Nurses with tattoos and piercings

[emmygirle]

I am going to begin nursing school next year. I went to a tour of the school and asked a current student if tattoos and piercings are allowed. He said yes because theres a girl that attends the school and she is covered in tattoos. He said the tattoo being visible is better than it being covered with a bandage especially if you have tattoos on your wrist. Patients dont want a nurse with her wrist wrapped up. I agreed and thought he made a good point. I have a lip ring above my lip which if i have to am willing to take out and I have a couple ear piercings. I have a tattoo on my arm which would be covered with scrubs. I just really love tattoos and would love to have more. I always figured it would not matter since hospitals are always freezing can't I just wear a long sleeve shirt under my scrubs? I have seen doctors with tattoo sleeves in the area I live and nurses have told someone I know that they are allowed but I hear a lot of people tell me they are not. Thank you :)

[RNperdiem, RN]

The older generation often sees tattoos differently, especially on women. They grew up with tattoos associated with sailors, bikers and gangsters.

Even though tats are fairly mainstream now, for many of your patients, they still carry a negative connotation. Why else the big deal about covering them up?

[Mn nurse 22]

We spend a lot of time in school to become professionals. Like it or not, people do judge all of us by our looks, so I have always tried to look and act professional. To me, a tattoo puts the focus on you, and not your skills and knowledge.

[Carrie RN]

I am getting too old. Tattoos and piercings mean you are trashy to me. Sorry that is my own opinion, I had better things to do as a manager than run after staff that couldn't leave their piercings out.

[TraumaSurfer]

The older generation often sees tattoos differently, especially on women. They grew up with tattoos associated with sailors, bikers and gangsters.

Even though tats are fairly mainstream now, for many of your patients, they still carry a negative connotation. Why else the big deal about covering them up?

Kids today are changing their opinion about how cool tattoos are with all the information out there about the risks for health and for their future. They now have plenty of examples as to how tattoos will look when they are old "like 30"on an aging body. Not a pretty sight. I don't think patients should be subjected to seeing that either.

Covering it up? Strict infection control policies make that difficult. We had a RN who worked in the NICU for many years. For a long time he wore sleeves to cover his tattoos. When the policy came that nothing below the elbow was to be worn, he could no longer stay compliant with the hospital policy and he had to find something outside of direct patient care. No union can protect you in these situations.

[vintage_RN, BSN, RN]

I have several visible tattoos which are beautiful and I like them very much. I have never had a patient make a negative comment and I have had nothing but compliments about them. HOWEVER..as I am a young woman who Is approaching her mid 20s and wanting to look more "mature," I will admit that they do sometimes make me feel as if I look less professional in the work setting, and less classy or "ladylike" in other settings (especially formal events). But, I suppose there's nothing to be done about it now. I would think very hard about the implications of adding more tattoos and/or piercings. Of course, if how you appear to others is of no consequence to you, then I guess it doesn't really matter...and maybe it shouldn't matter to me either...I'm just doing some late night thinking aloud. Carry on :)

[artisticmind]

Chances are it will be your clinical facilitiy's dress code policy mixed in with your school dress code policy. Ours was only 1 set of lower lobe ear piercings on females. All others had to be removed. One of my classmates had 3 piercings on the upper lobe of her ears and she never had to take them out, they were discrete and didn't draw attention to her. No one I remember had visible tattoos or other piercings that had to be removed. I now work at the facility that we completed clinicals at and it is the same policies. I got my first tattoo recently as my gift to myself from passing the NCLEX in June on my ankle and is always covered by my scrub pants.

[loriangel14, RN]

It really depends on where you work. I have many coworkers with visible tattoos and piercings.One lady even wears capris in the summer to show off her tatts on her legs.Two of the male nurses have full sleeves.

[NurseDirtyBird]

Let's just beat this dead horse back to life and then to death again.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

When I went to school it stated we had to cover up visible tattoos & take out piercings that are anywhere else but the ear. The only jobs I had that didn't make me cover up tattoos or take out piercings was LTC & PDN. I even worked corrections & they made me take out my nose ring. I have 6 tattoos but all in places covered up by clothing.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

Sailors, bikers, and gangsters? My father got his during his Army years in the Korean War, as did tons of men during that time. His was two bluebirds holding a ribbon in their beak that said "Joyce." Only problem was that my mother's name was not Joyce! He got to remember Joyce for the rest of his life.

[AJJKRN]

Like TraumaSurfer said, when your employer (and surrounding potential employers) declares any new "dress codes" and you become in violation, then unfortunately your job could be on the line.

My facility just totally changed our dress codes for inpatient to specific colored scrubs with also nixing visible tattoos and piercings (besides 1 set in the ear lobes). Regardless of someone working there for 30 years or 30 days, if they were "noncompliant" then they were finding another employer.

I might add that my employer is the largest employer for our community and surrounding communities and this happened almost pretty much over night...they did give us a few months to be compliant with the scrub colors, etc, but employees had absolutely no say period.

[ArtClassRN, ADN, RN]

Individual use of one's own body is your choice. And to hide it is a civil violation. So long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Ex: "I'm a nurse, and my tattoo says I won't give you the best care possible, cause I have a tattoo,cause it's a unicorn."

Oh please. It is not a "civil violation."

Folks, you have the freedom to get tattoos of whatever you want where ever you want. Rock out with your privates out. Have fun.

You do NOT, however, have a guarantee of freedom from consequences for what you do. Or say. It doesn't work that way. It never worked that way. Get it?

If your satisfaction in life comes from getting tattoos, that's great. Have a blast. But don't in any way think your freedom to do so insulates you from consequences.