Nurses with tattoos

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I'm starting nursing school soon, and I am trying to figure out which specialty I might like. I am leaning towards psych, but I don't want to be pigeonholed. I have tattoos on my arms which will be visible with scrub tops, but I know I'll have to wear something underneath to hide them. My question is, are there any specialties that would be more or less prohibitive for wearing long sleeves? Thanks in advance.

:lol2: @ Purple! You should have seen MY mom's face when she first saw mine! As for the sagging and wrinkling... that is probably going to require some weight loss on my part... hehehehe. For the most part my "chunkiness" has my snake plumped out quite nicely hahahahahah...:p

You guys have a great day!

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Specializes in Float pool for 14 months.

I love my tats, it didn't affect me getting either of my two jobs. I have one on each wrist and one on my arm that show, besides others that aren't seen. They mean something to me, are not offensive, I don't cover them, I'm proud of em.

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Specializes in ICU, wound care, burns, HIV, ID.

Heavens, steelydanfan, where have you been? Tattoos and their meaning has changed entirely. These days, they're just a way of stating one's individual nature. My wife would laugh if she heard you refer to me as "thrill-seeking". :jester: I am closer to retirement than my youth, and I love my tattoo. You might want to rethink your reactions to tats a bit, because you are bound to see a lot more of them!

Having said that, I do have a co-worker (an LPN) who got tats on her knuckles (TRUE & LOVE, so nothing offensive), but that strikes me as a form of employment suicide. :uhoh3: If she leaves here, where will she ever find work with such visible tats? It seems to me that if you use good judgment they can be in good taste, but you must use that judgment always.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
There is a HUGE thread on this topic over on Nursing Polls. I think that you would be shocked to find out how many nurses have tattoos, even the ones you would never in a million years suspect. I have a dophin on my back and whenever the subject gets raised about tattoos eyebrows fly up and people say YOU have one? Really, YOU? LMAO! I am pretty surprised myself how many people I now know have them once I admit to mine, it really isn't a shocking thing anymore.

LOL sounds just like me. I'm the person on our floor that has pretty much the entire policies and procedures manual memorized. I am the elected shared governance leader and serve on a lot of the committees. I am considered to be one of the "go-to people" on our unit and have oriented probably a quater of the staff...and I have five tattoos. Everyone is always shocked, I guess I don't look the type, just goes to show you can't read a book by its cover.

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Specializes in Nursing.

i thought the whole thing about the 80s comment was rude as well....but to each his own. the reason i got mine are because they mean something very special to me. i shouldnt have to explain that...no one should... and yes our bodies are going to get all saggy and junk anyways so who cares. my body is a canvas.

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hi tara - i agree with the other posters not to let the fact that you have tattoos dictate the area of nursing you choose. by looking at me, you would never guess that i have a 1/2 sleeve tattoo on my right arm. tattoos are mainstream, like ear piercing. too bad the employment world doesn't feel the same way.

anyway, i used to use makeup to cover my tattoos which work just fine and last my whole 12 hour shift. the problem was that i got sick of putting it on every night.

there are many companies now that cater to working professionals with tattoos and offer some really great products. a friend of mine (another nurse with tattoos) introduced me to tattoo cover sleeves - love them! anyway for other nurses out there, the place i ordered from is www.tat2x.com.

i know that didn't really answer your question but i am new to this website and wanted to chime in.

best of luck!

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I hate that whole "How are you going to look when you're 80?" comment. As far as I know, I've never seen any hot 80 year olds.

. . . and not all young people are "hot" so hotness=tattoos isn't really that relevant. I've known many octogenarian women who care very much about their appearance!

Tattoos are rapidly losing their associations with sailors, outlaw bikers, and gangs, just as pierced ears had associations with (I guess) being cheap because my mom would not let me get my ears pierced! :mad: then she got hers done before I did! :mad::mad::mad:

Yeah reidob I'm going to agree the knuckle tattoos aren't the best idea, same with "teardrop" tattoos around your eyes. In fact, I'd say for the ultimate in tattoo "don'ts" the show Lockup on msnbc makes a pretty decent tutorial.

I think the time isn't too far off that even sleeves won't be a big deal.

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Specializes in acute care med/surg, LTC, orthopedics.

One of my colleagues has a tiny little nose ring. I can't emphasis how tiny it is, you have to peer in real close to see it, and even then, it's THAT tiny. Well, her NM told her she has to cover it up with a band aid while on duty. The irony being the unsightly band aid is the first thing you notice when looking at her.

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Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.
This topic always makes me smile. When I was in school, our DON made a HUGE ISSUE about how bad tattoos were. How you would look like a gang member/biker and scare all the old people, etc. Big frown on you as if you were not nursing material if you even had one. So, one day near the end of my first semester, I saw her in a skirt turn the corner into her office, and what did I see? A tattoo on her leg! :lol2: Sure, hers would be hidden when working, but still, the big THOU ART A LOSER performance in light of this tattoo she sported I found entertaining even tho I don't have any tattoos myself.

Maybe the director was speaking from personal experience rather than out of hypocrisy.

However, I would have found it amusing, too.

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I never meant to imply that tattoos= hot, just that I'm pretty sure that when I'm 80 I'll be a lot more concerned about keeping track of my meds than whether I look good in a bikini.

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Yeah reidob I'm going to agree the knuckle tattoos aren't the best idea, same with "teardrop" tattoos around your eyes. In fact, I'd say for the ultimate in tattoo "don'ts" the show Lockup on msnbc makes a pretty decent tutorial.

^^^:yeah::yeah::yeah:^^^

Word.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
One of my colleagues has a tiny little nose ring. I can't emphasis how tiny it is, you have to peer in real close to see it, and even then, it's THAT tiny. Well, her NM told her she has to cover it up with a band aid while on duty. The irony being the unsightly band aid is the first thing you notice when looking at her.

That's nuts. It sounds uncomfortable, and I'm sure she has to then spend too much of her time either a) answering the question "what happened to your nose?" or b) puzzled looks from people wondering what happened to her nose but feel it would be impolite to ask.

I never meant to imply that tattoos= hot, just that I'm pretty sure that when I'm 80 I'll be a lot more concerned about keeping track of my meds than whether I look good in a bikini.

I know what you're saying. :) The older I get the "younger" certain ages seem to be. My stepdaughter has a pretty sizable Sailor Moon tattoo on her leg, and a Delta Goodrem (a singer from Aus) giant "signature". When she is 80, not so sure her tastes will have remained the same, but as everyone has said, tats are personal.

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