Debbie Schlussel: Tattoos: A Sign of Power?
The Boston Globe claims that tattoos are becoming a mark of power, even at the office.
A number of white collar professionals are finding that body art is a helpful tool at the office . . . . In some workplace circles, visible tattoos have become the new power suit.
Uh-huh. If your office is the NBA or an advertising agency.
Try going to a respectable office in a non-creative, non-sports industry, and it's doubtful your body canvas of assorted snakes, skulls, and "I Heart Tom"/"I Heart Roseanne," will get you a second interview. As we wrote here, the Coast Guard has updated its rules to keep the overly tattooed out. That wasn't the case before. Starbucks and Blockbuster don't allow visible tattoos. For good reason. It's not very professional-looking.
Most workplaces aren't the sets of "Meet the Barkers" or "Prison Break." The fact is that while they've become more of a fixture of pop-culture, and less thought of as the attire of sailors, soldiers, carnies, and convicts, tattoos are hardly a sign of power. In fact, at bar-time, on women, they're usually a sign of "I'm easy." (Tramp-stamp, anyone?)
Any one with $200 bucks and an ability to stay still while being repeatedly stabbed with a needle can get a tattoo. How is that a "mark of power"? If anything, they're a sign of impetuousness.
We'd say the person with the real power is the guy holding the needle.
We have a number of friends and, we're sure, a number of readers who are tattooed. And we don't hold it against them or look down on them in any way. But we expect that, someday, they'll be shelling out the big bucks to get it lasered off at the cosmetic surgeon's office.
Power? Hardly. Just a needle repeatedly stabbing you for permanent demarcation and likely regret. Would you want, say, your President to be covered in tattoo "body art"? If tattoos are a sign of power, what's next, multiple nose-rings as the new power-tie?
No thanks. Doesn't exactly whet your appetite at a restaurant to see the waitress sporting those.
Posted by Debbie on March 20, 2006 01:08 PM to Debbie Schlussel