No biker tattoos for prison guards

Confusion reigns after guidelines are issued suggesting the inappropriate nature of ‘biker gang type’ tattoos

Prison guards are up in arms after being advised by the Danish Prison and Probation Service that ‘biker gang type’ tattoos are not appropriate when uniform.

The new uniform regulations issued by the DPPS state that ‘the existence of visible tattoos could be found to damage the reputation that prison guards should have both outwardly and inwardly’.

The guidelines continue by stating that the ‘existence of large, visible “biker gang type” tattoos on the hands, arms, neck and head are in this way not desirable’.

Kim Østerbye, chairman of the prison workers’ union, told Berlingske Tidende newspaper that the publication of the rules had crossed a line and the wording would only lead to confusion amongst union members.

‘What is a biker gang tattoo? What is an immigrant gang tattoo?’ he said. ‘Tattoos in Denmark are completely normal. Maybe 10-15 years ago, they would have been more about signalling your membership of the gang environment, but that’s absolutely not the case today.’

Østerbye has not heard of any cases of prison employees’ tattoos causing problems and neither has union representative Michael Kaj Jensen from the Vridsløselille State Prison.

According to Jensen, there is much confusion about the new guidelines, whether or not they apply to current or future employees and how bosses are supposed to enforce the ruling among employees.

Liselotte Bering-Liisberg of the DPPS admitted that the guidelines could be open to interpretation and that the way they were written could have been less ambiguous.

She recommended that those in doubt over whether their tattoos breached the regulations wear a long-sleeved shirt to work.
http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/48236-no-biker-tattoos-for-prison-guards.html