You probably know at least one teacher with a tattoo. Maybe you even know a couple.
In socially liberal Fairfax County, tattoos don’t have to be a secret, and smaller ones—especially those located on places like the feet or fingers—are often visible, even in the white-collar workplace of a high school.
But even at Marshall, where dress codes tend to be casual and faculty members have relative freedom of expression, you’ve probably also noticed that teachers tend to cover up larger pieces—sleeves, say, even on hot days. Why hide body art you’ve paid to get?
The answer most likely lies with public opinion and the stigma surrounding body modification like tattoos and piercings.
FCPS’s Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook, for instance, lists tattoos as a possible sign that students are involved in gang activities. According to the Pew Research Center, 22 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 say the increasing number of Americans getting tattoos has been a change for the worse, and 64 percent of adults ages 65 and older agree.
It’s no surprise, then, that Pew also reports that 72 percent of adults with tattoos say their tattoos are usually not visible, a percentage that is almost the same for Millennials as for older adults.
And yet the poor public opinion of tattoos comes at a time when, according to the BBC, two out of five U.S. adults in their thirties have at least one tattoo.
Why are Americans so uncomfortable with tattoos?
As the SR&R’s mention of tattoos suggests, body art tends to be seen as lower-class, sometimes even criminal. This perception, unsurprisingly, harms job applicants who are automatically considered ineligible for positions requiring them to interact with clients based on tattoo visibility.
According to the National Law Review, appearance, including presence or absence of tattoos, also affects how people perceive others’ intelligence, motivation, wealth and “overall capacity.”
While it is impossible to stop people from making some assumptions on the basis of appearance, tattoos are especially stigmatizing of the people who bear them, despite the fact that a 2010 study at Texas Tech University found almost no correlation between having three or fewer tattoos and deviant behavior. (Additionally, the study includes as deviant behavior “regular marijuana use,” which will likely raise fewer and fewer eyebrows as legalization and decriminalization barrel on.)
Tattoos say nothing about an individual’s character, worth or propensity for trouble-making. In a nation where body art is becoming increasingly popular, it’s a shame that those who enjoy it still face discrimination and stigma from the lip-pursers among us.