Are tattoos professional? Will tattoos ruin your chance of getting a good, high paying job? Can you be successful with a tattoo?

Tattoos don't determine what kind of worker that you are. You can be an ineffective and ineffectual worker without any tattoos at all. You can be an inspired, hardworking visionary with them.

Many students’ parents’ would probably react the way my mom did. She really believed that if I got a tattoo I would be unable to have a good career.

Since that day we had the conversation, I took a step back from tattoos and have gotten into piercings. My dad doesn't particularly care for my piercings because he feels like it can hold me back from getting a job in the same way my mom feels about tattoos.

I've explained to them both that tattoos and piercings are a means of expression not something that can alter your life.

In some people's homes, it is not such a big deal to come home with tattoos all over your body. And it isn't that big of a deal to people to see piercings and tatoos at school. I hardly ever notice when someone has a tattoo because it looks natural to me.

My dad said that the reason tattoos are taboo is because they were unthinkable back in previous generations. Not many people had them; the people who got them were sometimes of dubious reputation; and because they didn't have the high quality tattooing materials that they do now.

Many business establishments still have dress codes requiring tattoos to be covered and piercings to be removed in the workplace. 

Yet, in today’s world, with piercings so common and tattoos so artistically rendered, shouldn’t we reevaluate our stance on this issue? I stand by what I say when I say that tattoos don’t make you any less professional.