Can Police Officers Have Tattoos?


As an officer in the Southern Police, specifically in Charleston, the tattooed female officer feels that forcing any police officer, male or female, to wear a long-sleeved shirt to hide a tattoo is absurd. The female officer with tattoos is a police officer in New Jersey and I have tattoos in prominent places, I have noticed a difference in the workplace with some people in how they treat me.

Police officers can have tattoos, but most are not permitted to display them on their hands, neck, or face. Tattoos create an unprofessional appearance, and they detract from the authority an officer is supposed to exude. Most police department requires tattoos to be covered while on the job.

A female officer with tattoos would not like to see such a person in a police uniform, because this reflects on the image of this department. The tattooed officer can find out if the department has adopted a new policy regarding all new employees and new tattoos on existing officers. The tattooed officer believes that this department should not retroactively pursue policies that would endanger the well-being of his officers or the department as a whole.

Tattoos Are Generally Discouraged

If many people want to consider becoming police officers, they may shy away from agencies that allow tattoos to be shown because of the lower standards. Officers, who are often preponderant, got tattoos before their departments introduced a tattoo policy.

Until a few years ago, tattoos weren’t even a problem, because officers had a personal standard of not having tattoos on those parts of the body where they could be seen in military uniform. The now relatively progressive policy allows would-be officers to have visible tattoos on their arms, but they still have to hide them when wearing short sleeves.

Its strict tattoo policy allows police officers to get tattoos on body parts such as arms, but they must be covered with long sleeves. Now, Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams says his department is changing its tattoo policy, allowing officers to have visible tattoos on their uniforms as long as they don’t have ink on their faces or necks. In a message posted on the city’s police department’s Facebook and Instagram pages, the department confirmed that officers are currently unable to display visible tattoos while in uniform, but that may change.

Some Departments Forbid Showing Tattoos at Work

In the United States, some police departments continue to deny officers the right to show off their tattoos at work, while others have decided to change their policy to include body art. Some have no restrictions unless the tattoo is something offensive or inappropriate, while others have restrictions, including the fact that the tattoos may not be visible while the officer is in uniform.

Officers are not allowed to have tattoos on their arms, necks or faces. As with state police, ring tattoos or emblems are permitted, one on each arm, and female officers may have permanent eyeliner. Many police officers have taken a tougher and less lenient stance on officers with visible tattoos and are tightening rules on what can and cannot be shown, requiring officers to wear long sleeves on hot summer days if they have visible If you have a tattoo, you must wear body armor.

For officers at work, a camouflage tattoo can draw attention to the uniform and the brave men and women who wear it. The best way to avoid potential lawsuits is to have a policy that prohibits agents from tattooing on body parts that cannot be covered by uniforms or flesh-colored sleeves. Bloomfield’s policy, coupled with the ban on racist, gang-related and obscene tattoos, states that the police chief can order officers to cover up tattoos that the chief deems unprofessional.

Many Departments Are Tolerant of It

The department has no ban on tattoos, and in any event, female officers have never been penalized for body modifications, including tattooing eyebrows, piercings, nail polish, makeup and hair dye, the lawsuit says. Released in early March, the department simply asked the community, yes or no, whether officers should be allowed to have visible tattoos while on the job.

According to Police Chief Otto Neel Reyes, the problem isn’t the tattoos or Officer Jason Bandy himself, but what the department stands for. The decision to force police to cover up tattoos was driven by public safety concerns, so the city’s police department has consulted with local residents on the policy update.

If you’re not used to seeing cops with long sleeve tattoos, the first time around can be a revelation, even for a sworn officer working for a strict tattoo agency like me. The tattooed officer got the tattoo when I left the police academy in 2002. I had the twin towers and the eagle with the American flag in the center, it really means a lot to me, but I made sure it didn’t go missing. my uniform shirt.

If the department has a policy that an officer cannot have tattoos that are not covered by a short-sleeved shirt, this will exclude many other good candidates from consideration. A department vying for qualified recruits with a similar policy will eventually have to change the policy that tattoos must be covered by a long-sleeved shirt, or allow tattoos to be displayed.

Gene Botkin

Gene is a graduate student in cybersecurity and AI at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Ongoing philosophy and theology student.

Recent Posts