Now, Virgin Atlantic’s cabin crew to get to show off tattoos

London  

In a unique decision of sorts in the UK aviation industry, cabin crew of Virgin Atlantic will be allowed to display body art or tattoos, media reports said. Virgin Atlantic has become the first UK airline and leading carrier to do so. The change in the policy was announced by the airline on Twitter. This comes one month after the launch of a branding campaign “championing individuality”. Till now, several airlines have banned visible tattoos. Most carriers only hire staff, who can conceal the ink job under uniform.  

Virgin Atlantic’s chief people officer Estelle Hollingsworth said restrictions were being relaxed “in line with our focus on inclusion and championing individuality. At Virgin Atlantic, we want everyone to be themselves and know that they belong. Many people use tattoos to express their unique identities and our customer-facing and uniformed colleagues should not be excluded from doing so if they choose.”  

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For flight attendants, facial and neck tattoos will still remain banned. The tattoos, who are deemed culturally inappropriate or refer to violence, nudity, drugs or alcohol, will also be not allowed. Prison-style love, hate knuckle tattoos or the ones with swearing are a strict no go.  

The crew, who will benefit from this decision, are the ones with full-arm tattoos and others who conceal smaller tattoos with makeup. The tattoos of airplanes are also popular among the crew, the airline added.   

(With inputs from agencies)