Dear tattooed women, what field do you work in and has your tattoos ever impacted your career?

I’m a mortician. Yes, some of the stuffier places I worked I had to hide them. Where I’m at currently they’re actually a boon, because it puts my clients at ease. They like I’m not a stuffy suit with my nose in the air.

It’s real sad how often people thank me for being kind to them, because another funeral home was rude and kicked them out based on appearances.

Full sleeve and Im a senior level employee working in a corporate office for a large corporation with all executives in my building and have never had any issues. But I also have the mentality that they can shove it if they do have an issue

I’ve been a nurse for 18 years. But in healthcare for almost 34. Got my first tattoo 33 years ago. Up until about 6-7 years ago I made sure all my ink was located in places that were covered by my scrubs due to verbiage in employee dress codes but my last 2 facilities don’t have a no visible tattoos rule: so I’m branching out to my forearms now

Firefighter/paramedic, not really. I had an older patient say I didn’t contribute to society once but that’s about it.

Heavily tattooed corporate lawyer working for a ‘prestigious’ international law firm. I’ve had tons of problems on this and would always cover up in a full suit with stockings for foot tattoos even but post pandemic has certainly been better. Problems weren’t overt but in a field dominated by old white men you get the judgment stares and you just don’t fit in the corporate look so you definitely get bypassed for forward facing business development activities. Women must look a certain way in our field. I now only cover up for client events but I’m a bit more senior in my career and I just can’t bring myself to care anymore. The best comment I ever heard to explain this situation was “lawyers are tools and clients want their tools looking sharp”.

Accountant. I wear long sleeves when meeting clients. One popped in unannounced and saw a tattoo and made the comment, “I didn’t know you were so wild.” I only have to cover them for about a month out of the year. I wish I didn’t but it’s just easier this way. I’m sure I have proven myself as very knowledgeable and capable where my clients would be surprised at my ink but wouldn’t cause them to seek professional services somewhere else. I just prefer not to have to answer or explain or have any conversation about it with them. So I cover.

I work in IT and I either get compliments or no comments on my tats, never had anyone have an issue with them.

Tech and no.

I’m not heavily tattooed but I have visible ones and two nose piercings. I’m a teacher and nobody has ever said anything.

The only time it’s ever been a problem was when I worked at Safeway in the mid 2000s. Now I’m a Senior PM for a steel fabrication company and it’s not a problem.