ARIANNE HOGWOOD

Body Modification Acceptance In The Workplace

A Brief History

Over the past 10,000 years, body modification has been an important practice in many cultures worldwide.

The meaning of body mods range from religious significance, rites of passage, and even just simple self-expression.

Discrimination

Prospective employees are often discriminated against for having facial piercings, tattoos, or stretched lobes.

If they are even considered for the job, they are often told they must cover their body art in order to continue their employment.

Why is this?

The previous generation that currently controls the business world is traditional and quite stubborn against change.

They view body art as “barbaric” and “trashy”, often associating it with gang activity and drug use.

Employers can be so close-minded, when it should only matter what’s on the inside, not how beautifully decorated you are on the outside.

Statistics

Recent studies performed in America show an estimated 14% overall who have at least one body piercing, and 16% overall who have at least one tattoo. 

A survey published in 2008 by a team of professors at Texas State University concluded that approximately 16 % of people ages 18-24 have both piercings and tattoos.

Those numbers have almost doubled since.

Scarification

The practice is extremely popular in African tribes, the procedure completed as a rite of passage, such as the Jewish tradition of bar mitzvah, symbolizing the maturation of the individual.

It is becoming increasingly popular in modern culture, having intricate designs etched into the skin instead of random scratches.

Traditional Scarification

Modern Scarification

Piercings

Nowadays, people get piercings for many different reasons.

Once upon a time, girls would wear earrings to protect their ears from demons (it was believed that metal repelled evil).

Hindus pierce their nostrils as a way to appreciate their own culture.

Many South American tribes used lip and septum piercings to show social status.

Some just get a piercing as a decoration, or perhaps an installment in their rebellious phase.

Traditional Piercings

Modern Piercings

Tattoos

Tattooing can be documented as far back as 3300 BCE (as seen in the discovery of Otzi the iceman in 1991 and ancient Egyptian mummies bearing tattoos of animals and various creatures).

However, the practice itself is believed to have originated about 10,000 years ago.

It has been widely popular, even to kings, in the past, and continues to be.

Traditional Tattooing

Modern Tattooing

Look at all of the beautiful forms of body art…

Body modifications have so much history and meaning behind them, even to this day.

Now tell me, does it seem fair that people can’t show their body mods off?