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Given the growing popularity of body art — almost 40% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 40 have at least one tattoo — the conflict is inevitable.
The Los Angeles Fire Department’s new policy banning visible tattoos makes the department the latest battleground.
And while the edict is making outcasts of some tattooed firefighters, it’s also revealing a sort of cult-like fascination with the combination of fire and ink — and growing markets for protection and expression.
Firefighters who need to hide inked-up arms now have the “tatjacket,” a lightweight coverup designed by Simi Valley Police Officer Howard Horwitz to “make the bosses happy and the officers more comfortable.”
And firefighters who want to show off their designs have a web site dedicated to the art of firefighters’ tattoos. It was launched seven years ago with photos of five tattoos. Now it has 3,500 photos from firefighters around the world and claims 800,000 daily views.
Some readers suggested that over-the-top body art is simply a reflection of firefighters’ derring-do.
“You have to be a little edgy and a risk-taker to do what they do everyday,” wrote Ambar B. Capoor. “Tattoos are a natural extension of this philosophy.”
Some saw the fight in cosmic terms, as an assault on personal freedom. “What has a tattoo got to do with firefighting?” e-mailed tammyg “Enough dictating rules that have nothing to do with anything.”
But others blamed inked-up firefighters, like Dan Stark, for the department crackdown, and their dilemma.
“This fireman made a decision to cover his body in ink and simply expected all to accept it,” wrote Steve Haimwertz. “So now he looks like a freak and cries discrimination. . . . I would expect to find this kind of ‘expression’ on a prison yard but not on a city firefighter.”
