SHOP ATTIRE: How does your front counter staff dress? 10/2005 survey

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Does your shop have a (formal or verbal) dress code policy?

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Mike Labbe

Mike Labbe

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SHOP ATTIRE - OCTOBER 2005 GRUMBLE POLL & DISCUSSION
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RESULTS from previous surveys: LINK TO RESULTS

How does your front counter staff generally dress?
Does your business have a formal dress code policy?
Are the clothes branded with your company logo or name? If so, where do you have it done?
How do you think the public regards dress or staff appearance within the shop?

I hope everyone will share their opinions in this great thread.

-This survey is intended for framers.
-Your poll selections are anonymous, although discussion is public and encouraged.
-The results represent only a small sample of the industry, and should NOT be used as a planning tool or business plan.
-This survey is purely for entertainment and discussion.
 
We have a formal dress code in place. We have a small staff so we go from back room to front counter all day. No sneakers or hiking/work boots are allowed. Open toed shoes are forbidden unless they are a part time employee who works strictly in the office or as front counter gift sales and don't go near the workroom. No sweatshirts or printed t-shirts. No overalls. We prefer no jeans but will allow them if they are clean and free of holes/tears etc. and are paired with a nice top and nice shoes. No clothing that is too tight or too revealing. We have aprons if needed in the back room. If we have a messy project, we schedule it so whomever is working on it can wear appropriate clothing that day. We sell original art and the bulk of our framing is higher end. I think the customers are more comfortable leaving their work with us if we look like we care about the store's appearance as well as our own. I also think customer's are more receptive to conservation recommendations if we look more professional. All of these rules came about because we found that some employees did not have enough common sense to understand what a 'presentable attire' was. I had a very mature woman who was hired to work the front desk and she showed up in overalls! All of our cutting and joining is done at a separate location. We have a furniture/cabinetry shop as well. They wear t's and sweatshirts with our company logo, jeans and workboots or sneakers.
 
I am certainly not a lawyer, but I wonder if one can restrict “visible tattoos” from a current employee?

Certainly with the age and demographics of most of our customers, tattoos are off putting, so I would not hire someone who has a visible tattoo.

But, with a current employee, if you tried to restrict his or her “personal freedom” by either ordering them to cover up a tattoo, or to discharge them if they refused, I wonder if that would fall within the “discrimination” statutes?
 
It's just myself and Derek. We generally wear jeans, t-shirts or polos, and sneakers. My major concern is comfort. If I am not comfortable, I am not in a good mood. If I am not in a good mood, my work will suffer. Derek will dress up more often and according to the photography appointments he has.
 
I am flabbergasted at the percentage of dress slacks, dress shirts and blouses. I think someone is pulling our leg with the stiletto's answer..


I have some very nice clothes that do not go near my shop! I won't wear shoes I can't scuff with glass sheets or get putty on and cry. That goes for pants, too. Mostly nice jeans, although some of my jeans I consider too nice to frame in??? Khaki's, dress casual is the upper limit. I cannot imagine doing anything other than selling in dress pants and a blouse.

My requirements (from myself)for dressing are no holes, no faded stuff, no "strong statements" (political, religious, etc.)most printed t's are out. I have very strong views about this stuff, as most do here on the grumble, but it gets checked at the door. Customers are so easily turned off by that stuff. Who wants to lose a sale because of a shirt they are wearing?

I know Baer wears Birk's, but I like the ten toes I was born with, and know my abilities to find exposed skin with razor blades and glass shards. Closed toe shoes are a must.

Are y'all really building frames and doing the framer's dirty work duded up?
 
Many moons ago I was a waitress, working my way through school and had to wear a uniform. I pretty much promised myself to never have another job where there was a uniform, so as long as we look clean and respectable I don't care what we wear. Although I do need to say it is just me and Ahlene and we are kind of old fuddies in our dress( so her 21 year old daughter tells us),no real worries in an unexpected wardrobe indignation.

