As body art has become more popular among different segments of the population, a variety of issues and conflicts have resulted. Many of these controversies are specifically associated with teenage use of body art. Such controversies range from yearbook displays to dress code policies.

In 2004, for example, the yearbook for Crothersville Junior-Senior High School in Crothesville, Indiana featured a two-page, full-color spread titled “Body Decorations.” The spread contained photos of both students’ and teachers’ tattoos and navel and tongue piercings. Many parents and school officials were upset by the photos. They believed that displaying the tattoos and body piercings was in poor taste and a disruption to the classroom; for those reasons, they felt the pictures should not be featured in the yearbook.

School officials were quick to react. Ralph Hillenburg, a Crothersville school trustee who received calls from people upset about the photos, stated that the photos should not have been allowed in the yearbook because such images violated the school dress code. Although the dress code did not ban facial piercings or tattoos, it did ban students from showing their navels at school.

Tom Judd, the principal of Crothersville Junior-Senior High School, said that he would review all yearbook pages in the future and that a yearbook spread like “Body Decorations” would not happen again. Other schools throughout the United States have dealt with similar controversies.

Dress Codes

One such issue is whether students should be allowed to have tattoos and body piercings at all. Another is what to do if a dress code forbidding body art is violated. These questions arose in 2004 in Henry County, Georgia.

On September 21 of that year, his second day at Dutchtown High School, fifteen year old Corey Rager was placed on in-school suspension for wearing eyebrow, nose, chin, and tongue piercings to school. The school’s policy is that body piercing on any visible part of the body other than the ear, including the tongue is prohibited. School officials believe the piercings disrupt school and are unsafe to its students.

A first offense of the dress code policy can lead to a one day in-school suspension, in which a student comes to school but is placed in an isolated setting under supervision and is not allowed to attend his or her regular classes. A second offense results in a three-day suspension, but students can return to class if they remove the piercing. If they continue to violate the policy, they can receive an extended in-school suspension for over a month, until his mother, Kati Monahan, decided to teach him at home.

Parents like Monahan believe that the decision to allow their children to wear piercings and tattoos should be up to them, not school officials. Several schools agree with Monahan’s viewpoint and allow their students to wear visible piercings and tattoos. For example, in Fayette County, Georgia, high school students are allowed to wear multiple piercings provided they do not disrupt the learning process.