I have an upper arm inner bicep area tat that is visible with short sleeves. Worked in hospitals, schools, and nursing homes. No one has ever said anything about other than asking about what it says. My coworker, a teacher got a fairly prominent forearm tattoo at the same time. I don't think she's had any problems. I also have two small wrist tattoos but those usually go unnoticed, a small nose ring and dye my hair often. Only one workplace in 15 years of hospitals and schools made me cover up the nose ring and only one parent commented on it. I often get compliments on my hair color.

I've seen some hospitals have descriptions against no "punk hair styles"in their handbooks but I just don't apply there.

No one usually cares, but I often have a fairly normal hair color and wear long sleeves when starting a job and let things get looser once I have a feel for the place. Schools are definitely more lenient on dress code than hospitals in my experience but both have more strict dress codes than coporate worlds I think but bot sure. The few retail jobs I had actually had the strictest dress codes because of all the customer contact.