In 1912, famous baseball player Ty Cobb was attacked by three men on his way to an exhibition baseball game. The three men who according to press accounts "were under the influence of liquor" had attempted to rob Cobb. The report said one of his would-be robbers pulled a knife and slashed Cobb in the back, after which "all three men tried to make their getaway." Cobb is said to have chased the attackers, caught one and pistol-whipped him. The Syracuse Herald reported that on the day after the attack, Cobb got two hits in the exhibition game against the Syracuse Stars but did not exert himself because of "a severe knife wound in his back." Other reports had blood seeping through Cobb's uniform during the game.
Now let's fast forward to recently when I was interviewing a young lady for a receptionist position here at The Sentinel-Record. The interview was proceeding well when I asked the young lady if she had any questions for me. She said the only question she had was how many days could she take off in her first two months of employment. I said that generally new employees can't take any paid time off during the first 90 days but we could make exceptions in an emergency. She said that it wasn't "necessarily" an emergency but she needed to take several days off over the course of her first 60 days because she had scheduled two appointments with her tattoo artist to work on her sleeve of tattoos and she couldn't reschedule because the artist is "booked months in advance." She needed a day for each appointment and then generally she said she needs a "day or two" to recuperate from the tattoo process. So she figured she would probably need five to six workdays off during the course of her first two months of employment.
She then told me that she wouldn't be able to consider the job if she couldn't have those days off and that I should know that she tries to get at least one tattoo a month and since her artist was in such high demand she would probably need to schedule her appointments during workdays. I said I understood and asked if her current employer allowed her to take days off to have herself tattooed? She said it did become a problem at her last job and that is why she had to quit.
So I asked her whether, on her personal priority list, tattoos superseded employment? She said absolutely they did, because her tattoos were "who she was" and what makes her a "unique creature."
We continued the interview for a few minutes more then I thanked her for her time and said I would be in touch once a hiring decision was made.
I interviewed several candidates for the position and eventually landed on an extremely experienced and qualified candidate.
When I called the young lady to notify her of my decision to hire someone else she asked if her tattoos had prevented her from getting the job. I assured her that they had no bearing on the decision whatsoever. I told her I have tattoos myself and certainly understand the appeal of body art. I informed her that I had hired someone with more experience in the administrative assistant field. She thanked me for calling and said she guessed it all worked out for the best because her tattoo artist had just called her and had an appointment open up so she was going to get a tattoo the next day and would have been unavailable to start for two or three days, anyway.
Oh, how times have changed. Now would I come to work with a knife wound on my back? Probably not, but I've gotten a tattoo and came to work the very next day so I guess the young lady is right when she says we are all "unique creatures."
Editorial on 08/18/2019