A divisive topic, a taboo in some places but embraced by whole cultures in others, tattoos and piercings have made their way into mainstream culture with 1 in 4 Luxembourgish residents possessing them according to the Luxembourg Times. An intrinsically catholic country demonstrating such high numbers of tattooed citizens signals a wind of change, but are these progressive thoughts transferred to the 4 walls of a job interview. Through the rise of woke culture in 2024, body modifications should pose no threat to employment, right?
“People should not be discriminated if they have a tattoo, or a piercing and it should not play a factor whether you should employ someone or not” – A business Student
The numbers at a glance
In preparation for our excursion into the capital for some field research, we launched a survey on our social media platforms asking the question of “Would visible tattoos and piercings be considered a disqualification in a job interview in 2024?”
The poll received 411 votes, with 7% of people still believing that visible tattoos and piercings absolutely should be considered a disqualification in a job interview. 53% of all people felt that it was dependent on the job that they are applying for and 40% stated that they no longer believed visible tattoos and piercings should be a barrier to getting a job! Interestingly a Human Resources worker stated in the comments that it was not so much the job that played the decisive factor, it was more the type of tattoo that was on show.
Question: Would visible tattoos and piercings be considered a disqualification in a job interview in 2024?
- 7% - Yes, absolutely
- 53% - Depending on the job
- 40% - Not anymore!
The corporate battle with ink
Traditionally, the corporate world has been conservative in its approach to appearance, often favouring a clean-cut and professional aesthetic. Visible tattoos and excessive piercings were viewed as potential distractions or even deterrents to professionalism.
So we headed to the streets to find out more, starting by interviewing the head of personnel of a large company on the topic and he stated:
“Being in the role that I am in, you get to work with all types of people, obviously everybody is different and if tattoos and piercings are an expression of their personality, or part of the person, then who am I to judge”.
This paradigm shift is releasing tattoos and piercings of the negative association it previously held with counterculture, perhaps so much so that future generations may be inclined to believe that not having tattoos is the rebellious move.
A HR worker claimed, “We are on the right path towards the acceptance of tattoos and piercings in a professional environment, we have progressed a lot and we will continue to progress”. However, he also mentions “People are human, and we all have our own preconceptions of the world and difficulties to get rid of them. We like to say that we are open minded, but we are not.” A further testimony of a banker placed an emphasis on hiding tattoos or piercings in job interviews for more “traditional companies”.
The general trend seemed to be people distancing themselves from the same mindset as companies or employers within the corporate realm, many people acknowledged that there was a stigma within the job interview process but that they did not agree with it.
A new narrative
A majority of people felt that in the current climate, body modifications were a form of expressionism and should not be held against anybody in job interviews.
A dentist acknowledged that “gross” tattoos may pose a threat to the hiring process but that “they are OK now, they are accepted almost everywhere”. The addition of the temporal adverb highlights the recognition of a time where the presence of a tattoo or piercing would pose a threat to employment chances. All in all people tended to place their focus on tattoos rather than piercings, leading to the conclusion that people do not deem piercings an issue.
However, in 2024 our society has developed to a stage where people are accepted for who they are and not what they look like with one woman expressing that “they do not affect job performance, so why should it be a problem”. Maybe it is because of where we live, with one man claiming that “it is much more accepted in Luxembourg, than in places like Portugal or Italy”, showing the forward-thinking mentality of the Luxembourgish population.
Nevertheless, there were a few people that still disagreed, a teacher claimed, “My friend wasn’t explicitly denied a job because of his tattoos but one can argue that it was down to this reason as they did not give any other arguments” and an architect said it would be hard to get accepted for “serious jobs” with visual tattoos. Arguably, all jobs are serious jobs but seemingly people still believe tattoos can taint your chances of employment.
Either way with the ever-increasing rise of tattoo culture it will be an engaging debate for years to come. At Moovijob.com we value self-expression and identity be it through ink or any other form, always try to transmit who you really are in a job interview.
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