Tattoo discrimination

[ambertskullz]

How many of you have a story of discrimination at home, on the streets, or in the workplace because you have tattoos? i'm looking for a few good stories to add to my paper for a college english class. Your stories will only be viewed by me and my professor. and i'll post my final paper here as well. i'm just looking for some first hand stories to back up my arguement. it's one thing to say "people often get dascriminated against for their tattoos". i would love any input thanks!

[Christina]

You may also want to check out these threads

Things that make you to WTF?
http://www.inkedinc.net/forum/topics/808665:Topic:3177?id=808665%3A...

and

Tattoo Ignorance
http://www.inkedinc.net/forum/topics/808665:Topic:3035

There are a lot of experiences just like you're looking for.

For myself, when my uncle first saw my tattoo, he asked me if it was permanent. I said that yes, it was real, and he proceeded to tell me how every tattoo you get is just another F* you to every one who cares about you. I told him how I talked it over with my mom, and she was there with me when I talked with my artist, and through both sittings. My uncle said, "your poor mom," and then proceeded to tell my mom she had made a big mistake "letting me" get it, she was a poorer parent for it, blahblahblah. He also wrote an email to my Grandma (who handed me a blank check for the work after she saw the outline done, and was also very supportive), with an attached article about the connection between tattoos, gangs, drugs, sex, breaking the law, and so on. Never-mind all the other great things I've done in my life, I have a tattoo, I must be on the path to drug addiction and felonies.

I'm really interested to see how your paper turns out. Can't wait to read it!

[Erin]

I would like to see what happens with your paper. I have never really been discriminated against because of my tattoos before.

Anyone else?

[ambertskullz]

thanks for the help! that should be a good enough addition for me :D yeah some people are extremely ignorant when it comes to tattoos..and even piercings. for instance, when my mom first saw my lip piercing se refrained from talking to me untill the first words that burst out of her mouth is "that's disgusting!"....how is a hoop through your lip any thing worse than one through your ear? and i can't understand how some family can be so supportive and other members basically disown you. people are just plain ignorant.

[ambertskullz]

okeeday! i've posted the final draft...i'm pretty satisfied with it. if it were a longer paper i could go on and on about it. but short and sweet is good :D

[Erin]

i think people not liking something and people being discriminatory are pretty different.

[ambertskullz]

well here's the definition i found.....
discrimination:
treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.

that's pretty much it....lol i think of it as my mom (who knows that im a good kid who gets good grades and she considers me to be "very beautiful") suddenly calling my face disgusting for one small hoop?

[Amber Allen]

I feel you ambertskullz. My mom wasn't very supportive on my piercings either. After I had my SECOND set of earrings put in my EARLOBES she flipped. I was 15. Told me I should take them out, that would ruin my "classic beauty"... she repeated that every time I got anything done....Now, with a total of 12 piercings in my ears, she told me that I'm "ruined", and that if i took them out I'd be "fine again".. i explained to her my earlobes are scarred now, and that I love my piercings. When I had my tattoo done, she dropped me off at the tattoo place when i was 16. Told me she had her consent then drove away. Later, when she came back, and I was done, She was in shock that i even went through with it...and when she saw the size, well... she went crazy. ha ha... now i'm getting two more tattoos done, and every time i mention them, she looks like she's in physical pain. She's really not happy with what i've chosen to do to myself.

Oh, and during this summer, when I got my nose pierced, when she saw that she was VERY not happy, and when it fell out during Thanksgiving, she was trying to convince me not to re-pierce it and to let it heal over. As soon as I got back to the city, I re-pierced it... I had realized I couldn't recognize myself in the mirror without it... I knwo its a minor piercing, but true all the same for me.

[Kevin]

IV hard trouble at home and in the work place one is dedicated to my grandmother the other is for luck. My aunt screamed at me for getting my in memory tattoo done for my grandmother which was her mother. She lectures just about every day I'm 22 i thought before I did. I get told even in my household to cover them up I refuse. I get told I should never have got a tattoo in the first place but yet a relative of mine gets a tattoo and her reaction is that its nice.

[ambertskullz]

its so very rediculous. peopel should just get over it. i can go on for days about how rediculous it all is. all i can do is hope it can get better and be grateful for the genorous and caring poeple that dont discriminate based on silly thigns like that. it is somewhat of a common reaction and can only be explained away so much due to culture shock. i mean decades ago the only people walking around with tatts and piercings were skinheads and punks...the really nasty people..but that was DECADES AGO! get over it people! lol

[StMichael]

Well I have to wear long sleves & long pants if I want to visit my mother, needless to say I have not seen her for 10 years. After I got out of the army 1983 I went back to my home town in Michigan the only job I could get right away was going back to my old job, but at least I was a mgr. now. I interviewed w/long sleve shirt on { I had got serval lrg. tat's on both arms} On my first day I had to wear the uniform they had given me w/short sleves, I was told by my supervisor that had he known about the tattoo's he would not hired me. Even though I knew the owener of the co. Needless to say it didnot work out, I left a few month's later befor I knocked out his teeth, all he did was ride my ass.

[Rachel Payne]

I've had some discrimination because of my tattoos. This makes me very sad because I'm about to graduate from college and a lot of people just wont hire me. I don't have very big tattoos but I have one behind my ear and it's almost impossible to cover. I think discrimination in the work place is still very evident in today's society. You would think with all the laws against discrimination they would create one for people who have tattoos. I have one particular experience were I know for sure I didn't get the job because of both my tattoos and piericings I was told on the phone that I pretty much had the job and I showed up and they looked at me and decided against hiring me. I'm hoping for a change in the way people think.

[JD LaRish]

sorry you feel like you might have a hard time finding a post-college job but maybe that's something you should have seriously considered BEFORE getting such a visible tattoo.
unlike most other protected classes being tattooed is a choice.
i feel most businesses have and should retain the right to set certain dress and appearance standards for their employees. it is their business and you will be a representative of it.
sure, in a perfect utopian society things such as tattoos or piercings (or anything else) shouldn't matter, only your applicable qualifications.
but the real world doesn't work like that.
get used to it.
i am heavily & very visibly tattooed. it is not a decision i went into lightly.
although i do not work now i have in the past been the perfect model employee. i know what i can add to a company and if they choose to only judge me based on appearance then so be it. it's their loss.
as the cliched saying goes - change starts from within.
quit blaming others, take responsibility for your choices & actions and learn to move forward.
although all of this may come across as a bit harsh i do wish you the best of luck.