Employees in retail contact positions have to be acceptable to the customers that are paying the bill; The customer is the core of your sales organization. _They_ create your street reputation; not your troops.
Satisfaction is subjective. Performing a great job technically is simply not enough. That's why a total performance whiz who none the less insulted the customers would be canned.
Now, it is quite another thing in all of the non-retail, low customer contact positions in the trade. Yeah, then the 'illustrated man' can sport his skin.
My only apprentice with staggering metal and ink was very highly regarded by the company. So much so that he was being slotted into independent work with an eye to being a foreman. Unfortunately, he flunked every task I set him on: momentary contact switches, making up emergency lights within pendant strip fixtures. Just terrible.
He stands as proof that there is no connection one way or the other with body art and getting the job done.
Image, stories, connections, 'reputation' within the company don't mean anything. Actual performance is all: I have to see it to believe it even with high time journeymen. Oh, the stories I could tell on them!
