for our soon to be lawyers or maybe you are now. If you can answer my question that would be great!At my work place they are telling me to cover up my tattoo's even though they have other employees who they say nothing to. Would this be a form of discrimination? Thanks for the help guys!

I am no lawyer, but I would say it may depend on the nature of your tattoo, to a certain extent. Is it vulgar or portray nudity/obscene language? Does it represent something that would cause problems in the workplace (e.g. gang symbols, ethnic/race issues)?

Finally, in order for your employer to enforce their request, there must be a policy in place - what is the policy regarding tattoos?

discrimination, yes; illegal discrimination, no

your employer has dominion over how you appear at work - hair style, piercings, tattoos, etc

Are you a white, male & English speaking?

If so you can absolutly be discriminated against & if you bring up the subject you will most likely be laughed at. To me it sounds like they are already trying to lay the ground work and create a paper trail for your dismissal.

quote:

Are you a white, male & English speaking? If so you can absolutly be discriminated against

Ummm ... about that promise you made to yourself about not participating in "politically charged threads"?

MeanWillie beat me to the punch, but he is much more wise, I'm still a learner...

But, hypothetically, if you had a tatoo of a cross (or other religious symbol) and your employer was some kind of government agency, and you had countless piles of cash with no purpose other that to pay lawyer bills, and you had years of time to drag a suit through several levels of courts with the chance of still losing...there may be a religious discrimination issue there...

(MeanWillie, would you agree?)

If you are concerned about being treated unfairly, I would review your employer-employee "handbook" or whatever they give you...it probably says something there...review it with your supervisor in a polite way.

I wouldn't be worried about them creating a situation to "trap" you so they have grounds for dismissial...Indiana is an At-Will employment state, they don't need a reason (unless you're under a contract, then the grounds for dismissal are listed there)...

jag

They are by no means vulgar. Its just a couple of dragons. Thanks for all the info guys. I'd better cover them up just for the sake of starting any trouble, and to keep my job.

quote:

But, hypothetically, if you had a tatoo of a cross (or other religious symbol) and your employer was some kind of government agency, and you had countless piles of cash with no purpose other that to pay lawyer bills, and you had years of time to drag a suit through several levels of courts with the chance of still losing...there may be a religious discrimination issue there...

Jag, you just had to make the OP's question into a fancy Free Exercise hypothetical, didn't you!

In any event, the earlier statement from MeanWillie is also my understanding of general workplace discrimination law. Of course, I'm not licensed in IN, so I am not fully familiar with your state's law(s).

If the tattoos are on you butt and they ask you to cover them up, but say nothing to other employees, then I'm not surprised at all.

quote:

Originally posted by jagmqt:
But, hypothetically, if you had a tatoo of a cross (or other religious symbol) and your employer was some kind of government agency, and you had countless piles of cash with no purpose other that to pay lawyer bills, and you had years of time to drag a suit through several levels of courts with the chance of still losing...there may be a religious discrimination issue there...

(MeanWillie, would you agree?)

If you have enough money, you can do pretty much anything you want - I believe a failure to state a claim motion by the state would end it fairly quickly, however.