The Tattooed Mortgage Broker

I wonder if this Marketplace radio story is more of a sign that tattoos are gaining respectability or that the profession of Mortgage lending is losing it. Snippet of the transcript below.

Kai Ryssdal: Every summer about this time the same thought strikes me. After a couple of months of short sleeves and tank tops you get a good idea of just how many people these days have tattoos. Clearly, body art's becoming more acceptable. Everywhere from college campuses to the boardroom, as Pat Loeb found out. .

James O'Connor: I got a skull and cross bones on my right side. I have praying hands on my left side, and then a cross in the middle.

James O'Connor is giving me a tour of the tattoos that adorn, it looks like, every part of his body — neck, legs, knuckles and full sleeves on his arms.

O'Connor: He calls this stretch skin, cheese skin, where it's supposed to look like you're almost looking inside, you know?

But the most astonishing moment comes when he tells me what he does for a living.

O'Connor: I'm a mortgage broker.

If ever there was evidence of the changing attitude toward tattoos in the workplace, it is 30-year-old James O'Connor. There was a time when his tattoos would have narrowed his job prospects. But he says his success as a mortgage broker is a sign that tattoos do not carry the stigma they once did.

O'Connor: They might look at me weird for a minute. But as soon as, you know, I explain to them what I know and what I've done, they see dollar signs.