By the way, Ahlene just informed me she would take one for the team and have Gallery of Framing tatooed on her a$$......I'm afraid to ask who would see it
faintthud.gif


Lori
 
Gumbo Girl: yes, we are doing all that work all duded up. The messy stuff, and sawing, are done before store hours or after store hours when ties are not worn. Can't imagine what "dirty work" you're referring to, since we don't do dirty stuff. If you mean cleaning, that too is done before or after store hours.

Our attire is listed in the other post on "uniforms" but in all honesty I want to look as good as my customers expect. And I KNOW the Marietta area and where you are is way more classy than where I am--but in Knoxville that ain't hard to beat. What I suppose I'm saying is I like to dress well, look successful, and I think the customer is more comfortable with that look.

O forgot to mention: I have several tatoos as well and they are in body parts that are not exposed as long as I don't wear shorts or am without a shirt.
 
We've always dressed sort of "business casual", remembering that we are in Colorado. I never really thought about it, untiul I had a customer comment on how nice it was that we dressed for work. She felt it was a sign of respect for the customer, and indicated that we were serious about the work. She had visited several merchants in the area and everyone seemed to be in jeans and t-shirts.

I still lapse into jeans, especially when we are doing something during the day where we may get dirty or dusty.
 
I didn't always know this......As some of you have seen my picture from my wild years... that was me dressed to go to work and interface with lawyers, doctors and wealthy housewives (oh how did I ever get away with that?).

Probably the best overall answer is mirror your clientel then step a shade up.

Which for our little neighborhood means..."burkies" are out... flops are good. T-shirts that support the Oregon Humane Society is good... Megadeath at the Roxie is bad.
Shorts... clean dress shorts are good.... nylon dolphins ....yeah, right! At my age? NOT so much. :D

Dress kakai shorts have become a summer uniform in so many industries that many expect to see them. UPS, FedEx...etc. In fact our FedEx ground guy just told me today that they can now wear shorts all year.

About 18 years ago, I used to wear shorts at the Southern Californian shop that I managed. Along with a turned up dress shirt.... snappy.

One day a lady who spent about $20K a year with us came in. Looked at my long pants.
"Where are your shorts?" (did I mention she was in her 60s?
"I didn't have any really clean."
"Where do you live?"
"About 5 minutes away." ????
"I'll be over having an expresso while you go change."
"You're jokeing. Right?"
"Honey, when I'm spending thousands of dollars in a store, I want to see some great legs. Come get me when you are flashing some great leg. Oh, and make it the dark blue ones. They're the shortest."

I didn't wear long pants again.

Who was to know? :D
 
I have found, that my customers feel intimidated and not relaxed if we are "too" dressed up. So, I lean more towards, jeans, khakis, polos, sweaters and blouses, colored long sleeved t-shirts (a little more dressy than logo t-shirts). I have occassionally worn skirts and boots if I have a meeting in the a.m or p.m and don't have time to change inbetween.

Casual is our style, just not sloppy casual. I have customers that come in in sweatpants from the community center and are running errands on their way home. Lots of moms with kids and they shop up between 10am and 2pm.

I think it has to work for your area and environment.
 
We wear jeans and t-shirts most of the time. No open shoes. Boss just wants us to be clean and neat looking. No tatoos, only earrings are in the ear and limited to how many you can wear at one time. We do have to wear a vest with a logo and wear our name tag.
Customers don't really seem to mind what we wear. You won't catch me in hardly anything but a t-shirt and blue jeans with tennis shoes.
 
