Gutted, Got my first job rejection because of tattoos

[beanfluff]

I applied to join the police as a PCSO and they wanted to see pictures of my tattoos so I sent them in.

Got a rejection letter this morning because they deem them offensive.
I agree that if I had BNP or anti police tattoos they might be right in rejecting me but cupcakes, teapots and ice creams????????

How crap is that, I bet they didn't even look at the rest of my form and just dumped me in the reject pile.

Thing is the uniform is long sleeves so no one would see them.

Anyway had a cry and stuff them I would have made a good plod so they are the ones loosing out.

[ShadesOfRed]

That sucks BF

Unfortunately it's just one of those things we have to take into consideration when we make the decision to go down the heavily tattooed path. It's not fair, but it's just the way it is.

[Emma1978]

thats really shocking , how can what you have be seen as offensive ? i can understand why you are so pissed off.

[beanfluff]

Yeah
I guess I just thought as long as i stuck to stuff that would be covered then it would be fine.
Just seems silly that they reject me outright just because of tattoos.

[Emma1978]

is there any way you could follow it up ? after all it is discrimination

[beanfluff]

Well I will ask for clarification on which tattoos were deemed offensive but I don't want to be given an interview just because I use the whole discrimination thing.

I was hoping they would look past the tattoos and actually read my application form and then give me an interview based on that but I don't think they did.

My sister is a police officer and she read my form for me and thought it would sail through so Im a bit miffed at being rejected out right.

[Gilly]

It's well known that the police reject people because of tattoos, and are becoming more strict if anything.
It sucks but to be honest you should have been expecting it.

[maryjane]

It suprises me how much this changes around the country. Bristol have loads of very tattooed guys on there force full sleeves and stuff.
I don't know if the pcsos have a different uniform to ours but they have short sleeves in the summer up here.

[Delius]

it sucks that this happens but i think the discrimination argument wont hold up because i looked into being a police officer for my local force, they say that they understand that body art is becoming more mainstream but applicants tattoos should not be numerous garish or in prominent places or should undermine the role of the police officer, from what you describe and from your avatar your tattoos dont look like they would undermine your role or be offensive but i think that the force you applied for will use the fact that you have a full sleeve against you, best thing to do would be look inot becoming a police special constable, they have powers of arrest, they are trained to use cs spary and a baton, you would have nearly the same powers as a regular officer but be volunatry and i think because you are voluntary they cant use the tattoos against you, i used to work with a lad who was covered and he was a special. good luck

[len]

That really sucks, seems a real shame they are turning down good people who want to join on the basis of having tattoos!!