Why companies like UPS and Disney are allowing workers to show their tattoos
Research isn’t exact, but recent polling shows that as many as half of Americans under the age of 40 have a tattoo, and that has implications for the job market.
Hinterhaus Productions | Stone | Getty Images
The growing battle to attract and retain workers has led employers to adjust longstanding workplace and hiring policies, from embracing hybrid and remote work to eliminating college degree requirements. A less-covered policy also changing: visible display of tattoos on workers.
Companies including Disney, UPS and Virgin Atlantic have relaxed their dress and style codes to allow employees to show their tattoos in the workplace. Many of the moves have come over the past two years as the tight labor market that preceded Covid became even more intensely competitive during the pandemic.
When longtime Home Depot CFO Carol Tomé was named CEO of UPS in June 2020, many of her first efforts to shake up the package delivery giant centered around increasing the job satisfaction of the company’s more than 534,000 workers globally. A few of those initiatives centered on the company’s dress and style restrictions.
“We did not allow facial hair; we did not allow natural hair. So, if you’re African American and you wanted to have an afro or twist or braid, that wasn’t permitted. Our tattoo policy was more restrictive than the U.S. Army,” Tomé told CNBC last year.
UPS, well known for its regimented brown uniform and driver dress code, acknowledged that it needed to make changes that “would create a more modern workplace for our employees that allows them to bring their authentic selves to work,” said Christopher Bartlett, UPS vice president of people and culture.
Initially, UPS looked at its hair- and beard-related policies, which previously barred men from having hair that extended below the collar or beards. The adjusted policy, rolled out in November 2020, now permits beards and mustaches “worn in a businesslike manner,” as well as several “natural hairstyles.” The policy, however, says employees are expected to maintain a neat and clean appearance “appropriate for their job and workplace,” and that hair or beard length can’t be a safety concern.
Shifting views on tattoos at work
Bartlett said after that policy was well received, UPS began looking at changes to its tattoo policy. Previously, the company barred employees from showing any visible tattoos — workers with tattoos had to cover them with long sleeves or pants, or skin-colored coverings.
After a series of culture surveys, discussions with employees and other research, UPS settled on a new policy announced in April 2021 that would allow employees to show their tattoos provided they don’t contain any offensive words or images. Workers are also not allowed to have tattoos on their hands, head, neck or face.
“Tattoos matter to people, and while there was a time where people may have gotten a tattoo on a whim, more frequently now a tattoo really matters to someone; it’s part of who they are,” Bartlett said. “We wanted people to feel like they could bring themselves to work not only in their current job but as they thought about their whole career.”
Disney‘s parks division underwent a similar shift in April 2021, updating its dress and style code to allow workers to show their tattoos, which it said was part of a wider effort to make its employees and guests feel more welcome at its theme parks.
The policy change “provides greater flexibility with respect to forms of personal expression surrounding gender-inclusive hairstyles, jewelry, nail styles, and costume choices; and allowing appropriate visible tattoos,” Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney parks, experiences and products, wrote in a blog post on Disney’s website.
“We’re updating them to not only remain relevant in today’s workplace, but also enable our cast members to better express their cultures and individuality at work,” D’Amaro wrote.
According to the Disney cast member handbook, visible tattoos that are no larger than an extended hand are permitted except for any on the face, head, or neck. For larger tattoos on the arm or leg, employees can wear matching fabric tattoo sleeves. Any tattoos that depict nudity, offensive or inappropriate language, or violate any company policies are also not permitted.
Disney did not respond to a request for comment.
Virgin Atlantic, the British airline owned by Richard Branson, removed its ban on visible tattoos for uniformed employees in May. Estelle Hollingsworth, chief people officer at Virgin Atlantic, said in an emailed statement, “Many people use tattoos to express their unique identities and our customer-facing and uniformed colleagues should not be excluded from doing so if they choose.”
The U.S. Army has taken similar steps, rolling out an updated directive in June further expanding its tattoo allowance, including tattoos on hands and the back of the neck. The Army previously relaxed its restrictions that limited the number of tattoos that recruits and soldiers could have on their arms and legs in 2015.
“We always review policy to keep the Army as an open option to as many people as possible who want to serve,” Maj. Gen. Doug Stitt, Director of Military Personnel Management, told the Army’s news service. “This directive makes sense for currently serving Soldiers and allows a greater number of talented individuals the opportunity to serve now.”