We are a casual shop. Basicly we can wear almost anything as long as it is neat, clean, free of holes or too much wear, and not too revealing. We don't restrict our staff as to their individual style or wearing things that display a particular political opinion, as long as the dress is coming from a place of self respect and respecting others - no foul language or imagery, no breasts popping out, etc. There are two people here with visible tattoos - one is myself. Very ocassionally I get a customer who doesn't like it, or can't understand why I "do that to myself", and we have a conversation about it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I believe that if there is open dialog regarding that, or any other issue, customers will not feel that their values are threatend and will not take it out on the buisness. Actually, I recieve more comliments on my body art, while on the job, than I can count. I think our customers like the individuality of our staff (mostly artisits), and the casual atmosphere. I should mention that we are also a do-it-yourself shop so the atmosphere here is already more casual because of that. We have customers that come in in sweats to frame their work. I imagine that at a shop that has more of a gallery atmosphere, the dress would be more of a consideration. I don't feel that it is right to fire someone who has visible tattoos, that would be discrimination. A possible exception to that would be if you have an existing, written dress code that the employee read and signed apon hiring, that is breached by the aquiring and / or display of said body modification. I can see how that would be a tough one, if you have an employee come in with some new and distasteful tattoo. Of course, distaste is in the eye of the beholder. I didn't turn away the photo of hitler as a child that someone had me frame for them a few years ago, despite my personal distaste. My job is to frame peoples things not judge them or police their values. Similarly, we cannot police our staff like that. If an employer has mistakenly hired someone who would put porno on their shoulder, it is on the employers shoulder to learn from that and aplly what they have learned to future hiring policy.
I am glad for this discussion. It's very interesting!
 
Here are some Attire comments extracted from the original UNIFORMS thread, which inspired this survey/discussion. So these opinions don't fall through the cracks, I am re-posting them here.

Great topic and discussion!

Mike

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FramingFool posted 10-01-2005 12:13 PM
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Absolutely ... nothing inspires a customer more than a Gestapo-clad minion.
My uniform is shorts and spiffy t-shirt in the summer ... jeans and a work shirt in the winter .... oh, and my de rigeur "Big Guy" baseball cap....
If my customers object, they keep it to themselves...somehow, the superior framing and a glass of wine keep them happy.
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Tim Hayes posted 10-01-2005 12:30 PM
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Not that we have employees wear unforms in either of my shops but maybe the thought is to build brand. Having the store name/logo on a shirt/apron fully visible to the customer throughout the design/pickup process may be something to think about. I wonder how many shops have their name/logo displayed INSIDE the store? Would it be positive reinforcement to not only have exterior signage but also interior branding to remind customers of where they are once inside? Have you ever been in a store, browsed for a several minutes, left and completely forgotten the name of the store?
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Jay H posted 10-01-2005 12:34 PM
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We could make a list of retail business that do have specific "matching" attire and those that don't.
I'll be the "do's" out weigh the "don't" 20 to 1.
Thats not by accident.
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Jay Hartman
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JbNormandog posted 10-01-2005 01:01 PM
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If I could swing it right now I would have just simple polo type shirts with our name on the upper right side (small).
This way I won't have to think can I wear the same shirt I wore to spackle the drywall in to work today.
I worked at shops where some other framers dressed like slobs. The owner was not the type of person to object to them so instead she ordered shirts that all of us used.

It had limited success.
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frmallday posted 10-01-2005 04:34 PM
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That's a pretty far stretched reason why anyone would want to shop there.
Actually it's rather silly!
Years ago I applied for a job at a similar such franchise and was told I couldn't wear jeans.
One expects to see uniforms in restuarants, hospitals and Jiffy Lube not a frame shop.
In what way does a uniform convey any sort of "creativity"
I prefer the artsy look myself, a little different, colorful and always matching just like my frame designs.
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Baer Charlton posted 10-01-2005 10:30 PM
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Personally, I think some nice inexpensive polo shirts look a lot better in a retail setting then the framer wandering out of the back as you're wrapping up the deal with the local First Baptist Church Crusade for Peace, church ladies....

and the framer is wearing that "oh so creative and artsey" t-shirt that says "Kill 'em all and let God and Satan divey it up".

Not so much.
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DTWDSM posted 10-01-2005 10:46 PM
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Frmallday, you can't wear jeans and work for me either, at least blue jeans.

