A woman whose face is covered in tattoos and piercings claims she was denied a job at TJ Maxx over her body art.
Ash Putnam aired her grievances in a viral TikTok after she applied for a job with the off-price retailer but received an automated email saying she wouldn’t be considered for the position without the company explaining why.
Feeling that her visible body art, like the skull with horns on her neck and her large silver ring septum piercing, played a factor, Putnam said she went into the store to confront them about why she didn’t get offered the gig.
“‘Oh, you just don’t have much experience,’” she claims she was told by a manager.
“I asked her if it was about my tattoos, obviously because I know a lot of places don’t like tattoos.”
The manager told her that “wasn’t the reason,” but Putnam didn’t feel like “that’s true.”
The 23-year-old went on to question how a young person without experience is “supposed to get employed” at these entry-level jobs.
“So younger people just can’t get a job because they haven’t worked enough? So, like, they’ll deny a 16-year-old a job because they don’t have enough work experience?”
She explained some of the most “intelligent people” she’s ever met were covered in “tattoos and piercings” and that their body art played no factor in their intellectual capabilities.
“I just feel like this is something that needs to be talked about. It’s so annoying.”
While Putnam said she wasn’t desperate for the TJ Maxx job, she still felt shaded by the store.
“I hate that my tattoos are such a defining factor for me getting a job or not,” she said. “Just because I have tattoos doesn’t mean I’m not going to be a good worker.”
Putnam earns a living as an Uber Eats driver and earns additional income through her TikTok channel and OnlyFans, she told the Daily Star.
Some of her other visible tattoos depict Satanic imagery, including a goat with a pentagram on its forehead on her chest and a Leviathan Cross on the back of her hand.
At the end of her TikTok, which amassed 8.5 million views since being posted last week, Putnam asked if others have had any similar situations looking for jobs.
“I worked at TJ Maxx and they will hire just about anyone that comes off the street it’s definitely the tattoos and piercings,” one TikTok user explained in the comments.
“I used to be a hiring manager for tjmaxx and I will tell you it’s the facial piercings and tattoos,” another user shared.
“HR supervisor here. There is no way any company would put you in front of customers like TJ Maxx,” wrote another.
However, a majority of the comments showed that people were on the side of TJ Maxx for allegedly not hiring her because of her brazen body art.
“Choices have consequences,” one commenter wrote.
“Most times, when you flip the bird at society, society flips one right back,” another joked.
“There’s a reason that tattoo artists refer to face tattoos as career enders,” wrote another.
