Can Engineers Have Tattoos?

Hi,
I am currently a female freshman attending a college of engineering. I am attending for mechanical engineering. I already have several tattoos. I have three that are occasionally visible, depending on my clothing: on the back of my neck (lower region), one behind my ear, and one on my collarbone. I don’t regret my tattoos at all, and in professional attire (which, to me, would be a modestly-cut shirt with a collar, and pants) and with my hair down, none of them are visible. However, I still wonder this. Are visible tattoos okay for engineers at all? My father is an engineer, and he only has a wedding ring tattoo visible, but I don’t think that’s quite the same as, say, a mandala on your forearm. I would love to have tattoos on my arm but don’t want my career to be affected by this.

Do you see yourself as having a career? Or just a job? What is your ideal job in 10 yr from now?

In the early 90s, I worked for a structural engineer who was about 50 years old and had several tattoos. I think the reaction will vary, depending on the company and/or supervisor.

I want a career, of course. Ideally I’m not sure what I want to be doing. Like I said all I know for sure is the mechanical engineering part.

In your opinion then, should I wait on a forearm tattoo until I’m in the career field?

It depends on the companies.

Okay, let’s say I don’t get any tattoos on my arms. What about the ones that I already have, that are able to be covered up by business clothes? Do you think I’d have reason to worry about them? The one behind my ear is covered up by hair when I wear my hair down as well (it’s a small tattoo of the sun and the moon if that’s relevant).

Now I’m not saying go get tatted on every square inch, but be who you are. If they don’t like that person then you probably wouldn’t want to work there anyway. If you try to hide them and they get “found” they will think you were trying to hide something. Good luck.

My point is that you are not going to be at the tools for long if you aim for a career in big multinational companies promoting diversity, trajectories for women can be pretty awesome and you will be wearing business clothing for way more time than you wear the fluoro shirt and crispy pants. So in 10 yrs time you spend most of your time in meetings and running a large dept. I vote you wait.

I don’t see the need for urgency. Wait until you have established yourself in your job.

The current one are probably fine. I’d wait on the others.

Not having a tattoo on your arm can’t hurt you when interviewing…having one could…I’d wait.

Often in work situations, people are asked to remove their piercings so that customers perceive the employee as a representative of the company, not a representative of themselves. You are young so it is hard for you to see that tattoos can be a real turn off to those who want to trust and believe that you are competent and careful.

Get your first job before you get more tattoos then you have a real company to ask what their attitude is about tattoos.

Life is long, and it sucks to have them removed. Your tastes at 21 may be wildly different from what you will want at 45 or 65. As might your career. I’d say keep them discrete – in my opinion, forever.

Agree with Lakemom. Tattoos may be “you,” but you’re still young to know what opportunities will come your way. I know a 30-ish guy whose job and client sensitivity require him to wear long sleeves to cover his foream tattoos. He’s miserable in summer.

As an engineer with tattoos, I will say that it varies by company and by customer. Meaning that some companies (mostly smaller) will care about ANY tattoo while others (mostly larger) will care only if the tattoo is exposed AND offensive to some group of people. And, of course, while you can to some extent choose the company for which you work, you can not generally choose the customers - depending on who they are, you may be covering up occasionally or all the freaking time.

Tattoos are gaining greater acceptance all the time. I’ve compared tattoos with coworkers, bosses, customers, and professors - one professor saw Maxwell’s equations (differential form) on my arm and rolled up his sleeve to show me the Tensor calc version on his! Every day companies care more about your skills and ability and less about your appearance or out-of-work interests.

I would look at it like this: there are currently some employers who would not hire you because of visible tattoos. Assuming that you would want to work for such a company, then every additional visible tattoo expands that list. As a freshman, you should not be shrinking that list any more than necessary, so I would advise holding off until you know better where you want to work and what that will require. Until that time, only get tattoos where professional attire would normally cover them anyway.