Tattoos on teachers?

[Tinkerbelle's Mom]

I still feel Tats are a lower class phenom-no matter how polite and nice you are, if you have "ink" you are regarded by many as , to put it nicely, "trailer trash" and I wouldnt want a teacher with Ink.

Wow. I guess I must be trailer trash then.

I work with Kinders and yikes I have 7 tattoos! Parents coming to the school this past fall requested to be in my class even before they have set foot on campus. For the first time in my program we have more kinders then we can handle.

Hmmmm I guess Id better let all these parents know that I am trailer trash.

Oh.... I wonder if it would make a difference if I told them that 6 of the 7 were from the life saving radiation I had to have. After that I figured if I was going to go around with 6 of these that I didnot want I might as well get one that truly means something to me.

 

[MoonFaerie]

I have seen a 50-ish year old woman with lots of tatooes and she looked horrible. It all turns dark green after several years and it is not a pretty sight.

I still feel Tats are a lower class phenom-no matter how polite and nice you are, if you have "ink" you are regarded by many as , to put it nicely, "trailer trash" and I wouldnt want a teacher with Ink.

How do all colors turn dark green? Also, people can and do get their tattoos touched up. How many years are several years? Mine still looks like it did when I got it 5ish years ago, and I haven't had it touched up yet. I do limit the amount of sun exposure it gets and use sunscreen though.

 

[december]

All 3 public school districts I've worked in have had a rule against visible tattoos for all employees. Also, no piercings for men and only in the ear for women. Many of my coworkers have tattoos, they just wear large bandaids on their ankles, and the teacher across the hall wears a big bracelet over her wrist every day. She has at least 3 that I've seen (ankle, wrist, and back-saw it this summer when we were working in our rooms before school started). She is head of the department, very dedicated, and my son's teacher this year. The teacher next door to me has her dead baby's name on her ankle, but keeps it covered with a bandaid.

I don't have any desire to have a tattoo, but will not pass judgment on those that do. I'm teaching middle school now, but taught high school for 14 yrs. I always advised my students to get them in places that could be easily covered up. Putting a bandaid on every day seems like a pain! And as posters on this thread have shown, they will be judged.

Hate the trailer trash term, too. I've lived in trailers, my sister lives in a beautiful huge double wide, and that is probably what I'll purchase when I move from my current location. I've been looking online at some over the past few months. Old stereotypes just need to die

 

[scrapquitler]

Is that really an issue?

Wouldn't even think to care unless it involved nudity/sexually explicit images or profanity.

Nothing wrong with tattoos and doesn't impact a teacher's abilities.

As long as it's not a sexually explicit tattoo or showing some vulgar language, then who cares? (And honestly, I'm NOT a tattoo fan)

 

[crz4mm2]

I have seen a 50-ish year old woman with lots of tatooes and she looked horrible. It all turns dark green after several years and it is not a pretty sight.

I still feel Tats are a lower class phenom-no matter how polite and nice you are, if you have "ink" you are regarded by many as , to put it nicely, "trailer trash" and I wouldnt want a teacher with Ink.

I'm almost 52 and *gasp* have three tattoos... All of which are quite colorful....
I was raised in a trailer though, so perhaps I really am "trailer trash"

 

[marcyinPA]

I don't care, as long as they are hidden. There are many companies who require employees to cover tattoos and piercings (our local casino is one of them...). I think teachers need to display a certain amount of professionalism and a large, visible tattoo may be a distraction from that professionalism.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Thats not necessarily true, one poster has already said they are not allowed to let their tattoos show.
Personally, it doesn't bother me at all.

That might have been negotiated with their union because in reality there is no reason a tatoo cannot show provided it is not obscene. In GENERAL there is no dress code for teachers and I am looking at a tatoo as a form of dress provided it is within the bounds of decency. Do I like them? NO, but it is not up to someone else to legislate or even criticize what a person wears or does with their body provided it meets certain standards.

 

[Freyja]

Discuss what? Some are beautiful, some are ugly. Lots of my fellow teachers have tattoos.

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

I disagree it's a 'current trend'. Tattoo paroles and their clients have been around for years. It's not rebellion, it's merely self-expression.

And the word is tattoo. Double "t" in the middle. If you're (general 'you') going to criticize something, at least spell it right.

What's a tattoo parole, by the way? If you are going to be snarky, you may want to use the proper term, though I would guess that many patrons of tattoo PARLORS are probably on PAROLE.

