College seems to be the perfect time to go out and get a tattoo, and it’s becoming quite common nowadays to have at least one by the age of 25. However, college is also the time for figuring out your future and the career path you want to take. 

 

According to a Fox News poll taken in 2014, 34 percent of their voters under the age of 30 have at least one tattoo. So is this generation no longer concerned with the impacts a tattoo could have on future plans, such as employment?  Is the negative social stigma of tattoos that previous generations dealt with no longer present?

 

Jim Henderson, associate director of employer relations at the Virginia Tech Career Center, knows how vital first impressions are when job interviewing.

 

“When you’re younger and you really don’t know yet what it is that you want to do,” Henderson said. “If you do something that distracts from your appearance in some way, you give that power to the person sitting across the desk to make that judgment.“

 

To a degree, many tattooed students are following Henderson’s advice.  Most students strategically place their tattoos somewhere that would not be too distracting to a potential employer. 

 

Computer engineering student, Michael Feldman, put a lot of thought into his tattoo. Michael’s tattoo is on his shoulder so it could be hidden but then also peek out from underneath the sleeve of his normal T-shirts.

 

“For jobs I would need to make sure I could keep it hidden,” Feldman said. “Because there’s a social stigma nowadays where it’s no good to have showing tattoos or all kinds of piercings.”

 

Michael isn’t the only one who takes into consideration the social stigma. Alli Pratt, a senior studying hospitality and tourism management, always makes sure to hide hers for official interviews.

 

“Sometimes I’ll put makeup on it,” Pratt said.  “I will do like a foundation and then some powder over top, it makes it very faint especially if I wear panty hose over top of that.”

 

It’s nice that students are taking these precautions, but how much do employers really dwell on appearance nowadays? Courtney Trimble, an HR recruiter for USPS says it really depends. 

 

“I don’t normally judge based on it,” Trimble said. “It’s more about the skills and abilities that I focus on.”

 

So as the younger generations continue to become more tatted and proud of it, the negative social stigmas could continue to decline. 

This obligation people feel right now to hide their tattoos could also disappear.

 

 

“This new generations all about the freedom of expression,

and tattoos and body art,” Feldman said. “It’s art and It’s beautiful, why go through an effort of hiding?”