You have a tiger tattooed on your face. You're hired!

Kendra Behringer, after an interviewer disliked her face piercings, is starting an initiative to make body modification discrimination in the wokrplace illegal. Not over color, age, gender, ethnicity, pregnancy, (all of these already protected) but tattoos and piercings.

The 24-year-old Edmonton woman with 22 piercings above the neck — seven facial piercings and 15 earrings — is embarking on a campaign a to make it illegal for employers to discriminate based on body modifications, which would include things like piercings, tattoos and hairstyles.

Focus: Do you agree that government should become involved to legislate "fairness" in the hiring process involving the personal choices of prospective employees?

Alt. Focus: Have you hired modded employees? Would you hire a heavily modded employee for anything where customer interaction is involved? Have you yourself been discriminated for your appearance?

Alt. Alt. Focus: Make fun of dorks with face tattoos.

I'm having a hard time seeing how anyone but the most incompetent employer could be nailed for discrimination. The guys with MS13 tattooed on their necks, or iron crosses on their foreheads, will mysteriously not get a callback. Just as it happens now, they weren't "what we were looking for." Seems like a retail issue as well. Some of the finest concentration of stupid have passed through my retail doors, not modded either. Only one guy had exposed tats, spiderwebs on his elbows, and he was actually one of the most competent dudes I ever had. Also the people that tattoo their entire body to look like a lizard tend not to have the wherewithal to work finance, or law, or bio-engineering. They *generally* aren't exactly making the best decisions already; therefore this is not a quality I'm looking for in a new hire.

And, no, no way in hell would I hire someone with enough shit in their face they look like a Hellraiser Cenobite to sell stuff in a family store. If I ran a fetish club, sure. Construction, factory, bars, IT seem like professions where counter culture lifestyles have more leeway. Who gives a shit if someone's nipple barbell gets hooked on a cable?

I'm also having a giggle fit imagining this fuck-cake serving The Smith Family at Bennagin's:

Spoiler

 

If you have to show that you are the most interesting person in the room you aren't the most interesting person in the room.

 

Yeah-huh. And that's why they are stuck working in places like Hot Topic and Spencer's Gifts: because they look like idiots and we all know that they look like idiots. I have nothing against piercings when you don't try to highlight them. My wife has a dozen, and she still manages to keep her job as a stockbroker in a business setting because she doesn'ttry to make themstand out,she keeps her tattoos covered at work, and also doesn't try to look like this:



...I hate judging a book by its cover, but THAT is why she got turned down for a job. Because she looks like every attention-whoring G8 protester that helped masked assholes throw an E-Bike through a Verizon store window. Every whiney crybaby that bitches how anarchy is the only form of society that makes sense while texting it on a $400 cellphone and ordering a $6 latte.

There is a line of how to look professional that can be crossed. Lawyers and accountants don't dress like Jello Biafra's fluffers when they go to work. And even in retail certain stores want you to look more professional than others. This is another case of people confusing "rights" with "rules". And some stores have rules against hiring people that look like passé wind chimes.

You chose to look that way and now you lie in the bed that you make. If you're not Maori and you have a face tattoo, then you're a moron regardless of your IQ.

We. Are. White People. We looooove attention. And we SUCK....

 

We have a place here for all those alt rocker/tattoo and piercing people. Its called Freebirds and its a delicious burrito place. The chicks are pure eye candy and I love it, but as far as taking them seriously as people, I cannot do it. Any kind of profession where you need to be taken seriously and where people need to trust your judgement and place trust in you for whatever it is, you need to look the part. You can have all the tattoos you want, but they should not be overly visible. Obvious exclusions for this are actual tattoo artists and the like.

Imagine a burrito joint staffed purely by girls who look like this.

 

We've got a bar in my neighborhood called Psycho Suzi's with waitresses/bartenders looking like that, some with a rockabilly slant too. They are dangerously hot, but would not exactly fit in where I'm typing this from. Of course girls don't dress like that here too.

Office and production floor staff are split about 50:50 here and I want to say up to 1/4 of them have visible tattoos, but nothing on the face or neck. There's some nose studs/rings and one new IT guy has a half sleeve but he keeps it mostly covered. It isn't a big deal because they aren't in front of customers and bottom line they are great people that get their shit done. I know my sales prospects and customers in the healthcare industry would likely not be impressed by ink and my own tattoo is covered when I'm wearing a shirt- something I specified when I got it.

My girlfriend and all of her co-workers at a Top Four accounting firm are strictly tattoo and piercing-free, and they work in a much more professional setting too. If (when) I do my own business full-time, I probably wouldn't discriminate hiring based on ink or piercings unless it's something on the neck/face/just plain bad, or huge gauged piercings. I'd have much higher priorities than appearance alone.

 

I have 3 lip piercings, 2 ear piercings, and I look fairly alternative. When I go to a job interview, I take the fucking things out and put clear retainers in. I have a bunch of brands and a tattoo - none of them that you can see if I'm wearing a business shirt.

I generally don't think there's any problem with hiring based on appearance for people who's appearance is relevant to their role. But I don't really have a problem with legislating against aesthetic based discrimination when it's not relevant to the role - I.E. Call center monkeys and the like. If your job isn't to present the company image to people, who gives a shit what you look like?

 

How does he eat? How does he keep his mouth from going dry? Is that hole there solely for the D?

So many questions.

 

Don't ask my why I know this, but there are plugs (like drain stoppers) you can fill the holes with. He's still nothing more than an In-The-Way Person.

 

Gives new meaning to the term "mouthbreather."

 

I'm pretty cool with tats and piercings, but I literally am baffled by that. Like I can't even begin to comprehend the aesthetic appeal of that. The cheeks? Or the gauges under his lips? Probably make it easier to huff paint.

FOCUS: It really all depends. I see more and more girls I work with in a corporate setting with wrist tattoos, and my late 40s CMO just got matching forearm tattoos with his wife. I have an ex that works for GE that has a whole bunch of piercings in both ears and two visible tattoos that isn't an issue at all, which was interesting cause I viewed GE, especially the finance division she worked in, as being really conservative and stuffy.

If I was hiring for a business I owned, or a division I managed, the only fairly common mods that would give me pause are gauges, septum piercings, and neck/face tats. My tattoo artist once told me, "Most tattoos are self expression, neck tats are a life choice...", partially making fun of himself but bringing up a good point as well.

 

"What?? You're disgusted by my appearance? Let me tell you something, facist: this is how I express myself. Not choosing to accept me as your equal in status and employment makes me a victim of discrimination and you the criminal. People who don't like my appearance have to deal with it, because life is a movie and I'm the star."

 

I have worked with a couple of teachers who have obvious tattoos and piercings (don't ask how they got hired. Teaching is about who you know, not always what you can do.) and they are often times the ones who can't get control of their students. I'm not saying outright that it's because of the body modification, but it is a trend I have noticed.

As far as passing laws that don't allow discrimination based on looks, I don't think that's logical. As many people have said, there are some professions where you need to look a certain way for people to take you seriously.

 

Personally I think some level is acceptable and definitely hot. But you can't deny that the extreme body modification is just idiotic.

 

I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

"Would you like steak, chicken or carnitas, sir?"

That guy should sprinkle some sesame seeds on his face and call it a day.