Will tattoos change face of the boardroom?
Afriend showed up at the gym a while back with a snappy new haircut — shaved sides and a blowback top.
He looked modern and a little dangerous.
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve commented on the hairstyle of another man. It’s not something I do; it’s not something men of my generation do. This particular haircut, however, was sharp. Perfectly so, in fact. It made him look fierce and mighty. It suited him. He looked like a warrior. I told him this. He quietly thanked me, then suggested it wasn’t very corporate.
My friend is a VP in an industry that tacitly expects a degree of conservatism: a suit and tie with a haircut defined mostly by timelessness.
He told me he planned to keep the warrior coif for a while, at least until someone in the boardroom suggested otherwise.
Suggesting otherwise seemed absurd to me.
Even in the most conservative boardrooms, I would think that having someone around the table who does not look like everyone else around the table would be a good thing.
That said, I understand there have to be lines.
Back in the 1970s, I had an ear pierced. This was hardly commonplace, especially among heterosexual males not named Popeye or Sinbad. My girlfriend, at the time, shoved a hoop through my left lobe one drunken evening. She did this because I couldn’t find a business willing to pierce it properly and hygienically.
A man with an earring was seen as something of a deviant back then.
When I began my career as a journalist in 1980, I took the hoop out because, well, as my friend said of his haircut, it wasn’t all that corporate. I knew where the line was. These days, the body modification that most interests me, as it applies to suitability in the corporate boardroom, is the venerable tattoo.
I don’t have a tattoo and am thankful the ink craze did not become high fashion during my time as a young man. Desiderata scrawled across my back would not be a good or attractive thing.
As tats go today, I figure the corporate boardroom is mostly accepting — up to a point, that is. That point would be the face. The moment you start to put permanent ink markings on your face, you have to be willing to accept certain employment doors will close — certain promotions will not be considered. At least, that seems to be the case in 2016.
Who knows where the line is going to be 10 years from now?
In mid-May, I spoke to a room filled with the most promising teenagers the North Shore had to offer. They were being honoured for their academic achievements, community service and athletic accomplishments. The best advice I had to offer this glowing group was simply: “Go easy on the ink.”
As I wrote earlier, having someone around the boardroom table who does not look like everyone else around the boardroom table is good thing.
That said, be aware: Hair grows back and hoops can be taken out, but ink, well, ink can be messy.
In the corporate world, this is especially true of red ink — on the face or otherwise.