Butterflies in the Workplace

Bonjour mon ami!!!

Giving a shout out to Fred in France today!!

Another hump day is upon us, and it’s going by rather quickly, YAY!!

As I told you yesterday I was going back to have Dustin (www.facebook.com/dustin.zion) touch up my Georgia butterfly and have another butterfly tattooed on my right collar bone.

I did it! They both look fantastic!  The collar bone is a semi-tender location, most of it was tolerable, but there were a couple of sweet spots….. you all know what I mean!

But, Dustin started on the new butterfly, outlined it, and then moved to the Georgia butterfly.  So the new butterfly calmed down a little bit before he came back to add the color.  I should do 2 tattoos every time!

I had the new butterfly done in blue and purple, didn’t want any pink as I have a lot of pink on that shoulder/arm already.  It’s a good contrast and it balances out the swallow on my left collar bone.  I love it!  Interestingly, Dustin told me that women sit so much better for tattoos than men do.  Not shocking, we were created for baby making, so it really makes sense, its biology.  But, as much as I hate to admit it, research shows that men actually have a higher pain tolerance http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/painthreshold.html.

 The stencil.

 Dustin at work.

The finished tattoo.



Now, this particular butterfly really has no significant meaning, I just wanted it, just wanted something pretty on that collar bone for symmetry’s sake.

Not all tattoos have to have some deep, personal meaning.  Although some will tell you that they should.  It’s your skin and your prerogative to put anything on it that you wish, and I won’t judge you, unless you put something stupid on your face… then you’re just asking for it.

I mean, come on dude, does this really have the chica’s lining up? I bet your grandma loves it, and your job prospects??? Zip, zilch, nada!! But the no job thing could be the objective.

Tattoos are becoming more accepted in the work place, we see them all the time in our bartenders, servers, etc…. But in some lines of work they’re still not accepted.  Most corporate, tattooed people I know keep theirs covered at work.  I did, however, meet a bartender at Claddah’s Irish Pub in Newport that, when seeing my tattoos, offered up his sleeve (very nicely done) that he had to keep covered with a sleeve.  So not ALL bars let their employees show their ink.  I am disappointed in my Irish peeps!!

Now for me, my wrist tattoos show 99% of the time and my foot tattoo, 85% of the time (I detest socks! That little seam across the toes drives me insane!), and sometimes my arm tattoos peek out, depending on how short my sleeves are.  No one in my office has ever said anything about them.  There is one other girl here with more than one tattoo; she and I actually got tattooed at the same time last year.  But I am the quintessential “weird girl” in the office, and I’m totally good with that.  No written dress code exists in my office, so it would be a little difficult for them to actually ask me to start covering my ink.  Unless they drafted a policy and had all of the employees sign off on it.  But we really don’t have too much interaction with the public.  I see docs from time to time and no one seems to even notice.

Tattoos in the work place is a virtual mine field for employers.  I ran across this article http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/workforce-management-employee/4113152-1.html#axzz21eIsCNdr which thoughtfully addresses the subject.  This statement stood out to me “And remember, making assumptions about the qualifications of people who have tattoos is not only unfounded, it may result in discrimination claims against your company.”  I’ve known people with tattoos, that you’d never think had them, and it’s becoming more and more prevalent in all lines of work.

This article surprised me http://rense.com/general11/plac.htm, I had no idea that Starbucks had such a strict policy regarding tattoos.  Damn, I almost expect my barista to be tattooed.  But, honestly, I never noticed one way or another.

We, as a society, just need to get used to it.  Body art is a form of self expression, so much of the art is beautiful, let's just admire it and appreciate it my friends.......