BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Body Art Body Art Discrimination

There have been some very interesting bits in the news lately about body art and how people perceive body art. Three honor students were suspended from their Oklahoma high school for dyeing their hair.

In Maine, a man facing retrial for a murder is fighting to keep the prosecution from showing pictures of him that show his head and neck tattoos that he kept covered during his first trial.

Do you judge people differently for having body art? Have you found that people make presumptions about you, or that you are discriminated against for being tattooed, pierced or dyeing your hair?

hi. i'm so glad i found this site, everything on here is amazing.

i know that i, personally, dont discriminate against ppl with tattoo's, and/or piercings, seen as i have 10 piercings myself, but i do know it is harder to find a job having them.

it's a hard thing to change, like, what if we discriminated against ppl who didnt ever colour their hair? there isnt any point to discriminations, and it drives me crazy. but there is only so much one person can do.

oh, i'd also like to add, that as some one who has been discriminated against, for being a natural blonde, that i find myself colouring my hair so's not to get the unwanted attention that blonde got me.

"no, i'm NOT easy, no i am NOT an idiot, and no, i DONT want your phone number"

i love being able to express myself thru body art, and hair colour, the same as thru clothing. and i wish there was more freedom to do so where ever i go.

I don't know if it's this way anymore, but my 1st husband was a helicopter pilot in the army - commissioned officer. Normally you have commisioned or non-commissioned, but sometimes there's a need for a highly specialized trained type of soldier whom they consider more than a non-com, but not quite a commisioned - these are warrant officers. i think they have Warrants in every branch, these guys are usually EXTREMELY good at what they do. But since they came up thru the ranks of the enlisted man - a lot of them will have tattooos. It's not considered "proper" for an officer to have a tattoo. They'll overlook it for a warrant. But my ex-husband had one guy that was so good he was going to go thru the officer training test and school - guess what the main thing blocking his way was? His tattoo of his 25th army air division insignia. This guy was so good he went to the army's equivalent of "Topgun" to compete! And they didn't want to let him in because of ink on his skin.

That was 15 years ago, it may have changed since then, but the military has never been much for change!

This place is very cool and I love this forum.

Speaking of tattoos, a lot of people tend to frown upon that and especially towards women with tattoos. I've met a few creepy guys that don't like tattooed women. They once used to ask: "Do you have any tattoos"? and at the time I didn't so I said "no". They went on to describe how much they hated women with tats, it scared them, they found it horrible and preferred women who didn't "ruin" their skin! These weirdos had a severe problem with it. I'm proud of tattoos and my present boyfriend has got 5 on his arms. He says it's almost like a warrior thing to do, because ancient war tribes were covered in fierce body paint to frighten off their enemies. I guess people with tats still have this effect on society, we must scare people?

Hello all, I've been planning a tattoo for several years and didn't want to do it while I had "baby' weight. I now am buff and muscular again and can't get the tattoo! I want to do a natural body building show and have been told tattoos will hurt my placing. It is very disappointing!

I can see how weight-lifting would frown on tattooing, as the artwork can be used to emphasize or de-emphasize muscular details. So, they see it as an artificial way of changing the body lines.

As a tattooed woman, I've gotten both very negative comments as well as some very positive ones.

Last February, I was driving to Las Vegs for an event with a friend. We stopped by the famous Harris ranch to indulge in their prized beef. My waiter gave me a free dessert because of my ink! He explained that he had tattoos and so did his wife, and he was just so pleased to see me in a sleeveless shirt proudly displaying my ink that he just wanted to thank me. Wow! That one was a first and I was floating in the car the rest of the drive to Vegas.

I judge people by their actions not how they look like. Sure some of the things some people do to themselves is stupid or even insane but it is their own choice; as long as everyone involved were consentual and that nobody and nothing was in danger I do not care. I do not even remember myself looking at someone or laughing at someone for their appearance when I was young, maybe it is because I was bullied starting at a young age and had a bad environment at home from the start that I was like that even when young.