You're still generating conclusions based on your own opinion without any real evidence to support what you're saying. I don't care if future employers will be prejudiced against me because of my ink. That does not equate to not being a good employee or a desire to rebel against dress or performance standards. I adore my job and am glad for the opportunity to work here.
Just throwing in my two cents as to the why from my perspective. I didn't think we were doing a scientific study on this.
My point is this: many companies actually have dress code policies against visible tattoos and in general the public views visible tattoos as a bad choice because of this. I have nothing against people with tattoos, but knowing the corporate culture as almost all Americans do, if I saw someone with tattoos I would immediately think that they have an attitude of "if you don't like it then fuck off." It is a permanent marking in a visible area and cannot be changed.
Think of it this way. If you know that doing X would make corporate America look down on you, why would you do X? Anyone who knew that doing X would be looked down upon and said "I'll do it anyway cause I'm unique!" makes me think that they are immature and rebellious. Look, I would love to change my name to Richard Cheese and introduce myself to people as Dick Cheese, but I wouldn't expect someone to hire me to sell medical equipment.
When will you people also realize that everyone basically has the same tattoos? There is nothing really new. I see people with art inspired tattoos, dice, dragons, swords, skulls, chinese words, spider webs and all sorts of other shit. How many assholes have the tribal tattoo around the bicep? Designs are OK on a shirt because you can change your shirt, but I think it is a stupid idea as a tattoo because (to me) they all start looking the same.
Quick Google search found a study by careerbuilders.
http://www.dba-oracle.com/dress_code_tattoos.htm
Corporate Dress Codes and tattoos
"A study by Careerbuilders shows the perils of tattoos for aspiring professionals, and confirms the conventional wisdom that tattoos are a sign of immaturity, bad judgment and bad taste:
Over 42 percent of managers said their opinion of someone would be lowered by that person's visible body art. Personally, I think that the actual figure is much higher.
Three out of four respondents believe that visible tattoos are unprofessional.
You don't have look hard to find hundreds of corporations which have banned employees with tattoos. San Bernardino County California, bars all employees from wearing denim, having visible tattoos, and any piercing in the nose, lip, or tongue that contains jewelry.
In sum, tattoos send a message to corporate America that you are ignorant, low-income, that you have have bad taste, and worst of all, that you may have a criminal record."
Moral: tattoos are simply unprofessional. You can change in your shorts for slacks on Monday, but you cannot take that dotted line that says "cut here" off of your neck.