The eternal jobstopper? The future of face tattoos

Jamie McPhee’s first face tattoo was a little star under his eye. He just fancied it. After the star under his left eye, he got a star under his right eye – the asymmetry was bugging him. Before you could say, “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Jamie?” he had a skull and crossbones on the back of his neck, an entire garden on the top of his head, a fish bone behind his right ear and a spider web that covered his chin (complete with spider on the neck).

Some people might look at Jamie’s face and make certain assumptions. He himself acknowledges that the word ‘dangerous’ might spring to mind when confronted with a heavily tattooed face. This couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to the 37-year-old, who is a sweet support worker from Edinburgh. As more and more of the population cover themselves in tattoos, we are ever so slowly beginning to appreciate that being inked on the face and neck doesn’t mean that the person in question is a criminal or a thug. But not for nothing is a face tattoo known as a ‘jobstopper’. 

“When people see me they do feel intimidated,” says 40-year-old Kevin Paul, a tattooist with face tattoos. “But once they get to know me, they realise I’m just a moron.” Kevin has been tattooed since he was 12 years old. He is in an unusual position: he has face tattoos; he tattoos other people’s faces; and, as the owner of a laser clinic, he removes face tattoos, too. He has worked with the government, prisons, with victims of terrorism, and in 2020 made a short BBC film about the perception of face tattoos. “I was one person who was very lucky to find a path and look like this,” he says. “Face tattoos will always restrict you and guide you down a path. It’s the only thing that you can have acceptable prejudice with.”

“When people see me they do feel intimidated,” says 40-year-old Kevin Paul, a tattooist with face tattoos. “But once they get to know me, they realise I’m just a moron.”

He’s absolutely right. Under the 2010 Equality Act, there are various aspects of a person which qualify as ‘protected characteristics’. These are age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage or civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. This means, for example, that an employer cannot legally fire someone for being gay.

You will notice that tattoos of spider webs on your chin are not on that list. The idea is, generally speaking, that someone getting a face tattoo knows exactly what they’re letting themselves in for, making a potentially harmful choice, the consequences of which they are going to have to live with. One could quibble with this argument – getting married and having children are both choices, for example, and you can choose your religion.

Regardless: “An employer would be within their rights to reject prospective employees on the basis of having visible tattoos anywhere on their body,” says Martin Pratt, a partner in employment law at RWK Goodman. “It’s perfectly lawful for someone to have a no-tattoo policy in place.” But should it be?

This antipathy to face tattoos isn’t just anecdotal but borne out in research. A YouGov survey in 2018 reported that, of 501 HR ‘decision-makers’, 61 per cent were “substantially” less likely to hire someone with face tattoos. Some 17 per cent were “slightly” less likely to. This left only 22 per cent, who were split between not caring or being more likely to hire (presumably these were people recruiting for tattoo parlours). The writing’s on the wall for people with writing on their face: get a tattoo somewhere prominent and you’re jeopardising your career.

We may, however, be a little more conservative in the UK than in the US. The same year as the YouGov survey, Paul Antonellis and Rachel Silsbee from Merrimack College in Massachusetts conducted a study of 243 people on a human resource management discussion board. Their results concluded that 20 per cent would not hire someone with a face or a neck tattoo; 30 per cent would; and for 50 per cent it would depend on the position. If we divide that 50 per cent down the middle, it would mean that 45 per cent of respondents wouldn’t hire someone with a face or neck tattoo – still a sizeable minority, but a minority nonetheless.

Antonellis, who has a tattoo of a devil on his shoulder, tells me that his study highlighted that people were on a spectrum and could be persuaded. For a construction job, for example, there will probably be less pushback to a face tattoo than for a job in accountancy. “People are becoming more accepting of it,” he says. Still, he acknowledges that covering up your tattoos (famously difficult in the case of face tattoos) will stand you in better stead. He points to previous research in which people have been asked for their perception of a surgeon, then asked again once they can see that the surgeon has tattoos. The perception changes – and not for the better. 

This is something Jamie worries about: “It’s made me more nervous going into job interviews, that’s for sure. I feel I’m already two steps behind.”

But away from the operating table, having face tattoos doesn’t need to mean falling off the career ladder. Josh, 36, works for Best Buy’s Geek Squad in the US, where he fixes electrical appliances. While at Best Buy he got a cactus tattoo on his face and multiple tattoos around his neck, including 666, the number of the devil. He is a supervisor now, and says he has experienced no prejudice. “It has not been an issue at all,” he says. “Just because somebody’s got tattoos doesn’t mean that they aren’t as capable of doing the work.”

In 2022, a different YouGov study reported that, while 80 per cent of over-55-year-olds considered face and neck tattoos unprofessional, only 47 per cent of 25-34-year-olds did.

Though Josh scoffs at the idea that certain jobs shouldn’t be taken by people with face tattoos, Jamie and Kevin feel differently. Despite both saying that they are not defined by their face tattoos, both think a banker or a doctor with a face tattoo would make them feel uncomfortable. If we are slowly chipping away at the negative perception, these more traditional roles will surely be the last to change. 

Neither Antonellis nor an anonymous City professional I spoke to would have any problem hiring someone with a face tattoo. As more and more of the population is tattooed, it is hard not to see people following his lead, with the excuse that there are concerns about what ‘other people might think’ becoming harder to swallow.

Legally, Pratt hasn’t seen any evidence to suggest that things will be changing any time soon, even if internal policies have softened over the years. But the young people who are now tattooed – whether on their face, hands or neck – may be in senior hiring positions in 20 years and it would be strange if they, too, discriminated against the tattooed potential employees. 

In 2022, a different YouGov study reported that, while 80 per cent of over-55-year-olds considered face and neck tattoos unprofessional, only 47 per cent of 25-34-year-olds did. Will those 25-34-year-olds harden by the time they’re 55? Time will tell.

In recent years, employers may have begun to recognise that they miss out on talented candidates by excluding those with visible tattoos – and in 2016 were warned about exactly this by the workplace expert ACAS. “What I am inside and what I create and how I think about the world is not what I look like,” says Kevin. “Some people can look at me walking down the road and they cross over. But I’ve done more good for this country than most.” Even if things are changing slowly, it does feel like they’re changing.