Uniforms are not going to bring customers in the store, but a consistant message does and if you have people in business casual and people in jeans and t-shrt working at the same time, you are sending a mixed message.
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Tim McCann
Deck the Walls
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EllenAtHowards posted 10-02-2005 07:14 AM
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Frmallday could work for us. We provide nice Land's End polos with our logo. And the lower half is to be jeans or better (I wear better all the time). Some wear jeans and some wear khakis. Consistency is the key. And it was a whole bunch better than what they wore when we took over the place! And I hope I never run a business where I can only think of 4 good things to say in a 5 bullet format. I'd rather drop the last bullet!
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Take what you can use, and leave the rest...
Ellen at Howard's
Howard's Custom Framing & Art Supplies
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Bob Carter posted 10-02-2005 01:01 PM
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We provide nice,expensive Polo's and they look nice. It reinforces who we are and does look better than the way I see most framers dress.

I had a framer that worked in the back. He always wore music group T's-Black Sabbath,stuff like that.

Why take the chance that someone might be offended
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Jim Miller posted 10-02-2005 01:29 PM
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They might just as well advertise that they empty their trash cans every night.

Seriously, though, the way we dress is important. Generally, I think we ought to look at least as clean and well dressed as our customers, maybe even a bit better. In my shop we do not allow T-shirts or blue denims, and nothing with shredded hems or holes -- intentional or not. We provide each employee with a few polo shirts with our logo embroidered, and expect them to be worn at least three days out of five.
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Jim Miller
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Sherry Gray posted 10-03-2005 07:32 AM
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My employees don't get to wear t-shirts but they can wear jeans. I typically dress up a little more. We all wear magnetic name tags with the logo/name of the shop and our individual names. I wear mine from home to work and back... it amazes me how many people strike up a conversation about framing in the grocery or convenience store. Better money spent than the hundreds of business cards I give out.
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www.yesterdayandtodayframeshop.com
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Mike-L@GTP posted 10-03-2005 07:43 AM
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We have been getting them from LL bean for 4 years. (one set per year, new style and color each year. Oldest ones are still fine and in rotation) The quality has been fantastic, and they guarantee them for life. Most of them are polos, but some are also dress shirts. I feel that it DOES make a difference, and we're happy with the response.
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Mike Labbe * Get The Picture * 401-725-3400 * CMC & POS Lists * LiveChat
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frmallday posted 10-03-2005 04:23 PM
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Thanks Ellen!
And it was A Deck the Walls Tim, I applied at. I sure as heck wasn't going to spend a hundred bucks or so for non-jean pants for a 10.00 and hour job.
Jeans are my "basic" uniform and I haven't lost a sale yet because I was wearing them..
Some of those jeans can get pretty pricey! Who's impressed ? No one.

I personally think it's ridiculous but I naturally buck at conventionality to begin with, just my personality.
I objected to them when my kids school tried the uniform policy as well.
I find it hard to believe my customers would even care about such a thing.
A well groomed person with a neat tidy appearance is all I would ask,, and slogan T-shirts I agree are a no.
Surely some common sense would apply!
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WizSteve posted 10-03-2005 04:40 PM
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Another question for the store owners that don't allow T-shirts and jeans:

Do you give commisions to your sales staff?

I for one would have no problem upgrading my attire if I knew that it would probably help my sales.. otherwise I'd say just keep me in the back room and let me wear whatever I want.

From a practical point of view, where I used to work at (The Great Frame Up) jeans were waaaay better since I was kneeling all the time due to the angled magnet board most TGFUs use. I tended to wear out the right knee in my pants every couple of months..
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Steve Kerr
Lead Programmer - Wizard International
steve.kerr@wizardint.com
Framer - Finishing Touches, Mill Creek WA
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ERIC posted 10-03-2005 04:45 PM
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quote:
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it amazes me how many people strike up a conversation about framing
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That's just the reason I will get some oxfords from Lands End.
The pricing is right for a one-man-shop like mine to get just a few.
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There are few among us that never cease to amaze the rest of us.
Eric Jarmann Newburgh, New York
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WizSteve posted 10-03-2005 04:46 PM
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And I found this on Monster.com:
quote:
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Can clothing stores require employees to buy their clothes to wear at work?

