“Firms have every right to decide who represents them,” said Sandra Beale, an independent human resources consultant who agrees that tattoos should not be visible in the workplace.

“For an employer, if they employ them in a customer-facing role, it could have an impact on reputation and doesn’t portray a good corporate image,” she says. (Kelly, Jon) If companies decide that they want to portray a “professional image” to their customers and employ workers who are free of any body modifications, they have the right to. “Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from making job decisions based on protected characteristics, including race, color, national origin, sex, and religion.”  (Guerin, Lisa)This means that as long as an employer does not discriminate a person based on the characteristics mentioned above, they have the right to “ban or limit body modifications”. Since hiring discrimination because of tattoos is not against the law, employers are not required to hire people who have tattoos .

In other words, people who they believe to be not suitable for the position. They can also fire someone for having visible tattoos at work, since legally the dress code policy had been violated. (Kelly, Jon)TATTOOS ON DISPLAY ARE TOO EXTREME AND SCARE CUSTOMERS AWAYTattoos on display are tattoos that are visible on the hands, neck and face. Often, companies have no problem with tattoos that are easily covered and do not appear while in work attire. Some workplaces will even allow visible tattoos. Generally, once tattoos become visible to customers and there are complaints, this becomes an issue.

 (AIMS) If a company loses a big amount of its loyal customers, they can expect to see a decrease in sales and potentially be at risk of going out of business. It is important that a business considers customer expectations when trying to attract new clients. According to a survey of 262 people done by Macquarie University, “consumers preferred non-tattooed workers.” Chris Baumann, an associate professor at Macquarie University said: “It is clear from our study that consumers are fairly sceptical towards tattoos,” (Collier, Karen and Butt, Phillippa) Society has now mainstreamed tattoos and they are accepted more and more each day. Some employers will hire people who have tattoos, but they are not ready for facial tattoos just yet, since tattoos on the face are still considered too extreme in the workplace. “There were recruiters who had tattoos, who showed me them – they weren’t visible on the hand, neck or face – they wouldn’t have someone with a visible tattoo on display,” said Dr. Andrew Timming from St Andrew University. (Cornelius, Bradley) Dr.

Timming says that visible tattoos do minimize your chance of getting a job, because employers have to think of how their customers will react to certain tattoos. Head, face, neck and hand tattoos may startle or scare customers away. (Cornelius, Bradley)