Sir, – Having your employer's logo tattooed on your skin can be perceived as "weird" and "creepy", according to Lucy Kellaway (Business Life, May 19th). Far from it. It would be creepy if you did the tattoo work yourself, sitting at your desk, perhaps. Ms Kellaway has lost the context of why such tattoos exist. Her term "wearable CV" seems reasonable in the tech industry, except that those tattoos are more for show to other employees in the industry than to prospective employers.
I have two tattoos of past and present tech industry employers, and seen many more such tattoos in Silicon Valley. Such tattoos are a tribute to modern human capital management motivation techniques and to successful transmission of corporate culture. Employees are now so inspired by their employers that they literally let them under their skin, but there’s a marketing angle too, and also one of individualism. Being fired from a tech job and still bearing a corporate logo tattoo must also surely be a badge of honour in an industry that values rebellion. The message is “I escaped”.
In the tech industry, where age is a major diversity issue, the question of “How is that tattoo going to look on you when you’re 75?” is interesting. Unlike real consumer software, a lifetime maintenance model must be anticipated with your wearable CV. Anyone still sporting a Microsoft Windows 95 tattoo must feel particularly unsupported in the community by now, for example. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
Laurel Street,
San Carlos, California.