Nurses with ear piercings

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Hello,

I want to be a nurse when I finish college. I'm currently a senior in high school. I have 5 more years until I graduate college/ become a nurse. I already have 4 piercings on my ears. I want 3 more (second lobes and 1 more cartilage (helix)). Is it frown upon that I will have 7 piercings or should I stop? I also want a tattoo on my finger (not sure about it, but the size will be smaller than a quarter). But is it acceptable tho?

thanks

Specializes in Long Term Acute Care, TCU.
Judging a book by its cover....

Everyone does initially. It is an evolutionary survival skill.

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Specializes in ICU, Adventures in school nursing.

I work in both a hospital and a school. In the hospital.... only two studs per ear allowed. No visible tattoos. Nurses just wear long sleeves to cover up their arm tattoos. I think it looks worse to have nurses walking around with band-aids on their faces and ears covering additional piercings than the piercings look. It's great that you are thinking about future employment. I suggest waiting until you've landed a job before doing anything permanent. But, that's just my opinion. Jobs can be competitive for new grads, and you wouldn't want something like that to influence you getting hired. Good luck!

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What exactly do you believe that you're expressing with piercings and tattoos? You aren't doing anything original. Everyone and their grandma has piercings and tats now. In my late teens many of my raver friends were getting genital and other body piercings -and that was in the late 90s. I always wanted a nose piercing, but fear of the pain held me back.

If you truly want to express yourself, learn to use your voice.

That said, perhaps you're wanting to attract a certain type of person that is turned on by tats and piercings? If that is the case, go for it and get as much body art as you handle. Just make sure that it can be hidden during working hours because it does not look professional in a healthcare setting and could affect your wallet.

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What exactly do you believe that you're expressing with piercings and tattoos? You aren't doing anything original. Everyone and their grandma has piercings and tats now. In my late teens many of my raver friends were getting genital and other body piercings -and that was in the late 90s. I always wanted a nose piercing, but fear of the pain held me back.

If you truly want to express yourself, learn to use your voice.

That said, perhaps you're wanting to attract a certain type of person that is turned on by tats and piercings? If that is the case, go for it and get as much body art as you handle. Just make sure that it can be hidden during working hours because it does not look professional in a healthcare setting and could affect your wallet.

I m not trying to attract anyone. It's subjective on how to express yourself. For you it maybe voice, but for me it's not.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

I would suggest contacting the school(s) you are looking to apply to and see if their nursing program has any policies/rules about tattoos and piercings. Or check if they have a nursing student handbook available on their webpage. I am at the State University in the BSN program and we are only allowed to have 1 earring per ear, it must be in the lobe, and it cannot be a large gauge. As for tattoos, they must not be visible while doing clinical rotations or in the nursing lab. My best advice would be to hold off on the tattoo as it might be difficult for you to cover up, especially if its on your hand/finger. I wash my hands/use hand sanitizer probably a million times a day at clinical and I can't imagine having to worry about making sure whatever is covering my finger tattoo is still covering it lol. Best of luck!

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Specializes in critical care.

Before I started the nursing program, I took a CNA class. There was a rather obnoxious woman in there with me, probably about 30 years old, loud and constantly in the victim role. She had sleeve tattoos and one day was talking about interviewing for jobs with such visible tattoos. She puffed her chest out all big and got her finger up in the air and declared boldly that if she wasn't hired someplace because of her tattoos, she was getting a lawyer because that would be discrimination.

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Before I started the nursing program, I took a CNA class. There was a rather obnoxious woman in there with me, probably about 30 years old, loud and constantly in the victim role. She had sleeve tattoos and one day was talking about interviewing for jobs with such visible tattoos. She puffed her chest out all big and got her finger up in the air and declared boldly that if she wasn't hired someplace because of her tattoos, she was getting a lawyer because that would be discrimination.

:sarcastic: Yessir, you don't like the fact that someone doesn't want to hire you because of body art? SUE 'EM! LOL....maybe the lawyer will explain to her what a Protected Class is, and that anyone is perfectly within their rights to discriminate between tattooed applicants and non-tattooed ones!

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Specializes in Med/Surg/ICU/Stepdown.

I mirror the other posters' responses. You'll likely encounter more strict regulations in clinical than in your actual nursing practice. Professional image standards continue to evolve and what was once considered offensive has now reached a more narrow meaning.

For a point of reference, I have a quarter sleeve which is slightly visible when I wear scrubs with no long sleeved undershirt. I also wear a nostril stud to work and have two ear piercings. I work in a very large teaching hospital in a large city. I've never been asked to cover my tattoo nor remove my nose ring.

Good luck on pursuing nursing!

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I have accepted in to a university and the nursing program. Thank you for the idea of reading the handbook. The handbook states that "The only jewelry permitted with the uniform is a wedding ring and small post-type earrings. No hoopearrings are acceptable. No visible body piercing with the exception of small post earrings in ears arepermitted. Gauge style earrings need to be removed and lobes need to be secured during clinical hours." To my understanding, there's seems to be no limit of ear piercings, and I will definitely not wear hoops, gauge, or dangling. I'll be wear studs only. And if I pierced them early, after my ears healed, I can always remove them before clinical and my co op. Thank you for this important tip. And the tattoo is out.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, Med/Surg.
I had a curved barbell in my daith when I went on an interview. While talking with the nurse manager, she looked at me and said "That thing in your ear comes out, right?" ....

Okay, I am now officially old (I knew I was conservative, lol). I had to google the word "daith" and the above would have been my question had I been interviewing shenanigans_RN...:yes:

I learn something new almost every day here at allnurses. :)

:[anb]:

Catmom :paw:

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I personally have no problem with tattoos and piercings. However, as tight as the job market is, and you may be interviewed by a very conservative person who DOES have a problem with these, why set yourself back or in the "round file" category? It just does not make sense.

Where I work it's pretty liberal. People have tattoos. They have ear piercings, as I do. The only things disallowed are piercings on the face and all these must be removed when working.

Now, when I interviewed, I took out all the extra earrings and dressed conservatively. The lady interviewing me was in the baby boomer age group who might have problem with these things. It may not be "fair" but it is what it is.

A lot of my older patients do not like such things. But once they get to know us, they over look them. Still if THEY were hiring, they would certainly exclude such people from their "desired" file. It is what it is.

Be conservative during school and when new to nursing, you will likely have better luck getting work.

Then, learn, as another said, to express yourself and stand out in your work and your amazing personality. There are a lot of ways to stand out; you don't need to be tatted and pierced up to do so.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU. We were ALL young once and I understand where you are coming from, believe it or not.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
if i knew the answer, i didn't to ask the question on here....

Sometimes the things we do when we are young come back to bite us in the butt as we get older. I'm not much for body art (and some of the tattoos my friends have are definitely works of art) but to each their own.

I live in California which is pretty liberal but I have yet to work in a hospital even psych that didn't have very strict rules about no visible tats. Also no nostril lip or brow piercings. I have seen people with multiple ear piercings. You have to remember that a large part of your patient base is much older and may be uncomfortable with a nurse with multiple piercings or tattoos unless they are military or say "Mother."

The nursing school I went to allowed only 1 pair of post ear rings, no jewelry except a wedding band and absolutely no visible tattoos.

I would wait on the tats and cartilage piercings until I finished school and get the job then you can get the lay of the land and go from there.

Good luck with your ambitions and in my opinion go straight for the BSN as the LVN and ADN appear to be going the way of the DoDo.

Hppy

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