Recently, several large retail clothing stores have been sued over what is a fairly common practice in the industry: requiring employees to wear the store's clothing while at work. Employees in the lawsuits have reported being required to buy new items every time the store's inventory changed, and that at times, they were spending their entire paycheck on new clothes for work. Some states, such as California, require the employer to pay for any uniform of "apparel and accessories of distinctive design or color" that workers must wear, and the lawsuits argue that this rule includes clothing worn by salespeople. Another argument is that by requiring employees to spend so much of their paychecks on clothing, the workers' hourly rate is falling below the minimum wage.

So far, few of the lawsuits have made it all the way to trial. Instead, companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch, J. Jill and Express have paid out millions of dollars to settle large class actions, with individual employees getting anything from $50 or $100, to several thousand dollars for the named plaintiffs in a particular lawsuit. Most legal experts predict that retailers will probably begin either allowing employees to wear any clothing they want, or else providing workers certain items for free that must be worn at work.

Laws about uniform policies cover more than traditional safety gear or other clothing that is only worn on the job. Requiring workers to buy and wear any particular item can get a company in trouble, even if the clothing at issue can also be worn outside of work.

--Paul E. Freehling, Labor and Employment attorney, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, with assistance from Melanie H. Berkowitz, Esq., Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
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Mike LeCompte CPF posted 10-03-2005 05:23 PM
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For the past seven and a half years in business oour attire has been AT LEAST a polo shirt with slacks, hilfiger or Lauren or Tommy Bahama-type casual shirt with slacks in summer; winter it's oxford type button down shirt with tie.

Period

We consider ourselves catering to a better clientele--read "upper class--and I really don't think my customer base wants to see me in shorts, jeans, tee shirts with funny names or that sorta thing.

And while our franchisor does offer "branded" type polos and aprons and such, I just feel more comfortable in a nice polo shirt or shirt and tie. Plus it makes ME feel more secure, confident, or whatever.

Sorta like the school uniform I wore for 16 + years==white shirt, tie, gray pants and later in college khaki-type pants. But that was parochial school.

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Michael LeCompte CPF
The Great Frame Up
Knoxville TN
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I cannot think of one place I have shopped in the last year where I spent any real money, picture framing included, where the people who waited on me weren't well dressed.

You can be comfortable, dress well, and not spend alot of money doing it, either.
 
Hmm, yes, it's interesting. One would assume that a "high end" looking place where the staff "dressed well" is where people would spend "real money". Yet our casual little shop, tattoos and all, as many regular customers (and is constantly attracting new ones)that spend large sums of money. I might add that I look at all the money our customers spend here as "real" as I think they do too. It would be insulting, and not good business practice for me to treat someone framing their childs art work for under $100, like their money, their business is somehow less real (and therefore less important)to me than the AbeMunn buyers (or APFMunn, I think they just changed the name).
 
Originally posted by kirsten:
Similarly, we cannot police our staff like that. If an employer has mistakenly hired someone who would put porno on their shoulder, it is on the employers shoulder to learn from that and aplly what they have learned to future hiring policy.
Click to expand...
Kirsten, I am going to have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. As an employer I can "police" my staff, you either work for me by my rules or you don't work for me.

If somebody wants to do something stupid like put a porno tatoo on themselves and it is visible then they can either cover it at all times or they are gone.

Our employee manual says that visible tatoos are not allowed as well as piercings other than ears. About 5-6 years ago we had an employee working for us that came to work with his eyebrow pierced, told him to remove it or go home for good, he still works for me.

And FYI, I have a tatoo but it is covered at all times.
 
