Tattoo Sleeves (Phoenix: employment, wages, quality of life)

[mclarksn9]

There was a thread about quality of life in the area a few weeks back and the OP mentioned the # of tattoo sleeved people and linked it to an overall lack of professionalism/professional jobs here. I am lucky enough to get to bounce around between here, Cali, and the east coast and I have to say I see more arm sleeves here than anywhere else now that I think about it. Is this really a negative in your opinions? I am a bit under 40 so I don't think I have put a stigma on sleeves but this got me thinking

Mod note: Please keep replies on topic to the Phoenix area.

[Ztonyg]

Originally Posted by mclarksn9

There was a thread about quality of life in the area a few weeks back and the OP mentioned the # of tattoo sleeved people and linked it to an overall lack of professionalism/professional jobs here. I am lucky enough to get to bounce around between here, Cali, and the east coast and I have to say I see more arm sleeves here than anywhere else now that I think about it. Is this really a negative in your opinions? I am a bit under 40 so I don't think I have put a stigma on sleeves but this got me thinking

I perceive it as a negative.

There are a ton of sleeve tattoos in Arizona because Arizona generally has less high paying white collar jobs than other metropolitan areas.

[breakingbad]

I'm moving back to AZ, and it seems like all my AZ FB friends 40+ are getting large tattoos! What?! It is unacceptable here. Looked down upon. It is probably related to low wages and also AZ in a maverick state.
Moderator cut: .

[11Hungrybb]

About 8 years ago I was deciding on doing a full sleeve. I found the artist I liked and we worked on a conceptual design. The artist then sketched the piece down my arm with various size sharpes and allowed me to assess it. After living with it for a few days I came to a realization that a piece of that size was not for me. So, I scrapped a majority of it and now I am pleased I did. I work in a professional environment and I deal with a wide range of folks. No matter where I would be living, I believe it would have been more of a hinderance than a positive, given my profession.

[Diane de Poitiers]

Not quite full-on sleeves, but I do know several people in the library system who have tattoos, and these are all people who work at the customer service desk. (One of them was even in the Administration department before getting a job with another area of city government)

[sargeant79]

I think Phoenix and the Southwest in general tends to have a much more permissive attitude when it comes to visible tattoos, whether they are full sleeves or something else. As has been mentioned in other threads, people in Phoenix tend to have a "live and let live" attitude, and visible tattoos seem much more accepted and common out here.

Another factor is the weather. You don't see tattoos as much on people in other parts of the country because most of those parts of the country have weather that forces people to wear much more clothing a good portion of the year. In the Northeast or the Midwest, where people tend to have on long pants and long sleeves 8-9 months of the year, you're not going to notice half the people who have large pieces on their arms or legs. Not the case here in the desert, where people where t-shirts all year long. For that reason, it probably appears that more people have tattoos out here than in other parts of the country.

I have a full sleeve on my right arm and a half sleeve on my left. I have a professional career and I do wear long sleeves to work every day, but I do that by choice rather than because someone told me I had to. If I still lived in the Midwest, I would have likely had that choice made for me already at most companies.

[Hal Roach]

It's going to limit your employment opportunities in a place that already has very limited employment opportunities. Being forced to wear long sleeves would be bad enough. Here is a word to the wise about "Buddha" tattoos. I know Phoenix has lots of meth-head warning billboards....here is one warning people about tattoos.