Deputy fired for tattoo fights for his job

Deputy fired for tattoo fights for his job
June 25, 2010
by Kris Wise Maramba
Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Wood County sheriff's deputy is waiting to hear if he still has a job in a case that could have some far-reaching implications.

Christopher Piggott, a 29-year-old Marine Corps veteran, was fired from his job with the sheriff's department in April because he has a Marine-themed tattoo that is visible when he wears a short-sleeved uniform.

Piggott is fighting his termination and claims he was fired without being given a hearing before his peers.

But Wood County Sheriff Jeff Sandy said there's more at stake than whether a law enforcement officer should show skin art.

"Everybody feels it's a tattoo issue," Sandy said Thursday. "I feel it is not a tattoo issue. It's an honesty and integrity issue. He agreed to (have it removed) and he did not do it.

"Let's say I would change this policy, and then a male deputy says, 'You know the policy says how my hair is supposed to be cut, but I've always wanted a mullet. You changed the policy for this person. Change it for me.'

"What if a deputy wants facial jewelry? Where does it stop?"

Piggott said when he was hired in April 2009, "I thought I had three options: to cover it, wear long sleeves or to have it removed.

"I am choosing to fight this because I was truly under the assumption I could keep the tattoo and keep it covered."

But Piggott also takes issue with the policy itself, implemented in 2008 and which he says is vague.

The policy states that, "Tattoos are not to be visible while (a deputy) is wearing the summer uniform."

Piggott said during the year he was on the job he wore a black armband that extended from his elbow to his wrist on his right arm, completely covering the tattoo.

He also said the policy itself is "really behind the times."

"The majority of people coming out of the military have tattoos, and they are going to push out a lot of good candidates for the job," he said.

Piggott's tattoo shows a pair of praying hands clutching dog tags. Below is "USMC" (United States Marine Corps) and above it reads, "Unless you were there."

"The tattoo itself if something that is very sentimental to me," said Piggott, who served two tours in Iraq and then went back as a civilian to repair helicopters, for a total of five years overseas. "I just don't feel it's appropriate to be pushed out of the law enforcement profession for that."

Lt. Shawn Graham, a 21-year veteran of the Wood County Sheriff's Department and president of the county's deputies' association, agreed.

He said there are other deputies in Wood County, including himself, who have visible tattoos, but they are exempt from the policy because they had been hired before it went into effect.

Additionally, he said, "One of the bigger issues some of the deputies have is that since Chris Piggott has been hired, the department has hired two other men in positions where they have a badge, a gun and they have visible tattoos. The guys I've talked to don't understand that, and I don't understand the logic of that."

The sheriff said those employees are not uniformed deputies and are not covered under his department's tattoo policy.

He said those two employees, whose job is to transport mental hygiene patients, are contract workers for the department.

Some other sheriff's departments around the state have policies restricting visible tattoos, said Graham, of the deputies' association. But many do not.