According to the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, 41% of 18- to 34-year-olds have at least one or more tattoos.
Customers more accepting of tattooed workers
Enrica Ruggs, an associate professor at the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business Department of Management and Leadership, said that there have been long-standing negative stigmas towards tattoos that harkened back to biker culture and a sense that rebellious people were the ones that got tattoos. That carried over into corporate culture, where hiring managers would stereotype applicants with visible tattoos, or where employers would worry that employing someone with tattoos would turn off customers.
However, Ruggs said recent research found that most tattoos now reflect a sense of belonging – for example, in-memorial images, callouts to their culture or profession, or a tattoo that matches one on a loved one.
Ruggs ran an experiment measuring customer reaction to workers wearing temporary tattoos. While some customers still held negative stereotypes about tattoos, the tattooed employees had just as many sales as the untattooed ones. Negative stereotypes also did not negatively affect customer perception of the organization. In fact, tattooed employees in white-color or creative jobs were looked at more favorably and competent than non-tattooed employees by customers, Ruggs’ research showed.
“Part of the argument has always been that it’ll hurt the organization, and that could actually change a consumer’s purchasing behavior,” Ruggs said. “But if the cornerstone of your business is service, that’s not changing, but allowing and relaxing some of these policies can help with employee morale and can expand who you can hire, which can help to improve employee performance. If employees are happy and they feel satisfied with their employee, they are likely to also be very productive.”
While there aren’t exact statistics regarding tattoos, a January Rasmussen Reports survey found that nearly half of Americans under 40 have tattoos. Across all ages, 33% of Americans have tattoos, the survey found.
The New York City Council currently has a bill that would look to curb discrimination against people with tattoos, including in the workplace. The bill would add tattoos to the categories in the city’s administrative code that are already prohibited from discrimination such as race or sexual orientation. While it would still allow employers to mandate that employees cover tattoos, it would require them to prove that not showing a tattoo is a “bona fide occupational qualification.”
Bartlett said that after UPS changed its policy, he noticed that several employees posted their UPS-themed tattoos on the company’s internal message board.
“When someone puts a UPS logo on them after a 25-year driving career here, that matters, and it shows that the company matters to them,” he said. “This isn’t a P&L play here, but this is about inclusion and bringing your authentic self to work.”
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Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the world premiere of “F1” at Times Square in New York on June 16, 2025.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
Apple reports fiscal third-quarter earnings on Thursday after the bell.
The June quarter is typically Apple’s slowest of the year by sales, ahead of new device launches in September that typically spur the company’s biggest sales surge of the year driven in the December quarter.
Still, Apple is expected to report nearly $90 billion in overall sales during the period, which would be a 4% increase from last year. Analysts expect it to guide for 3% growth in the September quarter.
But there are lots of questions swirling around Apple, whose stock is down 16% so far in 2025.
The biggest question facing Apple is what it will say about tariffs. In May, Apple said it would have about $900 million in additional tariff costs in the June quarter, but that it couldn’t predict beyond that. Apple will likely update investors on how it sees tariffs affecting the September quarter, a key indicator for how President Donald Trump’s trade war is affecting American technology companies.
Apple also said in May that it would manufacture U.S.-bound iPhones in India to avoid tariffs on Chinese imports. But the company’s move upset Trump, who said after Apple’s last earnings call that he didn’t want the iPhone maker building in India. India is in line to receive a 25% tariff as soon as Friday. Apple CEO Tim Cook may update investors on its India pivot on Thursday.
The company held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June, in which it announced major updates to its software for iPhones and other devices. Apple did not, however, announce major new artificial intelligence products or initiatives, disappointing some analysts. However, some investors believe Apple’s AI stumbles aren’t expected to show up in its results for years.
On the brighter side, Cook will likely shout out the movie “F1,” which is Apple Original Films’ first summer blockbuster and passed $500 million at the global box office last weekend.
Here’s how Apple is expected to do in the June quarter, per LSEG consensus estimates:
- Earnings per share: $1.43
- Revenue: $89.54 billion
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 9, 2025.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Amazon will report second-quarter results after the market close Thursday.