Bwah, I crack myself up.

 

[ilovemk76]

They are professionals and should be such in the classroom. They can have tattoos but they need to be covered just like other professionals. Same goes for piercing. Remove your nose ring when you are at work.

 

[Scurvy]

I think tattoos look unprofessional. There, I said it. I'm not anti-tattoo, I just think that people should have the foresight to put their tats where they can be covered when appropriate. In their personal lives, expose away.

I agree with this. I have no problem with tattoos but I don't think they look professional at all. I think it's impractical and foolish to get a tattoo that can't be easily covered by clothing unless you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will never need to get a job someplace that might not allow them. None of the school systems I've been involved with allow visible tattoos. It can be hard enough to get a teaching position to begin with, and that's before you do something to your body that would keep you from being hired in many systems.

 

[goofy!]

I have seen a 50-ish year old woman with lots of tatooes and she looked horrible. It all turns dark green after several years and it is not a pretty sight.

I still feel Tats are a lower class phenom-no matter how polite and nice you are, if you have "ink" you are regarded by many as , to put it nicely, "trailer trash" and I wouldnt want a teacher with Ink.

So you feel a teacher who lives in a trailer is automatically not as capable as one that lives in a McMansion?

Last I knew, they all had to have their college degrees and their license applications do not specify what type of housing they live in.

 

[Art 1]

My daughter had a swimming instructor at the Y who had tattoos. I called up to complain about it. From then on she had bandages over them.

 

[OceanAnnie]

i agree with this. I have no problem with tattoos but i don't think they look professional at all. I think it's impractical and foolish to get a tattoo that can't be easily covered by clothing unless you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will never need to get a job someplace that might not allow them. None of the school systems i've been involved with allow visible tattoos. It can be hard enough to get a teaching position to begin with, and that's before you do something to your body that would keep you from being hired in many systems.

mte.

 

[Freyja]

My DD's teacher had tattoos and piercings that she felt she needed to show the students (belly button piercing) and explain how there was nothing wrong with them and how people (like parents) need to be more open minded and accept them.

Nice of her to educate my child.

Oh, BTW we home school now. (not due to the above incident)

Isn´t that what she got paid to do? Isn´t that why most people send their kids to school? So that they get educated???

 

[MrsWendy]

I have seen a 50-ish year old woman with lots of tatooes and she looked horrible. It all turns dark green after several years and it is not a pretty sight.

I still feel Tats are a lower class phenom-no matter how polite and nice you are, if you have "ink" you are regarded by many as , to put it nicely, "trailer trash" and I wouldnt want a teacher with Ink.

That says more about the people doing the judging than it does about those with the tattoos.

 

[ms.yt]

Threads like these crack me up because of some many people assuming that things are the same all over the country. Phrases like "teachers all have a morals clause in their contracts" and talk of "teachers unions" don't apply to all teachers. Our contract is one page that just states our salary and extra duties such as clubs, sports, etc.

Arkansas's Dept. of Ed did instate a laughable Code of Ethics a couple of years ago, but there is no mention of tattoos in there anywhere. In fact, even if it did, I wouldn't be too worried about mine. People who have been caught doing some pretty questionable things since the Code of Ethics has been in existence have gotten off with a $75 fine.

We also don't really have a teachers' union. There is the AEA, but probably only 5 teachers in my whole district are members of it. In my experience, they have done very little to look out for the interests of Arkansas teachers.

While we're on the subject of people who are "trailer trash" not being suitable to teach kids, where does it stop for all of you judgmental folks? What about teachers who have had breast enlargement? Teachers with big hair? Teachers with overdone makeup?

 

[MissUndastood]

I have seen a 50-ish year old woman with lots of tatooes and she looked horrible. It all turns dark green after several years and it is not a pretty sight.

I still feel Tats are a lower class phenom-no matter how polite and nice you are, if you have "ink" you are regarded by many as , to put it nicely, "trailer trash" and I wouldnt want a teacher with Ink.

That is wrong on so many levels. Awfully narrow minded of you.

 

[Planogirl]

This ranks very high on my "couldn't care less" list. As long as they seem to know how to teach, they can look pretty much any way they wish as far as I'm concerned.

 

[jbcheerchick93]

We have plenty of teachers in my district that have visible tattoos. Its really not that big of a deal to any of the students. t probably would be if they were X-rated, but anything other than that (butterflies, sunflowers, "vivir") you don't even notice after the first week of school.