The City Council has voted to ban new employees from sporting head, face, neck or hand tattoos - currently tattooed staffers are exempt from the new rule.
Officials in this Davis County municipality said the ban - which also requires male workers to take out any piercings - didn't arise from previous incidents, but rather is "anticipatory and preventative" as trends change.
"We want people to look professionally . . . so people will feel comfortable interacting with our employees," said City Manager Tom Hardy.
Bountiful modeled its policy on a Los Angeles Police Department tattoo ban.
"When a police officer shows up, you don't want to see a Nazi tattoo on their forehead or a ring around their nose," Hardy said.
Several police departments across the Wasatch Front, including West Jordan's and Ogden's, restrict officers from having visible tattoos, but the policy does not extend to all city employees; Bountiful staffers were unaware whether their city's was the first such ban in Utah.
The city's ordinance originally included forearms in the ban, and lacked the grandfather clause saving current employees from laser tattoo removal.
After meeting with department heads - many who raised concerns about staffers who are military veterans - Hardy said the clause for current employees was inserted, and forearm tattoos are allowed if covered.
The ban on piercings requires male employees to remove any studs or rings while on the job; women can have "ordinary earrings."
Also, current employees who get disallowed tattoos or piercings are considered to have resigned.
And while a ban on offensive or gang-related ink is understandable to Bountiful resident Steve Richards, the rest of the prohibition is "a joke."
"What are we in now, 2008?" he asked, adding "we've come a long way since things were so judgmental."
Hardy said the policy is likely "generational" and could be obsolete in 30 years.
"Some people don't feel comfortable with interacting with people that are that way," he said of tattoos and male piercings. "And some would say it looks unprofessional."
A 2006 Pew survey found 36 percent of 18- to 25- year-olds had tattoos, and that number rose to 40 percent among 26- to 40-year-olds, but dropped to 10 percent for the 41 to 64 set.
mariav@sltrib.com
When a police officer shows up, you don't want to see a Nazi tattoo on their forehead or a ring around their nose.
- Tom Hardy,
Bountiful city manager.
