End to tattoo taboos

Last year, Justin Miloro had to wear long sleeves to conceal the Buddha curling around his left forearm and the yellow-orange sunrays on his right.

Last year, Justin Miloro had to wear long sleeves to conceal the Buddha curling around his left forearm and the yellow-orange sunrays on his right. Pants covered the depiction of Earth on one leg and wings on the other. The sun spreading across his back was under wraps. The plugs in his earlobes were obscured by bandages.

8220;I thought it was really silly,8221; Miloro recalled, 8220;worse than seeing the tattoos.8221;

This year, he has nothing to hide 8212; even though the 32-year-old worked last year for Whole Foods Market Inc. in Boston, where he was a salesclerk, and now works as a manager for the same company in Los Angeles, overseeing health and beauty products departments at 25 stores. The chain has looser dress and grooming standards in some parts of the country than others.

Once associated with drunken sailors, felons and Hells Angels, tattoos have gone nearly mainstream, putting employers in a bind. How to write rules that won8217;t alienate un-hip customers on the one hand or eliminate talented workers on the other?

A pink rose discreetly inked on an ankle might pass muster at a hospital but not a day-care center; an eyebrow stud will be viewed as charming at one store and a blemish at another. In many cases, grooming policies are being set by members of a generation known for letting it all hang out.

8220;The baby boomers had hair out to the ceiling, cut jeans, ripped clothes that they washed sometimes,8221; said Mark Mehler, co-founder of CareerXroads, a New Jersey recruiting and consulting company. And now boomers are passing judgment on nose rings.

The irony isn8217;t lost on Fred Saunders, president and founder of FSPS Inc., which stages concerts and productions for companies including Nintendo Co. and Walt Disney Co. Some of them demand clean-cut crews: trimmed sideburns, long hair pulled into ponytails, no detectable tattoos.

Story continues below this ad

Of course, Saunders, 57, doesn8217;t often take his shirt off during contract negotiations: On his back is a tattoo tableau featuring a samurai warrior skirmishing with a dragon. 8220;There8217;s a shock value to the art,8221; he acknowledged, and some people get a 8220;negative vibe8221;.

Nearly 50 per cent Americans between 21 and 32 have at least one tattoo or a piercing other than in an ear, according to a 2006 study by the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Men and women alike say their tattoos make them feel sexy and rebellious, a 2003 Harris Poll found.

Policies are all over the map. PricewaterhouseCoopers8217; says only that employees must wear 8220;professional8221; attire. Employees at aircraft maker Boeing Co. can show off tattoos so long as the designs aren8217;t what a spokesman called 8220;offensive8221;, but grocery workers at Vons are advised to totally cover up.
Molly Selvin LAT-WP