Here’s what analysts surveyed by LSEG are expecting:
- Earnings per share: $1.33
- Revenue: $162.1 billion
Wall Street is also looking at other key revenue metrics:
- Amazon Web Services: $30.8 billion, according to StreetAccount
- Advertising: $14.99 billion, according to StreetAccount
The company spooked investors in May when it warned in its earnings report that “tariff and trade policies,” as well as “recessionary fears,” could weigh on second-quarter results.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said at the time that “none of us knows exactly where tariffs will settle or when.” Jassy later said the company hasn’t seen “any attenuation of demand at this point” due to tariffs and that Amazon has taken steps to keep prices steady on its site.
President Donald Trump‘s unpredictable tariff agenda primarily poses a threat to Amazon’s sprawling e-commerce business, which accounts for the bulk of its sales. The core online stores unit is expected to post $58.98 billion in sales, according to StreetAccount. Wall Street is projecting seller services revenue to reach $38.7 billion during the quarter.
Several analysts said the tariff and geopolitical backdrop for Amazon has become more manageable in recent months, which is one of several reasons they’re optimistic about the company’s second-quarter report.
“Through the quarter, the US consumer backdrop has remained supportive as tariff concerns wane and consumers continue to spend,” analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote in a July 22 research note. The firm has a buy rating on Amazon’s stock.
Trump’s tariffs may be giving Amazon a boost, to some extent.
The Deutsche analysts said it’s “become abundantly clear” that Amazon has gained a greater share of the U.S. e-commerce market in the face of diminished competition from ultra-cheap Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu, which is owned by PDD Holdings.
Both companies have struggled to preserve their grip on American shoppers after the Trump administration ended de minimis, a trade exemption that allowed low-value shipments to enter the country duty-free, and instituted higher tariffs on Chinese imports.
Amazon’s third-quarter guidance will give a view into whether the company expects tariff risks to continue. Analysts are projecting revenue to reach $173.3 billion in the current quarter.
Outside of retail, investors will be keeping a close eye on Amazon’s cloud business. Revenue at AWS in the first quarter grew 17%, which fell short of analysts’ estimates and was the slowest growth in a year. Analysts are projecting about the same year-over-year growth for the second period.
Jassy said in May that the cloud business would have grown faster if it weren’t for capacity constraints caused by shortages of AI chips and other components.
Amazon has pledged to spend up to $100 billion this year, largely on AI-related investments for AWS. Wall Street will be paying attention to whether Amazon reaffirms or boosts that number. AI and cloud competitor Google last week upped its capital spend to $85 billion this year as part of its second-quarter earnings.
Like other major tech companies, Amazon has been laser-focused on AI. During the quarter, Amazon began releasing an AI-upgraded version of its Alexa voice assistant and it launched a new agentic AI group in its skunkworks research and development unit.
The technology is also transforming Amazon’s workforce. In a June note to staff, Jassy said the company’s corporate employee base will shrink in the coming years as it adopts more generative AI tools and agents.
“It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce,” Jassy wrote.
Amazon shares have lagged those of its tech peers this year despite its heavy investments in AI. Amazon’s stock is up 5.4% year to date, while shares of Meta and Microsoft have climbed roughly 20% over the same stretch. Apple, which has struggled with its AI development, is down about 15.5% so far this year.
The logo of semiconductor design firm Arm on a chip.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Shares of Arm Holdings plunged more than 13% on Thursday after the chip designer offered muted guidance for earnings.
Second-quarter adjusted earnings will be between 29 cents and 37 cents per share, Arm said late Wednesday. Wall Street had projected 35 cents per share.
The company forecast second-quarter revenue of $1.01 billion to $1.11 billion, which was in line with consensus estimates of $1.05 billion.
The concerning outlook was amplified by commentary from Arm CEO Rene Haas, who indicated the company is considering designing its own processors. Arm has made its name selling the architecture behind the chips powering devices made by the likes of Microsoft and Amazon.
“We’re looking now at the viability of moving beyond the current platform to additional subsystems, chiplets or possibly full solutions,” Haas said.
The disclosure left investors “with more questions than answers,” Wells Fargo analysts wrote in a Thursday research note.
By developing its own chips, the company’s cost structure will likely undergo a “major change,” Needham analysts wrote.
“While we view ARM’s transition from selling process core IP to selling CSS was largely successful, as evidenced in above-market royalty revenue growth, the next transition appears to be a much bigger leap, which will likely come with a bigger price,” the analysts added.
For the fiscal first-quarter, the company posted adjusted earnings per share of 35 cents on revenue of $1.05 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of 35 cents and revenue $1.06 billion.
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