Tattoos have become increasingly common in Britain, particularly among younger adults, but workplace acceptance still depends heavily on where the tattoo appears. Research suggests employers and the public are considerably more accepting of tattoos on the arms than those on the face, neck or hands.
Around 40% of British adults aged 25 to 49 have at least one tattoo, according to a 2024 YouGov poll cited in the original report. An earlier YouGov study found that 26% of British adults overall had tattoos, including 11% with at least one on a typically visible area.
Face and Neck Tattoos Face More Resistance
Sociologist Dr Michael Rees said tattoos have gained broad social acceptance, but a divide remains between easily concealed designs and those on areas such as the face, neck and hands. Rees has tattoos on his own hands and neck but waited until securing a permanent academic job before getting them.
His concern reflects wider attitudes. A 2022 YouGov survey found that 63% of Britons considered face and neck tattoos unprofessional, while attitudes toward tattoos elsewhere on the body were substantially more accepting.
Dr Alyssa Grocutt, whose academic research examines tattoos in the workplace, has also found that the design itself can influence perceptions. Participants viewed people with intimidating imagery, such as skulls and knives, as riskier, while floral tattoos were more closely associated with creativity.
Overall, Grocutt said applicants with visible tattoos remain slightly less likely to be hired than otherwise similar applicants without them. In creative industries or entrepreneurship, however, tattoos can sometimes function as part of an individual’s personal image.
Tattoos Move Further Into Everyday Culture
Tattoos were historically associated with groups including sailors, criminal gangs and later countercultural movements. Rees said celebrity culture and television helped make them more familiar from the early 2000s onward.
David Beckham was particularly influential after beginning to get tattooed in the late 1990s. Tattoos are now common among musicians, athletes and other public figures, making them far less unusual than they were several decades ago.
Tattoo artist Martha Smith, who specialises in fine-line and dot-work designs in Kent, said her client base has also become more diverse. She regularly works with people including teachers, NHS employees and social workers.
Smith said customers increasingly choose tattooists for their individual artistic styles rather than selecting a standard design from a catalogue. That shift has helped tattoos become another way for people to collect and display original artwork.
Acceptance Still Depends on the Job
Workplace policies have also begun changing. Some major employers, including Virgin Atlantic and the Metropolitan Police, have relaxed restrictions on visible tattoos, although limitations commonly remain for facial or neck tattoos and offensive imagery.
UK law does not specifically protect tattoos under the Equality Act 2010, meaning employers can generally establish appearance policies requiring tattoos to be covered, provided those rules do not result in unlawful discrimination for another protected reason.
For many people who choose tattoos, however, their importance goes beyond fashion. Rees said his research repeatedly found that people used tattoos to represent relationships, recovery, music, personal experiences or other parts of their identity.
That permanence can also become part of their value. Rather than viewing older tattoos solely through the possibility of regret, some people see them as a record of different stages of their lives.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
For more stories like it, click the +Follow button at the top of this page to follow us.