I'm all for covering them up. Right, wrong or indifferent, the silent majority of the people we work for, those that pay their taxes, aren't ready for cops with full sleeve tats, or spiderwebs on their neck, or a teardrop for each DUI they snare. If you just have to express your individuality, a uniformed profession isn't the place to start.
As long as the vest is on, I don't care what a cop has on under the uniform, but what the public sees, the public owns.
It's really rough for the (non-Marines) who got tatted up in the service, and are now looking for LE jobs. And those whacky kids today need to think about the future before they put ink to skin - it's hard to pull a DEA stint in South America when you have Old Glory on your arm.