Potential Army Nurses, New Regs Regarding Tattoos

Our entire Forward Surgical Team (FST) has been abuzz about this (expected) news for the last couple of days:

http://www.stripes.com/news/army/soldiers-told-new-rules-governing-tattoos-grooming-standards-on-the-way-1.242828

So for any of you RNs or students who think you might want to join the Army, just be aware that new recruits will NOT be allowed to have inkage in places below the knees or below the elbows, or above the neckline. How they'll handle the grandfathering will remain to be seen. I have waivers for all of mine, but who knows? LOL. I might be a civilian nurse again soon!

[Raider 3/1]

So in other words, nothing you can see outside of PT shorts and t-shirt.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Almost, though my PT shirt doesn't go to my elbows and my shorts don't go to my knees. They're not supposed to, though. So it's not quite whatever doesn't show in PTs.

[amoLucia]

I wonder what their rationale was?

To y'all - thank you for your service.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

The current sergeant major of the Army is rather anti-tattoo, thus the tightening up of the policy.

[nursespouse]

Conspiracy time .... Or this is just one more reason to deny recruits, and/or shrink the already small numbers. I wonder how this will effect re-enlistment as well. Also could tricare pay for removal? Seems to be a quick easy way to deny potential recruits and to shrink the already small army right now.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

It's probably a combination of things -- weeding out and keeping out. The Army is nowhere near as small right now as it's going to be in the next couple of years!

[nursespouse]

It's probably a combination of things -- weeding out and keeping out. The Army is nowhere near as small right now as it's going to be in the next couple of years!

So true, i believe it will be pre 9/11 small or smaller.

[Dranger]

It makes sense. Soldiers do the dumbest things sometimes. 90% of the guys I see at the gym seem to have full sleeves or borderline offensive/ridiculous tattoos on every part of their body. I have literally seen tattoos that make me just shake my head (TV land symbol on the knee cap? Risque Nintendo characters? Zombie Scooby-Doo? I mean if we are a profession there needs to be standards upheld.

I am not against tattoos in anyway but this has gotten out of control.

However, I am ****** out about the sideburns and shaving out of uniform/off-work thing, I mean really?

[ckh23, BSN, RN]

I wonder what their rationale was?

To y'all - thank you for your service.

The rationale is that the wars are just about over so now attention needs to be focused elsewhere. This attention is usually focused on BS regs, will once again be laxed when the next war starts. They should really focus on weight regulations and keeping the army combat ready instead of tattoos.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Omg, height & weight, totally agree! That is a MUCH larger problem (pun intended).

I try not to judge others' tattoos (provided they appear professionally done... kitchen scratch is different, aside from being a health risk). I am sure that some people would look at some of mine and not "get" or like them (zombie nurse on my leg, for example... and done before zombies were cool! Lol). Yeah, I have seen some head-shakers, and I just tell myself that it's not mine and thus I don't know what it means.

[Raider 3/1]

The rationale is that the wars are just about over so now attention needs to be focused elsewhere. This attention is usually focused on BS regs, will once again be laxed when the next war starts. They should really focus on weight regulations and keeping the army combat ready instead of tattoos.

I couldn't agree more! during my active duty time on the enlisted side of things during the height of the Iraq/Afghanistan war, I saw fat Marines and Sailors walking all over base. How in the world did they slip by height and weight standards????

We're supposed to represent the Military as a fit professional war fighting capable group of people... not look like we flip burgers at a hamburger shack.