V1Rotate: A Recap, and a Note on Tattoos

In this episode, airline pilot and FLYING contributor Sam Weigel updates on his hangar home project, international non rev travel, and answers a burning question from a member of the FLYING V1 Rotate audience: Will my tattoos keep me from getting a job with one of the majors? Tune in for the answer.

[@archjen]

Sam, thank you for getting onboard the streaming content bandwagon! Your content is well done and I love the videos of your efforts at your new digs. Nice!

[@flysport_tedder]

thanks for the update Sam! Getting back into that bad flying weather season, time to catch up around the house.

[@EJWash57]

Mid-80s major airline hire (retired '22) here. A vast majority of the Captains I flew with were former military, and tattoos were rare. Like you said, Marines and Navy pilots had tattoos, but upper arm, conservative ones. Fast-forward to the 2010ish, when I was in the training department; FEW new hires had tattoos, and those weren't "in your face" sleeves/neck. Our Ops Manual had personal grooming guidelines, and spelled out that tattoos had to be covered. I had no problem with this, because if I got a tattoo, my mom would have taken it off with a potato peeler!

[@SamWeigel]

Yep, that hews pretty close to my experience at my airline. When I flew with Marine and Navy guys who wore long sleeves, once I got to know them (and if they didn't conform to the "long sleeves" stereotype!) I'd ask them about their tattoos. Almost no other guys had them that I knew of. And even among pilots of my generation and later, very few are visible. When I get to know an FO well, sometimes the subject of tattoos comes up, and then a surprising number - I'd say a majority even - of those 35 and younger have at least one (I have one on my upper arm/shoulder from when we were sailing on Windbird - pretty good size but stops one inch above uniform shirt sleeve). Younger long sleeves guys almost always have them. And like I said, I've flown with several (three actually) who had tattoos peeking out from under short sleeve shirts. They're technically in violation of the FOM but it's something the company hasn't chosen to enforce - particularly, I think, because it's a much more conservative policy than our inflight department has for flight attendants.