Garda’s policy of no visible tattoos to be retained, says Harris

A policy of not allowing Garda members to display visible tattoos will be retained, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said.

He said the blanket ban on visible body art ensured management did not have to make subjective decisions on which tattoos were appropriate or not.

The issue of gardai displaying tattoos rose to prominence early this year with coverage of a several instances where trainee recruits were sent home from the Garda training college at Templemore, Co Tipperary for having them.

Mr Harris reiterated his view that the prohibition was required as he attended a graduation ceremony at Templemore College on Friday.

“We’ve no issue around tattoos, we’ve only an issue with visible tattoos,” the commissioner told reporters.

“We are a uniformed organisation, our appearance to the public is very important.

“But also then we don’t want to be in a position where we’re making, in effect, decisions and subjective decisions about the tattoos that are visible.

“And so we learn from other police services, so for instance, tattoos of skulls, tattoos of the grim reaper, which were visible, that’s not appropriate for a member of An Garda Siochana if they are going out and dealing with a very difficult traumatic situation, as they often are.

“Those sorts of tattoos cannot be on display.

“So rather than be in a position where we are in effect going to make a subjective decision around whether a tattoo is acceptable or not, or offensive or not, then we’ve decided on a policy of no visible tattoos.”