Thinking about this and my own travel experiences, I think there is definitely a significant socio-cultural angle to it. In my travels to asia (especially), I'm not seen front-line hotel service staff with tattoos. Here in the SF bay area, its a whole different story altogether.

On top of this (and I don't mean to stir the pot), there is oftentimes "personal appearance standards" that go beyond clean clothes, professional presentation, blah blah blah. If you look at service employment ads in asia, it is not uncommon to find explicit language that states they are only looking for "attractive" folks.