Tattoos and Short Skirts...in the Workplace

My smart and stylish friend Politichick recently reminded me of Corporette. The site talks a lot about appropriate professional wear for the stylish young woman (which I find fun and also, actually, helpful - you may be horrified to learn that lawyers and judges actually care if female attorneys wear nylons and skirt suits. Whether they should care is another question entirely). This week Corporette did a poll close to my heart: Are visible tattoos ever appropriate for professional women?

As a professional women with a tattoo (that is undetectable when wearing a long sleeve shirt/suit) its something I struggle with. While I have never regretted getting my tattoo, for what it represents to me and also for the time in my life I made the decision, I will admit that it is more of a pain in the butt professionally than I anticipated. When I got it I thought, hey, whatever, it will be covered up when I'm in court so who cares. And I'm not gonna change for The Man! But there is so much time when I'm not in court and I don't want to be paranoid about always wearing a long sleeve shirt/jacket. I think it will become less of an issue in the coming decades, because tattoos are so popular in my generation, but I still think it's an interesting question. Especially since I find myself being oddly conservative and judgemental about what other people wear in court - I think any skirt above the knee is inappropriate, anything tight has no place, and wacky haircuts etc can distract from your job as your clients representative....but what do I know?

Note: apparently I'm not the only one considering skirt lengths. I would generally agree with option "C" but this doesn't take into account slits in the back of skirts, which can take a suit from decent to completely out of control....