Visible tattoos now banned for PNP officers, recruits

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police has officially lifted the moratorium on banning visible tattoos among its officers and recruits, according to PNP’s chief information officer Col. Jean Fajardo.

In an interview with reporters yesterday, Fajardo confirmed that the moratorium, which was initially put in place to temporarily halt the implementation of Memorandum Circular 2024-003, has been lifted as of July 3.

The lifting of the moratorium means that the guidelines prohibiting visible tattoos, particularly for new applicants to the PNP, will now be strictly enforced.

“Those interested in joining the PNP, whether through recruitment or lateral entry, as well as those entering the Philippine National Police Academy, will not be allowed to have visible tattoos,” Fajardo said in Filipino.

For current PNP personnel with existing tattoos, she explained that they were required to submit an undertaking declaring the number, location and size of their tattoos. 

She added that these details would be added to their health profiles. Officers are given three months from the signing of the undertaking to remove any visible and unauthorized tattoos.

“The Health Service is still formulating specific procedures for the removal of these tattoos, especially considering that the PNP does not have the equipment to perform such procedures in-house,” Fajardo said.

She added that the tattoo removal would need to be conducted externally, and officers would bear the costs themselves.

Included in the ban on tattoos among PNP personnel are extremist tattoos, ethnically or religiously discriminatory and offensive tattoos, indecent tattoos, racist tattoos and sexist tattoos.

The guidelines also consider cases where an officer may have multiple visible tattoos.

Fajardo likewise emphasized that officers who fail to comply within the three-month period would be subject to investigation.