Well I agree that since you have rules in your manual about that that your employees must abide by them or go. You therefore have a right to police the staff in that regard. But I stand on my belief that a business w/o any pre-established guidlines would be stomping on a persons right of self expression by firing them for their body modifications. Of course the issue is very subjective. It really does depend on your customers / community / atmosphere. We are not a franchise so we are free to be ourselves. We also happen to be in a very liberal part of the country and sandwitched between liberal districts. Yet as I had stated before, we have plenty of conservative clientel who love us for our uniquness and talents. I can't say that I would know what to do if I was offended by a tattoo that an existing employee aquired. But really it's not a consern or ours because we feel we are pretty good judges of character when it comes to hiring. For us, thats what it really comes down to. Maybe someday we will learn differently. Everyone might want to rethink their policiys though. I see more and more high end fashion adds where the models sport tattoos - and their not for polo shirts.
 
me012.jpg


I didn't realize these would be so big. I hope thats not a problem for the site!
I designed this myself and I am very proud of it. As I said, I get so many compliment on it on the job. Most of my customers see it as just another form of art. Not one that everyone wants for themselves, but valid none the less. And when they find out that I am also an artist and that I designed the piece myself, they put even more faith in me to design and execute the framing of their art. Tattooing, which is a way older tradition for the human race than picture framing, really has a bad rep, and it's unfortunate that there are people both giving and getting ugly work. Of course, I realize that there are people out there who may think this is ugly and I accept that. Luckily, even my customers who are against tattooing in their personal lives, are open minded enough to judge me on my merits and talents, and not on how we differ. They keep coming. They keep spending.
 
I've had a tattoo on my forearm for 20 years and have no qualms about showing it.
I don't even remember the last time anyone commented on it.
Tattoos are very much a part of even mainstream culture these days: even us employers are sportin' them! Being 'well-dressed' these days may well include a tattoo.
Kirsten, yours is gorgeous.
I do have rules for clothes here: nice jeans okay, tshirts not, especially tshirts with slogans, tennies not, low-cut/revealing not, fingernail polish not, rings and bracelets are marginal, necklaces and earrings okay, high heels not, skirts marginal, on and on...

edie the keepitsimple goddess
 
Thanks Goddess.
I have a good friend who owns another local frame shop and she works on skirts and heels most of the time, often as high as 3 inches. Even if shes wearing pants, has heels on. I don't know how she does it. My feet would revolt if I tried that. I mean, we are on our feet all day. Not to mention that I'm sure I would eventaully trip and sprain an ankle. I guess she has strong ankles from wearing them all the time. To each her own!
 
Are there any other opinions or feelings on this subject?

Where do you shop for your branded attire?
 
We have a pretty laid back dress policy, though everyone I work with dresses casual, we are always clean and well kept, which is nice- I have worked with some stinky folks in the past.

We are given the option to get 1 free shirt from Lands End and one half priced with our logos. They are pretty nice and we can choose whatever style/colors we want.

Our only rules are:

Nothing that would be considered overly distracting or distasteful, no open toed

I have worked in places with formal dress codes, and I find it tedious (especially if it's very particular)

I think when it comes to art and framing, there needs to be more leeway for designers to express themselves. I wouldn't want to walk into a gallery to see all the artists wearing white shirts and black slacks, so I would hope that people wouldn't come into my frame shop expecting the same.

I would think that working in heels/skirt would be dangerous if you are chopping frames, not to mention quite in-efficient.

I'd like to add that our frame shop (the great frame up) has been consistently #1 in the area for nearly 28 years.
 
Originally posted by Mike-L@GTP:
Are there any other opinions or feelings on this subject?
Click to expand...
No business should feel pressured to conform to others' standards of what is acceptable. At the same time, an open mind for ways to improve could be very helpful. I personally feel much more comfortable when I shop someplace where I can tell who's working there and who's a customer.

As for tattoos, I don't think anyone will be insulted if you don't have a tattoo, but there are undoubtedly some who are put off by them - right or wrong and whether you like it or not. Maybe some have the luxury of being able to turn customers away, but it's something I try to avoid in my business.

