Yes, teachers can have tattoos. Whether or not those tattoos can be visible is another question that will vary from school to school. Some schools and/or school districts may ask you to cover up the tattoo but that is usually when it is something that is explicit or it’s visible in an area of your body that students don’t need to look at.
Check with your school/school district to see if tattoos are okay to be visible during the school day so you stay out of trouble.
Do Schools Have A Tattoo Policy For Teachers?
A lot of schools don’t have an official “tattoo policy” so in these schools you may just have to look around at other teachers or talk to other teachers about what the administration thinks about visible tattoos.
Some schools do have a “tattoo policy” and you should follow their policy.
It’s usually okay to have a tattoo in these schools but you are required to cover them up during the school day.
Nobody is telling you that you can’t have a tattoo, they just don’t want it visible during the school day.
If you are a new teacher entering a new building it would be smart to cover up tattoos (if possible) and then once you figure out the climate of the building you might ease off of covering up.
These days seeing a teacher with a tattoo is not out of the ordinalry, as a matter of fact a lot of teachers have tattoos.
If there was a policy that said no teachers can have them then there would be a teacher shortage!
If you are looking for answers you should check your contract or if your building has a dress code policy for teachers.
As a final possibility to getting the right answer you can just ask an administrator in your building if your tattoo can be visible.
Heck, these days there are administratos that have them too!
How Many Teachers Have Tattoos?
Figuring out how many teachers have a tattoo is impossible.
Or is it?
I did a survery of 138 teachers on a Reddit and A to Z Teacher Stuff asking teachers if they had no tattoos or 1 or more tattoos.
My results (below) really aren’t very shocking.
Out of 138 teachers that responded to the survey 63 of them said they did have 1 or more tattoo and 75 of them said they did not have any tattoos.
I did a little research (science teacher here) and found out the following from History Of Tattoos:
They report that 36% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have at least one tattoo.
Also, in the United States 15% of men and 13% of women have tattoos.
In the United States nearly 30% of college graduates have at least one tattoo.
There you have it, if you are in a building with let’s say 200 staff members the odds of many of them having a tattoo is high.
I have met quite a few teachers that are great at what they do even though they have tattoos.
Should Teachers Cover Their Tattoo?
Regardless of what the policy is you have to make sure your tattoo is covered if it is in anyway innapropirate for school.
School is not the place to show off your tattoos because you have students that are impressionable and parents that may have concerns.
Administrators don’t like when parents have concerns about their teachers and their professionalism.
If you have a small heart tattoo on your wrist or a flower near your ankle you are probably going to be okay.
I know in the building I teach in we have a lot of teachers that have tattoos and there is no problem. I have seen teachers in other building with neck tattoos and even sleeve tattoos and no one bothers them about it.
Figure out the climate of your school and keep your job.
Cover The Tattoo During Your Interview
If you are interviewing for a teaching position you should cover up your tattoos.
Why? Because the attention of the interview should on your teaching skills, experinces, and ability to answer the questions you are being asked.
You don’t want the focus of the meeting to be your tattoos and you don’t want that to be the factor you don’t get the job. The last thing you want is the person interviewing you staring at your tattoo trying to figure out what it means and not pay attention to the interview.
Explained: Let’s just say that the person(s) interviewing you for some reason just don’t like tattoos. You come in and have a great interview with them. The next prospect (with no visible tattoos) also comes in and has a great interview. At this point you both have a good chance of getting the position.
Now they are going to start looking at what they didn’t like about your interview or YOU!
Guess what, you might lose out on getting the job because your tattoos were visible during the interview!
I know, it’s not right.
This happens though. Cover up those tattoos during the interview and then once you get the job, and are tenured, you can open up a little.