Chances of an engineering career with tattoos?

I’m a junior Mechanical/Computer Engineering student and I’ve been planning on getting a tattoo - a bar on each of my arms with panoramas of the treelines at the state parks near my past two universities. The bars would be on my upper arms and they would show under most short sleeve shirts (I’ve tested this with masking tape and washable markers), but my main concern now is about my chances of getting a job after I graduate. I’ve done some research on the companies that I’ve been looking at applying to (Google, for starters) and found that they’re relatively tattoo friendly, but I’d still like some input from others.

Probably depends on the region and company. But if it is covered by normal clothing, it is unlikely to be noticed.

If you are in doubt, why not defer getting tattoos until you have graduated and observed how they are viewed in the region and type of company that you work at?

I manage software engineers at a large multinational company and I have many members of my staff who have tattoos. There is no problem here at all. There may be companies out there that have issue with it, but mine does not. This is the 4th company I have worked for and none of them had problems with Tattoos. Some piercings were an issue, but not all.

There are plenty of people who can’t stand tattoos. I strongly recommend that you position any ink where it can’t be seen on the job. Even in work situations where nobody has ever said a word, a visible tattoo can affect promotion without your ever knowing - like bad breath or poor grammar or swearing or myriad other things that only bother a few people, but those few feel very strongly.

Most software companies would be friendly to it, but why not get them so they would be covered by most short sleeved shirts? Then you have more control on when to show them.

I have tattoos, I know other engineers with tattoos. It has not been a problem… because they are where we can conceal them if needed. I have tattoos on my upper arms and they are somewhat visible when I wear short sleeves, so I am careful about when I wear short sleeves and what I do when I am wearing them.

By far the best solutions are to either hold off until you have a job or else get them sized and placed so that you could comfortably conceal them.