Originally posted by Mike-L@GTP:
Where do you shop for your branded attire?
Click to expand...
I am thankful there is an independantly owned and operated screen print and embroidery shop right in our town. I have looked at LL Bean, Lands' End, WearGuard, etc, but we gladly support our local business.
 
I was just thinking about a previous job. The company had several locations and paid a PR consultant a hefty sum to help combat the perception of them as a large and impersonal chain. It was a family owned business and they wanted it known. That was the reason they gave for not wearing branded clothing when it was brought up at a staff meeting. They did give us a clothing allowance and there was a dress code. I don't recall too many specifics. The employee manual did say no visible tattoos, and no piercings other than ladies' ears, and no revealing or provacative clothing.
 
Has anyone shopped a Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware or Crate & Barrel? What about a Nordstrom's or Saks? My humble opinion is this: if I were to walk into anyone of these shops, or others like them (read: the same places my target demographic is shopping) and I saw an associate in shorts or jeans or flip flops, I would wonder what was going on. I strongly feel the image you project through your clothes and apperance play a part in how others perceive your professionalism, knowledge and expertise in a retail setting.
 
Originally posted by Julia:
Has anyone shopped a Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware or Crate & Barrel?
Click to expand...
I would hope that you wouldn't go to pottery barn to get fine art or truly creative interiors though- That's the difference in many cases. I don't like the 'big company' feel that overdressing can give. I find that when I go to a place where people are overdressed to sell me something- they are trying to 'sell' me something, you know?
 
Just a reminder: This poll ends Monday. Please participate if you haven't already.
Next month will be the 3rd annual framing technology survey.
techsurvey.gif


Mike
 
I'm somewhat of an older fellow, I was raised on different values. I have never cared for tattoos on men or women, I just can not understand permanently identifying your body. I was a member of a military unit that did not allow any tattoos that could identify your outfit or where you were from. That pretty much eliminated all tattoos. I have never gotten one, I never will.

John
 
Originally posted by kirsten:
Tattooing, which is a way older tradition for the human race than picture framing,
Click to expand...
You are right Kirsten, but then hairy legs or armpits are an even older tradition than that of tattooing. Why are you comparing two different things like some barbarian tradition and the trade of framing?
Such forms of "body arts" as tattooing and piercing are have everything to do with covering and compensating for deep personal complexes and much insecurity. I can't help but notice that tattooing and piercing are most probably acquired at that age when reasoning, self-control and one's identity are yet to be discovered (and, coincidentally, auto insurance premiums are exceptionally high ;) ).
I would not automatically discriminate against a tattooed person because I know that eventually every one maturates and finds a way to cope with his youth's mistakes.
 
MONTHLY SURVEY SHOP ATTIRE- OCTOBER 2005

Does your shop have a (formal or verbal) dress code policy?
52% YES
44% NO
03% OTHER (please explain in post)
01% Does Not Apply/Not A Framer

Do you feel that employee appearance makes for a happier customer?
88% YES
07% NO
03% OTHER (please explain in post)
02% Does Not Apply/Not A Framer

How does your front counter staff generally dress? (Check any that may apply)
TOP
62% Polo (37% plain, 25% shop branded)
46% Blouse
42% Dress Shirt (33% plain, 9% shop branded)
25% Tee-shirt (19% plain, 6% shop branded)
22% Apron (14% plain/vendor, 8% shop branded)
BOTTOM
55% Khaki style pants
52% Blue jeans
44% Slacks
37% Dress pants
30% Skirt
28% Other jeans
22% Dress
17% Shorts
FEET
63% Shoes
39% Sneakers
14% Open toe shoes
01% Stilettos
OTHER
21% We have visible tattoo restrictions
19% We have jewelry restrictions
04% Shop branded name tag on other shirt
02% Tie
02% Shop branded hat or cap
03% Does Not Apply
01% OTHER/NOT LISTED (please explain in a post)
 
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