Appearance Policies and Tattoo Removal

As noted previously, employers have struggled with their dress codes and appearance policies since tattoos have become a rite of passage for many young people and have become more acceptable inside and outside the workplace. Some employers ban them. Some say no visible ones. Some allow them. Some make a distinction between employees who meet the public and those who work in the warehouse.

From a legal perspective, employers have considerable discretion with the policies they adopt for tattoos. Occasionally, a religious or race discrimination suit will be filed by someone who wasn’t hired or was fired because of a tattoo, but it doesn’t get very far as a general rule.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the “tattoo problem” may be taking care of itself. Dr. Tattoff is a tattoo removal chain, headquartered in Beverly Hills. The company’s customers include adult-film stars and everyday folks suffering from tattoo regret.

Dr. Tattoff is doing so well that it plans to go public (issuing publicly traded stock) later this year. According to its owners, Dr. Tattoff is a multimillion-dollar business. The industry will become multibillion-dollar. It costs a lot more to remove a tattoo than to get one. It takes several treatments usually, with the number and kinds of tattoo colors making the difference in cost. Each color of ink requires a different laser frequency to burn it off the skin, with black ink being the easiest to erase and yellow the toughest.

The boom in business experienced by Dr. Tattoff during the recession has been a surprise, says one of the company’s owners: “You would think people wouldn’t use their discretionary income to spend on tattoo removal.” It makes a lot of sense to me. Many tatted-up people are trying get jobs. No matter what anyone says, a tattoo will make getting hired much more difficult.