Tattoos in the Workplace: An Analysis of Bias and Discrimination

Research Question and Literature Review How do tattoos affect the workplace environment? This is the question that we based the study on. Tattoos in the workplace are a big controversy in an everyday life situation. Everyone has different beliefs on whether tattoos should be covered up or not. Before conducting the survey, we believed the subjects would find problems with employees having tattoos. Other sociologist who have studied tattoos in the workplace such as Williams, Thomas, and Christensen (2014) stated “... new research shows that such stigma and prejudice lead to workplace discriminatory effects, specifically related to potential employment and workplace policies, practices, and promotions” (p.374). It has scientifically been

Out of the forty one subjects, 83% of them were female. The majority of collected data was based upon the female subjects due to the fact there was a majority of females over males. As shown in Graph one, the female participants were more likely to have tattoos, while the male participants were less likely to have tattoos. Of the thirty four female participants, twenty one of them had at least one tattoo. Out of the seven male participants, only three had one or more tattoos. 86% of the participants believe tattoos have never affected the way coworkers or customers treat them. Graph two shows the majority of our subjects do not believe tattoos affect the workplace environment. Of the twenty four subjects with tattoos, eighteen of them believe tattoos do not cause any problems in the workplace. The information in Graph two correlates to how the subjects feel about covering their tattoos while in an interview. While eleven participants believe their tattoos have affected whether they get the job or not, twenty six, or 70% of the participants believe their tattoos had no effect on acquiring the job. Majority (58%) of the subjects did not find having to cover their tattoos offensive while applying for a job or while in the workplace, as shown in Graph three. We asked the participants whether they would make their employees hide their tattoos or not if they were a manager or in a higher up

Prior to conducting our surveys we thought that tattoos would have an effect. With the findings from our survey we found that most of our participants did not feel that tattoos in the workplace were a problem. Applying our research to sociology, we found Charles Cooley’s looking-glass self was a fine example for why employers may want their employees to cover up their tattoos. As researchers we have recognized the flaws in our survey so we can conduct a better one. Our results showed that tattoos in the workplace were not a big problem like we had originally