Korean Job Discussion Forums

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

I'm curious what some think of this situation. A teacher working at a camp with children has many tattoos. Now, for the most part, they are covered when the said teacher is wearing a shirt (one is slightly visible), so it isn't a big deal. However, when we go into the pool, the teacher removes his shirt where you can see all the tattoos on his arms and back (and they are quite large). Pictures are being taken during the camp and posted online. I noticed a picture of him when looking through the pictures on the site (I browse the pictures to look for ones of my students). Personally I have no problem if another teacher has tattoos, but wouldn't be appropriate to keep his shirt on?

northway · Joined: 05 Jul 2010

As long as they're not blatantly inappropriate tattoos, I don't think it's a big deal until he gets a complaint.

cmster · Joined: 03 Aug 2010

If the tattoo's aren't obscene and the employer doesn't have a problem with it, I don't see why it should be a problem. Some people have tattoos. I can't think of any negative impacts of seeing a tattoo. :S However, I don't think everyone thinks this way though, and I expect complaints from the parents Wink

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

Steve_Rogers2008 · Joined: 22 Mar 2010

kimdeal54 · Joined: 28 Feb 2008

What ttompatz said.

My coworkers were telling me a story recently about a teacher they were considering hiring a few years ago. They were wary of him because he had tattoos on his forearms, so after a lot of debate, they asked the principal for advice. He said they should go ahead and hire him, so they did, and then admitted that he wasn't as scary as they'd assumed.

As for me, I have tattoos on my legs and back. I kept them covered for the first 5 months at my school, but I wore shorts throughout the summer camp because of the heat. The students (middle school) had questions, so I deliberately used a lesson (from the book I'd chosen) about body art. We had a discussion about what they thought, and how tattoos seem to becoming more popular in Korea. As I'd expected, there was no big fuss.

Also, weirdly... at the swimming pool where I'm a regular, a few ajumma have approached me to compliment my tattoos. The first time this happened, I was pretty surprised.

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Sounds like it probably won't be an issue then. Thanks for the input.

As for the Twilight Zone comment, I do like to see what kind of pictures they are taking, especially if I'm in them.