Disney Parks Cast Members can now have exposed tattoos and more!

I was thinking "Disney Hates Poor People" as a tattoo.

My first reaction to the t-shirt example was that it made sense. But Wahoo's examples made me think there is a difference between a guest wearing a Harry Potter shirt and a cast member having a visible Harry Potter logo tattoo from the perspective of Disney.

I get what wahoo is saying and my own employer ran into this when we looked at relaxing our tattoo policy. Where we were tripped up was on religious symbols. What qualifies as offensive or inappropriate? There's no doubt that different people are going to find the Christian cross or the star and crescent or the Star of David offensive. Of course, I live in Texas where people go out of their way to get offended by what they don't agree with, so maybe it's different in other parts of the country. We looked at other policies like Starbucks and IKEA and even our local police department, but all of those left a lot of room for management discretion when it came to deeming something offensive or inappropriate. We're just big enough that we have a variety of managers and just big enough that inconsistency in enforcement would be noticed.

I think the headache (which I honestly don't think will be that big a deal) is almost certainly worth increasing your pool of applicants to include tattoo'd people. Especially given the ubiquity of tattoos these days.

There's one person in this thread clearly talking from the POV of someone that has a lot of experience dealing with employees at this level.

The rest of you are questioning him.

I mean, it was a can of worms before. Hence, the haircut and dress code challenges and stuff like that we always read about.

But now you're going from black & white (this is or isn't allowed) to shades of grey (some of this is allowed and some isn't). Right or wrong, it's going to be uglier just by the nature of that change.

So, what I hear you saying is "Experts."

"Experience" at the very least.

I don't think experience necessarily makes you an expert and I don't think experts necessarily have experience.

Based on my experience of having a better half for the past 30 years who has an equal amount of experience dealing with employees in a similar way on a similar level sharing her experiences, they seem to align quite nicely with what wahoo skipper is saying, presumably based on his experience. 🙂

I'm not sure you can ever be an expert in employee stupidity, but you can certainly have a lot of experience with it.

(how was that for an over-answer to a simple quip?)

Lots of people with tattoos work there now. They simply cover up their tattoos when at work. The only way this really moves the needle on available hires is on people who would not apply at all because they were offended that they would have to cover their tattoos. I doubt that is a significant enough number of people to move the needle on this.

I'm no expert. I have experience, having worked in the industry and for Disney specifically, but I'm almost 25 years removed. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe they really are losing quality hires because of this policy. It just seems like this is easier to mitigate than dreadlocks, piercings, etc.

(And I wrote this having not seen Gonch's reply...but yes...I'm not an expert.)

wahoo skipper said:

Can I get a tattoo that says "Trump-2024"?

No, but you can hang a flag from the Hall Of Presidents.

As a member, Six Flags sends me surveys from time to time and I took one specifically related to employee grooming. It asked about beards, tats, piercings and length of hair on males. I was pretty liberal in my answers as well as in the additional comments section saying something along the lines of "I don't really care what they look like, I care that they can do the job properly, safely, and timely." (read: better than what you have now, Six Flags.)

Jeff said:
Hey Chris, do you know what they're saying about piercings?

I think the only change was specifically with ear rings. Nothing else can be pierced on the body from what I read.

wahoo skipper said:

...but it does raise all kinds of interesting issues they will now have to contend with. Can a Cast Member have a tattoo of a Disney character that is visible? .... How about a tattoo of Harry Potter or a rival corporate symbol? Can I get a tattoo that says "Trump-2024"?...

My take is that some are thinking too much into this. The policy as I read it is pretty simple and straight forward and doesn't leave much to be questioned. Everything you just said doesn't go against the policy so those tattoos would be fine. The location on the body and size of the tattoo are defined so you still aren't going to see someone with an entire leg covered in a Harry Potter tattoo. You won't see anyone covered in tattoos at all actually. That little tattoo that you got on your wrist at spring break, that's allowed. Your neck tattoo that says "Freedom" isn't going to be allowed.

So freaks need not apply?

99er said: That little tattoo that you got on your wrist at spring break, that's allowed. Your neck tattoo that says "Freedom" isn't going to be allowed.

So my Trevor Phillips neck tattoo is a no go? :)

Wow. Disney policy changes have really triggered some fanboys.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-disn...story.html

What a goof.

The next time I ride Jungle Cruise I will not be thinking about the gloriously entertaining puns of the skippers, I will be thinking about Disney’s political agenda. That’s a mood killer.

lol

Pirates used to be one of my favorite attractions. My family would always ride it first on our first day at the Magic Kingdom. Now, we do not even ride it every trip. When my family rides Pirates now, each of the changed scenes takes us out of the illusion because they remind us of reality and the politics that forced the changes.

lol

Translated: Don't make changes the majority of people want because my wants and needs are all that I care about.

It's not even that. If the wants and needs were reasonable or even made sense (e.g. stuff related to DAS or disappearing DME or EMH etc.), the comments might be justified and even if they Disney didn't accommodate them, I'd at least respect them. These comments are just absurd to the point of being nonsense, even before the point of being selfish.

But I guess that's what you get for reading the comments.

“Disney is going to lose us as customers...”
Oh well.
Why on earth do conservatives like this guy always think that moves made by corporations are nothing but political agenda? Instead, words like inclusion, fairness, and equality come to my mind and I see it as nothing but a good thing. He’s so damn worried about his immersive experience without stopping for a second to consider the experience of the those who are oppressed or marginalized.
Be gone.

I just don't understand how you ride Pirates and, even if you notice the changes, you let it ruin your experience because of "politics." There are, like, five steps in there that are basically you looking for a reason to be upset. It's not like they put a "Biden 2024" lawn sign in the middle of the ride.

This is totally the guy who says things like, "I have black friends," and "I'm not racist, but." Poor white guy who can afford to go to Disney every year and take cruises is worried he might see a cast member with a tattoo or person with "inclusive hair," which is his code for "Black people hair." And worse, he thinks that he represents some constituency that will be turned off and stop coming here. He actually feels "excluded?" For real? Tell that to the people asked to hide their natural hair or their harmless body art because of your insane entitlement.

Go **** yourself, Jonathan VanBoskerck. Nobody wants you here.

Agree 100% Jeff.

I seriously doubt he would even stop visiting anyways. He just wants to bitch.