Retail companies look for people who can represent the company in a friendly, welcoming, and helpful way. The subject matter of her tattoos present a "Back off and get away from me" message. It's not surprising that she's not getting hired. She should look for a position where she doesn't have to deal with the general public face-to-face.

It's not the amount of tattoos for me. The quality of them is good. It's the subject matter. Also, the piercings are a turn-off for me. I don't like to talk to someone, and listen to them clicking back at me. I can't imagine how much food gets stuck in the piercings in her mouth, the smell, just gross.

Forget the tattoos, the amount of times she says ‘like’ in a sentence would be a total turn off for me,

HR person here: its not the tattoos per say, its the actual demonic looking things, which most people would consider "offensive" in a US Judo Christian society. With that said, I really REALLY wish we adopted UK laws so that people with tattoos could not be kicked out because of the ink. To OPs point some of the smartest people I know are covered in ink. Depending on the roles she is applying for, esp. anything coming near food, the piercings are legit a safety hazard and a violation on food safety to have. (and depending on the retail job, could also be a safety hazard)

“Dress for the job you WANT.” What does she really want? Appearance is of paramount importance for any customer-facing position.

Of course it's the tattoos, especially the demonic ones. Add the piercings and she's sol. Mainstream companies are gonna have a hard time employing her. A tattoo shop, construction, factory, learn to be an electrician, there are jobs out there. Just not retail.

Go away with those tiktok videos. People making them make money from them. Creators will post anything as long as it gets lots of views. I wonder if BP gets some sort of money for writing articles featuring tiktok.

what did she expect?

Everyone chooses what is most important to them. But choices have consequences, good or bad. Choose wisely.

"What does that one on your forehead say?" "It says "Unemployable".......

OP has every right to make herself look like a freak show. And the rest of us have every right to treat her like a freak show. You makes your choices and you dances to your tune.

Often heavily tattooed people look scary to other non-tattooed people. True - your body blah blah blah, but I don't want to be around you. Nothing personal, to me ink looks dirty like you need a bath and I see a person who spent their money on frivolity. I'd rather give a job to someone who NEEDS the money.

You KNOW tattoos are controversial (that's part of the attraction of getting one for some, isn't it?), so if you get a tattoo, especially on your face, you have to be realistic and know that this is going to affect you negatively in some ways. Regardless of whether it is fair or not it is the reality and is something you chose to do. You can't have it both ways. Also, I would place bets on the fact that her victim attitude comes across during those interviews and that that may be a big part of why she's not getting hired when the managers may otherwise be open-minded in regards to tattoos. A business that has every right to hire people who are already experienced and will cost less to train up - and while that may make it harder for inexperienced people in some ways, if you have a great personality and attitude you can often outshine people with experience who don't.

I don't think it's the tattoos, but the bias. I mean if she had the BVM on her, I don't think she's going to be hirable. And I don't know where she is, but girl, if doing "Seattle circa 1995" is that out there in the flyover state you live in, time to relocate (which I know is hard) I think I'd rather have her than some pious, judgmental, evangelical gossipy hypocrite as a coworker.

I was really lucky having a tattoo artist that refused to tattoo anyone on the neck or face. He said that as long as he was tattooing he'd never do a tattoo above the collarbone because he never wanted someone to blame him for not being able to get a normal job. I don't care if you're a MIT graduate, you aren't getting a job with that c**p on your face. Telling that you were too inexperienced was just a nice way to tell you to kick rocks. Face and neck tattoos will keep you broke and on government assistance. Honestly the only job you'll probably ever get will be something in phone customer assistance where no one sees you. Should have used better judgement buttercup.

It may not be the tattoo placement or how many, but I'd bet money it's about the tattoo content.

Just get yourself to a city that doesn't care about tattoos etc. Once you're established and have a strong resume, you can live wherever you want to. Lots of online only jobs now, again build the resume. It's only entry level and executive level jobs that care about that sort of thing.

Go to a trade school. Much better pay and super-marketable lifelong skills .....and unions!!

Her choice of tattoos and the placement of tattoos reflects on her judgement. We would consider that when making a hire, and pass.

It's the tattoos...I'm scared just looking at demonic goat!! Get some body makeup and cover up

I work in healthcare and most hospitals have rules about covering tattoos, so that face would definitely scare many people. My coworker has many tattoos, so he wears long sleeves . I was a patient in a public hospital (I collapsed outside the building and the doctor didn't want to transfer me). One of my female nurses had a partly shaved head, lots of tattoos and had piercings all over her face. Scared the heck out of me when she walked into my room, which was not good because I was there for a cardiac issue.

I'm pretty heavily tattooed. 90% of them are flowers, so most people aren't offended. I'm friend's with a lot of artists. We have conversations often about jobs vs. ink. Face and hand tattoos are called "job killers". You know what you're getting into, especially if some might find them offensive. We also have conversations about the (completely unrelated) absolute ridiculous nature of not allowing enthusiastic folk who happen to have no experience in the field to be taught. I'd take a bright and motivated candidate over a jaded experienced one any day. The system is unfair. A complete aside regarding tattoos: If you have any chronic conditions that may require pain medication or anything of the same class, you might want to wait on tattoos, until you have a doctor that knows you well. Myself and multiple friends (none of us into d***s. All very inked.) have been denied essential care treatment because they assumed we would abuse/take advantage/relapse. Again, it's bs, but real. Edit: OP, it's the content. You made points about the experience aspect, but it's obvious why you didn't get the job. You knew what you were doing. Edit 2: A dear friend literally has 666 tattooed on the side of her face. She knew before she got it that she wanted to (and is highly capable of) working in art, activism, and kitchens. Pretty much made it intentionally impossible to get jobs that would be dissatisfying for her goals. She's mighty successful.

Did she try Hot Topic or have they moved on to a new esthetic? I haven't been to a mall in years.

"Now she's young, but wait when she's older" but you people are aware that when she's older, the people like her will be the 'older generations', and the boomers like you who whine about others having tattoo won't exist/matter? Lol. You're a dying generation, it's time for tattood people now. Older people with tattoos will be normal in 20 years.

Tattoos can be absolutly fine, most people have some, but facial ones are already very hard in a customer facing position, coupled with the subject matter and the eight piercings around her mouth, she could be the friendliest person alive but a lot of customers would turn around at her sight and flee the shop. She just has the first image of a woman that if miffed will come back in the dark with a baseball bat and her gang/coven to f you up. Why she even goes for retail is beyond me, though a lot of offices wouldn't want that either, her image is just so aggressive most wouldn't want that in there office to prevent a charged atmosphere. Image does matter if you have tattoos with aggressive "messages" people will think you are

When they do those studies to see how long it takes you to click positive vs negative traits for pictures of people with different races, people who take the longest to click positive attributes for people with facial tattoos are also taking the longest to click positive attributes for visibly disabled people, and are generally longer (but not longest) for positive attributes for races/religions other than their own.

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Her instagram has a tonnnn of nudity. Don't think employers aren't looking at your socials!!

Why doesn't look up their employees dress code policies? It addresses facial piercings and tattoos. Thus her application only shows that applying she simply failed to prepare: laziness, lack of understanding or professional maturity. She also failed to prepare by not researching the company brand and mission statement, and those major product lines that would be sold by employee in such a position. Whatever, she has lost a grasp of reality, or she has a unjust sense of entitlement, and clearly doesn't understand the concept of company dress code. The HR person was smart, b/c she clearly was looking for cause for a discrimination claim and/or click-bait for social media exposure.