Tattoos in Nursing

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What do you think about Nurses with tattoos?

Do you have tattoos?

Should tattoos be shown during work as a Nurse?

There is no right or wrong answers. Thank you.

What I care about is how the nurse does his or her job, not what they look like.

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Yes, this is totally the important thing. "Elders" are more open minded than many people think. Some are traditionalists. Some are not. Not fair to label them all as one thing. I think this is called ageism.

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Our special care (ICU etc) and home health has a no visible tattoo, piercing, fragrances, unnatural hair color policy, but discretionary allowances are made in some areas of the hospital.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.
Unprofessional no matter from what perspective you looking at it. Watch the Lockup show. Almost all of them have this self-mutilation scratch or whatever you call it. Nurses and other health ancillaries have seen enough physical permanent scars. Tats look grotesque when skin starts to sag and cause us nurses with enough problem to be sure pt is safe for procedures such as MRI and it is even difficult to see the vein when you have this annoying distracting paint on the skin to start an IV line. Will not, repeat not, hire a person with tat unless it is covered, covered, covered ad infinitum...

I guess that's cool, if it flies in your part of the world. Here in the PNW we worry more about skill than ink. You might be surprised how colorful our ED and ICU nurses are. :)

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.
I don't think any of these things is unprofessional. As for what the "elderly" think, that is a whole other topic. Now that I am officially "elderly" I hate that word. It is a loaded word, kind of like using pejorative racial slurs. There are so many stereotypes out there about the dreaded "elderly." We are not all narrow-minded traditionalists as you seem to think. Young people need to open their minds and quit stereotyping and bunching us all together in one group. We are as diverse as young people are. We are not all narrow-minded traditionalists. Open your minds, people. Stop the judging and elder discrimination.

I haven't seen anyone here discriminate against or judge elders. If you're pulling from my comment, I was referring to the elderly at the nursing home I worked at in a remote town in northern Minnesota. #notallelders considering my grandparents are pretty bad ass

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Who sounds like this guy doesn't want to look after patients with tattoos either. Wonder what other prejudices he has. I have often said the nursing leadership is terrible, run by a bunch of intolerant, sadistic weirdos.

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Just the use of the quaint term elderly is pejorative. Lumping adults into a category called elderly is pejorative. It is ageism which is rampant in our society.

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I have been coloring my grey hair for years in an attempt not to be discriminated against by employers. There are so many abusive bosses out there.

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tattoos are gross, especially on females. They will look better when you are 90!

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But all "elders" are not as close minded as this. I think people have a right to be individuals. I deplore the current trend in nursing to turn us all into robotic task-oriented clones. I want nurses who can think for themselves, who can express themselves. Tattoos are not dirty. To many they are an art form. I believe in freedom of expression and open mindedness. As an "elder" I wish to be treated as an individual not as a stereotype and, in turn, I treat other people this way as well.

I totally agree with you. I don't know if you were responding in response the poster JayHanig but if you weren't there is some irony in your thoughts following his posting.

He makes several ageist comments (as do a few others) about tattoos looking saggy and terrible on elders. Who cares? Everything is saggy. As we age we tend to look more and more alike (much like how we all started out small drooling and bald). I LOVE seeing marks of individualism on the elderly. It a segue to a life story. And I agree with another posters comments that most elderly are going to care more about how you treat them. Of course there will always be a few judgementals in there----we can look around and take a pretty reasonable guess as to who they many be :whistling:

I question people who state they'd never hire someone with tattoos because they'd question their professionalism or their judgement. Oh the irony. Tattoo judgement aside, are they saying that they feel people have no ability to mature and change? I sure wouldn't want to work for someone who believed that.

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In this age of political correctness who would want the hassle associated with making a negative comment about anyone else's choices. Personally, I dislike tattoos for a variety of reasons, but I never truthfully tell someone with tattoos what I really think, it just makes them defensive and hostile. The main reasons I would never be tattooed are, that no matter what the image depicts I think they are not very classy and they are monotonous (I certainly would never choose to wear the same clothing or accessories, day in & day out, everyday for the rest of my life) so why would it be any less dull to display the same tattoo forever? I do not care if non-offensive tattoos are visible on my coworkers as long as they do not insist that I pretend to like it. This is the age of tattoos and like a herd of sheep most everybody has to go get one.

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I have 2 tattoos both are not visible I was unable to show them in my last job. My current job allows them to be visible but I feel it's more appropriate to keep them covered. I do have a haircut that allows me to keep it spiked and out of the normal for were I live. I have been told to calm it down by both employers but I don't usually do I have chose my battle to be my hair instead of the tattoos. When I'm not at work I do show off my tattoos

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