Because at the end of the day, it’s not something that we generally accept as professional (yet). While the work culture (at least here in the US) is generally becoming more accepting of “alternative” looks (tats, beards, lots of piercings, etc), it’s not yet at a point where you can generally be seen as professional with a face tattoo in corporate America. That doesn’t mean that we should make any kinds of moral statements about people with face tattoos, but it’s hard to imagine John Smith the accountant with 2.5 kids and a mortgage having a face tattoo.

There’s kind of a certain accepted “uniform” among the average working professional, and while that image is becoming more accepting in general, we’re not at face tattoos yet. Doesn’t mean that we won’t get to the point where face tats are acceptable in the office, but I don’t think it’s hard to understand why they’re not seen as professional right now. There’s a strong image in our social imagination of people with face tattoos being hard criminals (and I’m not making any moral judgements about that one way or the other.)