Body Mods and Job Discrimination
Sunday July 12, 2009
What would/should/can you do if your employer discriminates against your tattoos and/or piercings? What, if any, legal recourse do you have if someone refuses to hire you because of your body mods?
This is actually my QOW (Question of the Week) but while drafting my response, it lent itself to other thoughts and subsequently a much longer answer than I usually publish here as a simple blog. So, instead I published it as an FAQ article page, which can be viewed here.
Comments
Seriously this is bullshit! My personal opinion is that if you have a face or neck tattoo or a body mod above the neck you shouldn`t be able to get UI. Honestly if you have those mods or ink you are not really serious about getting a job. Besides work is not the place for self expression. And honestly we would like to not be judged on appearance but on our work but lets get serious. If you didn`t want to be judged on appearacne then you wouldn`t be moding your body. It`s not like an implant, or ink makes your body more efficient it`s for looks.
So accept the fact that people that do mods are after shock value and stop being shock if people judge you (the way you obviously want to be judged) on your tats and mods.
There is no legal recourse for a person who alters their image away from the image their employer wants to present to their client base.
Have a good day.
DoubleA, apparently you don’t know too much about the people who get body mods. A lot of tattoos and piercings are done for personal reasons. As in my case, I have the word veritas on my left hand and aequtias on my right hand in honor of my father. Many people get tattoos for such reason, not “shock value”. Not all body modders are attention seeking teenagers.
So tell me, is it OK for a company to tell me I can’t write code for them because of something I did in honor of family, which wont inhibit me in doing my job? Thankfully I found an employer in my field who understands that it makes no difference, however for many people this is not the case.
Most body mods are for far more than just “shock value”.