Removing Tattoos for Work's Sake

The well known tattoo subculture is quickly making its way into the "normal". That statement shouldn't surprise anybody. Everywhere from New York City to Salt Lake City to Los Angeles to rural Washington, the younger generations (and some well informed older folks as well) are making the move toward using their bodies as a form of canvas. Twenty years ago, it would not have been likely that your favorite grocery store checker (you know, that guy with the incredible soy burger recipe?) would have looked like something straight out of a science fiction novel, but there it is. Tattooing has become so much a part of mainstream culture that nary an eye was blinked when Dr. Jack Shepherd (on the popular TV show, Lost), a spinal surgeon, showed up on the island with his entire shoulder tattooed. While it worries some that this subculture type of activity has become so popular in the mainstream (some psychologists even have the gall to call this "self mutilation;" those silly quacks), I am one of those who believes that tattoos are simply the way people are expressing themselves nowadays. From devils and angels on one's shoulders to protective tattoos on one's wedding hand (as a friend of mine has), the only reason one has to rid themselves of a tattoo is to try and fit in with a culture that has not quite caught up with the rest of us yet. Which brings us to the main point of this article.

There are those who are, in one fashion or another being forced to remove sections of tattoos and in some cases, entire tattoos, because of where they've chosen to put the tattoo. I know a young lady who is in college and is preparing to apply for a transfer from her reasonably popular public university to a private, staunch, medical school. She also has a tattoo on her left hand and it isn't anywhere near small enough to hide. There are options for covering it up (like wearing gloves, or buying smelly stage makeup that rubs off on everything you touch) but the most logical option she can find is to rid herself of it which saddens her (because the only reason she would be rid of it is for the college itself) and it disappoints me, because darn it - a tattoo doesn't hinder one from performing surgery. Now, this isn't this particular young lady's only tattoo by any means, but it is the only one that she cannot cover up with a nice suit or dress. Having a tattoo that is obvious to the naked eye shouldn't hinder one from being able to get a top job of any kind. Some of the very best, and hardest working, and most intelligent people I've ever met were heavily tattooed.

I guess the point is that people need to wake up and smell the wet ink. Tattoos are beautiful, and every single one has a story behind it. I would guess that more than 90% of those stories have nothing to do with alcohol or drugs. Face it people! The world is a-changin' and if you don't accept those changes and move with it, you'll be struggling for breath before too long.