Tattoos Gain Even More Visibility

There is a NYT article today titled “Tattoos Gain Even More Visibility” that begins:

WHO in the world gets a neck tattoo? A couple of years back you could have narrowed the answer to gang members, prison inmates, members of the Russian mob and the rapper Lil Wayne. Then something occurred.

In a mysterious and inexorable process that seems to transform all that is low culture into something high, permanent ink markings began creeping toward the traditional no-go zones for all kinds of people, past collar and cuffs, those twin lines of clothed demarcation that even now some tattoo artists are reluctant to cross.

Full article here.

In case after case, the courts have found on-the-job appearance requirements — including policies forbidding tattoos and body modifications — to be nondiscriminatory. Meaning that employers can terminate employees for having tattoos. What policies are in place for your library? What policies should libraries have? If tattoos are allowed is a flower treated the same as a swastika? How about tattoos that contain profanity or are graphically violent?