to offer, because that is what's going to make the world prosper.