One of the business casual requirements is the absence of signs of non-standard appearance. Nowadays, tattoos have become a common form of self-expression. Some employers are driven by their prejudices and stereotypes when refusing to hire people with unusual appearance since they are worried about the reputation of the company. However, a denial of employment because of the applicant’s tattoos is a more serious issue than it may seem at first glance. Tattoos should not be banned in the workplace because democratic society should guarantee freedom of expression unless a person poses a threat to others and the environment and the very tattoo is not offensive, contradictory or confusing.
As a form of self-identity, a tattoo is a cultural symbol representing young people belonging to a particular subculture as well as the transformation of the human inner world and a link to his or her individuality. The human body has always been of great importance as a sacred object. Society has controlled human body throughout the history, but there is no specific mechanism of such regulation today. The modern person is between the millstones of natural instincts and civilizational achievements. The forms the body gets after some modification express the social pressure resulted from the modern cultural crisis.
The modern liberal democratic Western society has given a rise to the concept of ‘morphological freedom’ and ‘my body, my choice.’ Morphological freedom determines a right of a person to keep unchanged or change his or her own body in any way they want.
Anders Sindberg defined the concept as “an extension of one’s right to one’s body, not just self-ownership but also the right to modify oneself according to one’s desires”. Thus, the democratization of society leads to social toleration of almost any type of deviation from the standards of behavior without any sanctions if this deviation does not lead to a socially dangerous behavior. Unfortunately, a deviation from accepted standards of behavior may lead to certain health implications.
Nowadays, people, especially the youth, represent an association of communities, which are interconnected or indifferent towards each other. They often do not take each other seriously, do not see each other or are in conflict with each other. There has been a sophistication of social organization, which is related to the intensification of cultural ties and exchange and an increase in cultural diversity. New trends and phenomena arise. They do not displace or replace the previous ones, but find a place next to them, thereby deepening and complicating social and cultural complexity. At the same time, new trends introduce misalignment into the culture, becoming a source of potential social tension. A change in cultural context of human life entails a change in the adaptation process. Obviously, this process is complicated for the younger generation in any historical space. The more active the civilization development is, the more difficult the problem of familiarizing with contemporary realities becomes.
Thus, the choice of cultural models in modern conditions entirely belongs to the young people and, thereby, tattoos, which are, obviously, a choice, should not be banned in the workplace because they represent the people’s free will that cannot be and should not be restricted.
Thus, tattoos should not be banned in the workplace. Otherwise, it is a violation of the basic principles of democratic society, namely the freedom of expression. There are no laws in the United States, which prohibit free tattooed citizens from getting a job. Thus, a ban in the workplace on such insignificant grounds as having a tattoo refers to discrimination.