The stigma behind tattoos in the workplace may be improving and some members of OU staff are getting tattoos that reflect what they do at the university.
Harold Blazier has two tattoos, one on each of his forearms, that are anatomically correct representations of various plants.
“They are all of carnivorous plants and their flowers, which is one of my major obsessions in the plant kingdom,” Blazier, greenhouse and garden manager for the Ohio University Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, said. “They are all taken from actual examples of plants that I do have growing, so it means that much more to me.”
Aaron Creamer an employee of Decorative Injections Tattooing & Body Piercing started on Blazier’s tattoos about five years ago. When Blazier had the pieces designed, he brought in the actual parts of the plants he wanted for Creamer to look at because he wanted them to be perfect.
Most of the older people who comment on Blazier’s tattoos say they’re really cool, but they wouldn’t actually get tattoos themselves because they don’t have the guts to do it, Blazier said.
Tattoos weren’t as common as they are today when Blazier was younger. His father had one because he served in the Navy during World War II, but there were a lot of people who believed only lowlifes had tattoos, Blazier said.
About one-in-five adults have tattoos now, but a quarter of the people without tattoos believe those who have them are less intelligent. Fifty percent of the same group believes people with tattoos are more rebellious, according to a survey of more than 2,000 people conducted by The Harris Poll in 2012.
"If I have a meeting here at the university where we’re dealing with the possibility of funding for a new greenhouse and I’m dealing with some of the higher-up people who have never met me, I’ll wear long sleeves,” Blazier said. "I don’t want them to have any sort of predisposed opinion of me just because of (my tattoos)."
After that initial meeting, however, he won't bother to cover up the images because they are a part of who he is, Blazier said.
“I haven’t experienced anything from my peers in the faculty and staff,” Tom Costello, a visiting lecturer in the school of communication studies, said. “Some people are surprised that I have a tattoo, but students are always intrigued because they don’t think that’s something faculty (members) do.”
Costello has two tattoos from Eternal Ink Tattoo and Piercing Studio in Michigan. He said the tattoos on his right forearm — a cross and a bible verse — are a representation of his commitment to the greater good and a reminder to "obliterate" what separates us as humans.
“Tattoos are personal to people,” Costello said. “For me, it’s what I’m committed to and the work I do, but some people might be remembering a loved one or just think the design is cool and they want it.”
Blazier and Costello both have children who also have tattoos.
“My daughter, when she was thinking of her first tattoo, wanted to get it somewhere on her back or upper shoulders,” Costello said. “I was thinking ahead and going, ‘Well, you know, if you get married, you have no idea what your dress is going to look like.’ That’s baby boomer parent thinking right there.”
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Costello said the stigma surrounding tattoos seems to be disappearing in the workplace. Increasing levels of acceptance may be why local tattoo shops in Athens are also seeing more professors and members of the university’s staff coming in to get tattoos, said Eric Pierce, a tattoo artist at Decorative Injections.
“One time this professor came in and he had a tattoo by Filip Leu, a third-generation tattoo artist, on his back, and he also had a stomach piece by Don Ed Hardy,” Pierce said, adding that both Leu and Hardy are well-known artists in the tattoo industry. “It was pretty cool.”
@KyraCobbie
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