Please dress this tattooed financier

May 1, 2008 10:50 AM

Heavily tattooed, need some wardrobe advice....

I have sleeves on both arms. For the past three years I have kept my arms covered at work. The dress is business casual for the most part and I have not wanted to cause distraction or unwanted attention with my artwork. While not particularly uptight, my colleagues are fairly conventional, not particularly creative with their style of dress.

At this point, I feel I am more than adequately respected and established at work to not have to constantly wear long sleeves. I am having difficulty selecting clothing that works well with my ink. I have a lot of color and no images that are inappropriate beyond the fact that they are permanently part of my body.

And summers are a beast in DC!

So, please help me find examples of professionally dressed women showing their tats!

posted by InstantSanitizer to grab bag (15 comments total)

I hate to be a killjoy but I don't think that heavily-tattooed arms are appropriate for the "traditional" office, period. Especially since you say you work in finance. Although a lot of people have small, covered tattoos, I think that full sleeves are still very off-putting to the traditional office employee.
posted by radioamy at 11:01 AM on May 1

are you a member of iam.bme? if so, they have a modified professionals forum that might have some advice. i can't provide a link right now because i can't remember my iam password...

i have the same problem as you. i'm working on a sleeve on my right arm, and my left arm has a big tattoo that can be covered by a short sleeve, but not, like, a cap sleeve.

what does your HR manual say about visible tattoos? that might give you some guidance.

at any rate, i'd say take a look at what your female colleagues (who are at a similar rung of the ladder) wear in the summer--as you know, the dress codes tend to get laxer in places like DC, Philly, NYC when the temperatures hit 90. and then just wear that.

i am still at the stage of wearing mostly long sleeves, so good for you for moving past the block. i'd love to see pictures of your tattoos!
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:08 AM on May 1

This isn't exactly answering your question, unfortunately, since I don't have pictures - but I know the professional women I see in DC with visible tattoos tend to skew their clothes a little bit towards the 1940s and 50s vintage look.

Whether that's just part of their style or if it has something to do with the tattooing I don't know, but it's always seemed really attractive and well-suited to me. It might have something to do with the formality of that retro look vs. the unconventionality of the tattoos. It may also be that, in not wearing a boring J. Crew outfit, they're not trying to fit in with a bland stereotype.

My tattoos aren't visible, but if they were, I feel like I'd just think about them as an accessory to every outfit, and plan my clothes accordingly. Stuff that showcases the ink and integrates it into your entire ensemble.

(And yes, summers are an absolute nightmare in DC. I had to change from my femme Secret to Speed Stick just to keep myself decent.)
posted by harperpitt at 11:32 AM on May 1

You might start by rolling up your long-sleeved shirts on warm days--see how that's received. That way, you can "break the news" of your tattoos gradually.
posted by soviet sleepover at 11:33 AM on May 1 [1 favorite]

You might find the Inked Inc. site interesting. It was started by a lawyer and is essentially a community and resource for tattooed professionals.

My advice would be perhaps just to test the waters by rolling up the sleeves of your long-sleeve shirts enough to reveal a hint of tattoo. If no one objects, then a shorter sleeve shirt probably won't be an issue. Dressing up and covering for clients might still be a good idea.
posted by explosion at 11:36 AM on May 1 [5 favorites]

I would like to see pictures of your sleeves, if you don't mind. Perhaps it will help with ideas on blending them as well.
posted by sic at 11:46 AM on May 1

Sounds like the kind of question Mutant would be well-suited (zing!) to answering.
posted by lowlife at 11:51 AM on May 1

I used to work with a couple of guys who used soviet sleepover's advice to success. Gradual reveal, just flipped their shirt cuffs back at first to garner a bit of notice, start the conversations with those who were interested, get them used to it. They never got to wearing short sleeves in the office, because office policy expressly forbade visible ink, but they'd roll long sleeves up to their elbows with no repercussions I'm aware of. There were still a few murmured "I don't like his tattoos" here and there, but no action taken. Whipping out full sleeves all at once might evoke a stronger reaction than you'd care to deal with.

Definitely check with HR policy first.
posted by middleclasstool at 12:05 PM on May 1

To address some of your comments:

I know for a fact that showing my tattoos at this office will not be frowned on in the least and it is a non-issue with HR. My boss himself teased me for gearing up for yet another sweltering DC summer in long sleeves.

I have done the gradual thing for a while now- everyone knows I have the ink, some have asked to see the full sleeves and I have obliged. But, it has not been a big deal to anyone.

I am not considering tank dresses, or spaghetti straps. I am thinking more along the lines of what harperpitt mentioned- the vintage/ retro tailored look or something artsy- which is closer to howI dress off-hours. I just hadn't seen examples of actual professionals in these outfits- probably b/c there are not very many.

explosion: thank you for the link.

One other thing: in my experience, vintage clothing falls apart easily. The 50s and 60s clothing are aging along with the rest of us. Are there stores that sell new looks inspired by these older ones?
posted by InstantSanitizer at 12:51 PM on May 1

Sorry it's been a couple hours!

I haven't actually bought anything from this store, but check out Red Dress Shoppe. I've been dying to get something/many things from there.

As far as things in town, try Meeps in Adams Morgan. Mainly vintage, but I know the woman does her own design as well.
posted by harperpitt at 1:18 PM on May 1

Daddy-O's does those sorts of reproduction pieces, though some skew sexy.
posted by liketitanic at 1:34 PM on May 1

There's a lot of cute rockabilly stuff at Torrid right now-- though that's for women size 12 and up. It looks like the dressy rockabilly look is coming back, like high-waisted pencil skirts and tailored blouses. Man, I wish I looked good in a pencil skirt.
posted by cereselle at 2:36 PM on May 1

wow, people like radioamy might be surprised to find out how many corporate-types actually have tattoos... what, someone can't be smart, professional, competent and tattooed? i think visible tattoos, as long as they aren't horribly offensive, are becoming more and more acceptable as a personal choice and not a reflection of your abilities or character. (speaking as a visibly tattooed woman myself)

I second the rockabilly/retro look---it's just hot, tattoos or not.
posted by hulahulagirl at 3:03 PM on May 1

Nthing the vinatge/rockabilly look. San Francisco is full of heavily inked women who work office jobs, and while our summers are pretty much the opposite of sweltering (another thing I don't miss about DC), I've seen very snazzy, professionally dressed women working that look. I know DC's not as funky, but if your office is good with it, then I wouldn't worry about what folks on the street think. Maybe you'll start a trend!

I work at nonprofit that's fairly conservative in its presentation, though not its politics. While I don't have a sleeve (yet), I do have a big ole tattoo on my left forearm that's absolutely visible when I wear short sleeves, which is most of the time. Even in our DC office - which is way more Dress Up For Work in culture than our CA office - no one blinked, and many people went "Oooh! I love it!" and then started rolling up sleeves/hitching up shirts/offering to drop trou to show me their tats.
posted by rtha at 3:07 PM on May 1

My major client is a bank. A friend of mine who works there has full sleeves, patterned after Giger's work (he has a personal note from the man himself saying how much he likes my friend's ink). He wears short sleeves on casual days and doesn't get any flak over it.

Mind you, we're in New Zealand, and the team I work with spent today hugging the new guy who just started, so perhaps our workplace mores are a little different to yours.
posted by rodgerd at 1:02 AM on May 2