Having tattoos is increasingly common and gaining social acceptance but getting one in a spot that is difficult to cover up can limit career prospects.
Access Pro Bono Society executive director Jamie Maclaren, who is 39, listened to punk rock and was into skateboarding before becoming a competitive snowboarder complete with sponsors when he was in his early 20s.
Tattoos were a natural part of that lifestyle, Maclaren said. They now cover virtually his entire body except for his hands, neck and face.
But he was always conscious not to get tattoos on places where he couldn't cover them up, he said.
Maclaren was hired several years ago to head Access Pro Bono, which recruits lawyers to volunteer time to help lower-income people fight cases in the justice system.
"When I go to legal events, for the most part, I'll always wear long pants and a long sleeved shirt," he said. "So, I am discreet."
Dale Darychuk, who chairs the society's board of directors and is a partner with Darychuk Deane-Cloutier, is not bothered by Mac-laren's tattoos.
"I've never seen Jamie's tattoos so it makes no difference to me," Darychuk said. "[But] I'm sure having a tattoo on your face does hold back a career" he added. Everything is an impression. It depends on what your clientele is and how you present yourself."
Even tattoo artists believe that getting a tattoo on the neck or face is career limiting.
"I get guys coming in looking for work as a tattooist and they have crap on their faces, necks and hands," said West Coast Tattoo owner Thomas Lockhart. "I don't want to hire them myself and I'm a tattooist."
Lockhart never tattoos customers' faces and only tattoos someone's neck if the person is middle-aged and clearly mature enough to have made what could be a life-altering decision.
And Lockhart believes that if potential employers think tattoos make someone look unprofessional, they will likely not hire them, even if they have to come up with another reason for not doing so.
The legality of discriminating against someone who has a tattoo depends on the context, said Davis LLP partner Richard Press.
The B.C. Human Rights Code allows employers to discriminate against people who have tattoos unless the tattoo is central to a person's religion, sexual orientation or political belief.
Press brought up the outrageous hypothetical example of a man who has a swastika tattooed on his neck as being indicative of his political belief.
"It's arguably discrimination to fire someone for that," he said. "But it is contextual. It is one thing to hire that person as a custodian at night where not many people will see him as opposed to him being hired to be a spokesperson for a charity. There's a principle of accommodation to the point of undue hardship."
Two Vancouver women were fired as Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq:SBUX) baristas in the early 2000s because they refused to remove nose rings. They filed complaints with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in 2003, alleging that Starbucks' policy to forbid nose rings discriminated against their race, ancestry, place of origin and sex.
Both women argued that South Asian women wear nose studs as a symbolic way to represent their culture.
Their lawyer, Lisa Fong of Ng Ariss Fong, told Business in Vancouver that the case settled out of court and that Starbucks then agreed to change its dress code policy.
Conflicting legal decisions have taken place across Canada.
In June 2009, a Quebec judge ruled that forcing a daycare worker to cover up her tattoo violated her rights. The daycare, however, still had the right to prohibit inappropriate tattoos such as ones that show violence.
Conversely, an Ontario arbitrator ruled earlier this year, in a case involving Ottawa Hospital, that employers are not able to require employees to cover up tattoos without evidence that shows that the tattoos will have an adverse impact on the business. •
