Tattoos and piercings -- you either love them or you hate them. Additionally, whether you love them or hate them, the fact that another person has them in no way influences your life whatsoever. Tattoos, piercings, and other body modifications are beautiful forms of art that you can place upon your body. They are aesthetic, they are physical, and they in no way impact who you are or your abilities.

Most job applications always say something along the lines of “no visible tattoos or piercings.” Employers want their employees to be seen as professional, and we can all understand that. But why are body mods so unprofessional? Elise Martorano sums it up perfectly: “We typically associate people who have visible body modifications with criminals, plain and simple. We associate tattooed necks with prison inmates, tattooed biceps with motorcycle gangs, pierced lips with bullies, and stretched ears with high school dropouts.”

But not all people with tattooed necks have been to prison, not everyone with a tattooed bicep is in a motorcycle gang, not every pierced lip belongs to a bully, and most stretched ears aren’t attached to high school dropouts. Stereotypes are always harmful, and this one is no exception. Body modification discrimination in the workplace is a very troubling problem for people with body modifications. Smart, capable, and educated people are missing out on jobs that they are more than qualified for simply because of how they look. Whatever happened to, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover"? A person should not be immediately limited to a very short list of careers the second they decide to modify some aspect of their physical appearance.

Do you really care if your doctor has tattoos all over his body if he has the ability to save your child with a life-saving surgery or examination? Are you really not going to let one of the finest educators with years of experience not teach at your school because she has some facial piercings? It’s hard to understand why people would turn away talented and qualified individuals over something so superficial, but it happens all the time especially in the service industry or white-collar, more “professional” jobs.

Thankfully, body mods (especially tattoos and piercings) are becoming more commonplace, especially among younger people, so hopefully as they become less rare, people will be less biased towards them, and body modification discrimination in the workplace will hopefully *fingers crossed* eventually become obsolete.