Job Hunter Who Got Tattoo To Remember Grandfather Is Rejected 30 Times By Potential Employers

A job hunter says he has been unfairly discriminated against after being rejected from 30 potential employers because of a giant neck tattoo dedicated to his late grandfather.

Joe Parsons, 21, got the £250 six-inch throbbing red heart with turquoise angel wings in memory of his grandfather Thomas, who died in a care home aged 63 last year.

He got the inking while he was working in a factory, but claims since trying to get a new job he has attended 30 interviews that have gone nowhere.

He has tried attending interviews wearing high-necked shirts but the tips of the wings still peek out above the collar line.


Mr Parsons, of Collyhurst, north Manchester, insists he doesn't regret getting the extreme body art - but wishes potential bosses could see past it.

He said: 'Before I got the tattoo people thought I was a happy, confident person. Now it feels like people think I'm full of my self and that I don't give a damn.

'That's just not who I am. I'm just a normal person and all I want is a decent job.

'There's definitely a stigma attached which there shouldn't be. I do think it's a form of discrimination.

'It's not down to the skills I have and in every interview they haven't given me a good reason. Now I feel like I've got 'don't hire me' written all over my neck.

'I don't want to get it removed. It means so much to me.

'I still don't regret it at all though. I'm proud of it because it means so much. What I regret is how other people are perceiving it.'