Tattoo bans outdated, Carrick artist says

This is the view of a local tattoo artist, who is warning the businesses concerned that they are only doing themselves out of custom and causing embarrassment to people who would rather be inside spending money.

Albert Connor, proprietor of the Nautica studio in Carrickfergus, claims to have encountered the problem in Belfast in recent months. However, he believes past attitudes to tattoos, which may have prompted some premises to introduce bans, are no longer held by the general public.

“From an artist’s point of view, the stuff people are getting now is far more of an art form than it was even 10 or 15 years ago - long gone are the days when it was all old sailor tattoos,” he told the TIMES.

“Back in the day, the public perception of people who had a tattoo might have been that they were a thug or had been in jail, but it is now far more acceptable in society.

“I get people in here from all walks of life - I have tattooed the manageress of a bank and 10 years ago that would have been unheard of.”

Mr Connor admitted that he can understand why a bar might not want to admit individuals with political or football-related tattoos in case of disputes, but insisted that a blanket ban is both unnecessary and outdated.

“I have met so many friends through their tattoos, just standing at a bar, seeing something nice, asking who did it and you are into a conversation.

“If someone has tattoos, they have money to spend on tattoos. If I owned a bar and saw somebody walk in with full sleeve of tattoos, my instinct would be that they have money to spend, bring them in.”

Mr Connor said he and many of his staff and customers have at one time or another fallen foul of a ‘no tattoos’ rule that he feels is often applied arbitrarily.

“I have experienced it three times in the last four months, to the extent I feel that I can barely go out in Belfast. I went out in a group, seven of us went to the door and I was told I could not get in because I was beavily tattooed.

“Two things could have happened: we could all leave or I could leave, so I did the decent thing and went back to Carrick. It cost me 30 to get to Belfast and back and I didn’t even get a drink!

“Often it isn’t anything to do with the tattoos, it is just used as a convenient excuse to turn people away; far more women get tattoos these days than men, but very rarely would you see anybody asking a woman to leave a bar or restaurant because of it.”

Are premises that ban tattoos behind the times? Send your views to [email protected].