Underneath all that clothing, hidden in the nooks of college bodies, are tiny rings of metal and splashes of permanent color that no boss will ever see. No one can walk around UNM for very long without seeing that hair dye, tattoos and piercings are becoming the norm.
A study done in January at Texas Tech University found that 15 to 20 percent of college students, who are the bread and butter of many tattoo shops, have tattoos and piercings. And, the widely used argument, “No one will hire you,” isn’t so true anymore.
UNM sophomore Sarah Foster is recognized by her electric blue hair. She also has a tattoo of sharks swimming on her hip. Foster said that when she first dyed her hair, her boss at The Children’s Center asked her to wear hair wraps. The second time around, Foster’s boss just rolled her eyes.
“Parents really like me,” Foster said. “They compliment me, and their kids want to do it too.”
Franz Joachim, production manager at KNME Channel 5, has been hiring students for nearly 20 years. His said his dress code for UNM student employees isn’t a matter of professional look.
“I would hate for people to judge me on my appearance,” Joachim said.
Twenty years ago, he said his students with facial piercings would be considered freaks. But now, he said the piercing isn’t an issue to him as long as they don’t affect job performance.
Large cooperate companies such as Intel and America Online are also also on the cutting edge of accepting the diverse individuality of their employees. In 1999, Intel hired 42 percent of its new employees from college recruitments. With 5,800 employees, Intel is the largest private company in New Mexico.
Terry McDermott, media relations manager for the Rio Rancho site of Intel, said Intel would not discriminate based on a person’s appearance. He said he includes tattoos and piercings under the discrimination umbrella of protection.
“Intel values diversity,” McDermott said. “There is no discrimination for people who have tattoos or piercings of any kind.”
The only exception to this policy is if the body art offends other employees, he said.
McDermott said Intel uses common sense when hiring. Extreme modifications such as forehead implants or a tattooed face would be a hindrance to a student seeking a job with the company.
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“It’s a part of the culture now,” McDermott said.
When it comes to extreme modifications, 21-year-old piercer Louie Tafoya knows them all. His obsession with body art has led him to pierce many parts of his own body. At one time, Tafoya had 36 piercings. He said he has calmed down since then, despite his split tongue and visible neck piercings.
Tafoya, who works at Addictive Ink Tattoos and Body Piercing, said a typical customer no longer exists and that he sees a wide variety of people.
“It’s every genre you can imagine,” he said. “It’s so broad — you can’t break it down. Everyone’s a potential customer.”
Dave Martinez, the 29-year-old owner of Addictive Ink, has been in the tattoo industry for the past 10 years. Since then, he has seen a quick transition take place in the trend of tattooing.
“Being accepted in society used to be the big thing,” he said. “Then it became cool not to be accepted.:
He added that tattooing is not different anymore. Martinez said he sees this trend as one of the major reasons why tattooing is becoming a social norm.
Martinez also attributes the popularity of body art to the open-mindedness of large corporations such as Intel and AOL.
“95 percent of the people who come in here are your average Joe Schmoe,” Martinez said. “Those companies either have to accept it or not hire people.”
Jimmy Stephens, a 23 year-old student at UNM, got his first piercing when he was 17. “My friends and I are really smart kids,” Stephens said. “But we got tired of our appearance speaking louder than our artwork.”
After having plastic surgery to repair his torn ear lobes, Stephens took all his visible piercings out.
“I was 22 and being treated like a kid by my professors,” he said.
Stephens, who aspires to be a college art professor, said that he could only work at record stores and coffee shops for so long.
“Know when to move on,” he said of his piercing phase. “Know when it’s not shocking anymore.”
Sabrina Luck, 23, is another UNM student who has struggled with getting and staying hired. Luck has tattoos on her chest, upper arms and back, as well as facial piercings. She said she worked in the children’s section of a bookstore in Austin that said it valued diversity.
“My boss switched me to the floor because she said I scared the kids,” Sabrina said.
She said she ended up quitting when the management gave her more problems about her appearance.
KNME’s Joachim would agree with her.
“If you don’t like it, get another job!” said Joachim, who had the same struggle with long hair. His boss hated his hair, he said, but let him keep it anyway.
“My personal philosophy is to go out with as many holes as I came in with,” he said.
