Tattoos in medical school

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sundancing

sundancing

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I have a large tattoo on my shoulder, but I can cover it up easily. I'm planning on getting more ink when I (hopefully) get a medical school acceptance. I am wondering - how acceptable is it to show tattoos in medical school? If I got something more visible, would I have to cover it up all the time? Right now, I work in an office and if I wear anything sleeveless I wear a sweater to cover my tattoo. I want a half sleeve, but it would be annoying to have to wear 3/4 or long sleeves to cover it up if tattoos aren't acceptable in medical school.

Thoughts?
 
sundancing said:
I have a large tattoo on my shoulder, but I can cover it up easily. I'm planning on getting more ink when I (hopefully) get a medical school acceptance. I am wondering - how acceptable is it to show tattoos in medical school? If I got something more visible, would I have to cover it up all the time? Right now, I work in an office and if I wear anything sleeveless I wear a sweater to cover my tattoo. I want a half sleeve, but it would be annoying to have to wear 3/4 or long sleeves to cover it up if tattoos aren't acceptable in medical school.

Thoughts?
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Totally, completely, utterly unacceptable. I have a good friend who was dismissed from her hospital job (she's a nurse) over visible tattoos. Med schools are very socially conservative - your body art isn't going to make it easy for you to do you job.
 
I have no experience with med school yet, but I have a feeling that you'd probably have to cover up pretty often if you got more visible ink like that. I have a tattoo but it's on the side of my waist/hip so nobody's seeing that lol but having worked as a CNA and now as a lab tech I've noticed that even if you don't see patients (my case working in the lab) they don't want you showing off all your tattoos. It's a professionalism thing which I don't really agree with, but for the most part many people still aren't comfortable with it and still don't think it looks professional. I've seen nurses and other healthcare workers show them off if they're on their arms or necks, but idk if it's that they're really allowed to do that or they're just being rebels lol
 
If I hadn't picked a heatlhcare career, I'd probably be way more covered in ink lol but alas I chose this profession which is more imortant to me than my self-expression 😛
 
Around 1/3 of the nurses I work with in an ED have visible tattoos, none of the doctors do.
 
My coworkers (nurses) with obvious tattoos cover them up. No nose rings either. I would have to assume the same goes for anybody of any status. @kthxbai wow! was she warned and refused to comply? Or did they just dismiss.

You would probably have to contact the school and find out their stance for classes and find out each teaching hospital's policy.
 
TriNurse said:
My coworkers (nurses) with obvious tattoos cover them up. No nose rings either. I would have to assume the same goes for anybody of any status. @kthxbai wow! was she warned and refused to comply? Or did they just dismiss.

You would probably have to contact the school and find out their stance for classes and find out each teaching hospital's policy.
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She has a full sleeve (working on the other one). A patient complained about her "thug-like" looks, and the hospital let her go.
 
kthxbai said:
She has a full sleeve (working on the other one). A patient complained about her "thug-like" looks, and the hospital let her go.
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Damn that's harsh, I have to wonder why they didn't just tell her to cover it up. I don't see how if it's covered up it's going to bother anyone...
 
This has 0% to do with med school and 100% to do with being in a hospital in scrubs. I don't know why you're concerned about the admittance part and sitting in class.

There will be patients and attendings who care and others that will not. I personally wouldn't risk it. There are physicians that look down on others for facial hair, never mind visible tattoos. I would definitely get a half sleeve if it was something that wouldn't impede my career.
 
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DrEnderW said:
This has 0% to do with med school and 100% to do with being in a hospital in scrubs. I don't know why you're concerned about the admittance part and sitting in class.

There will be patients and attendings who care and others that will not. I personally wouldn't risk it. There are physicians that look down on others for facial, never mind visible tattoos. I would definitely get a half sleeve if it was something that wouldn't impede my career.
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Some people will care. Murphys law dictates that those will be exactly the people you need to foster a good career trajectory. Totally not worth it. There are a Thousand other ways to express yourself. And I've never met a 90 year old patient with a Tattoo that didn't chalk it off to having been stupid when younger. You outgrow this -- it won't be "cool" to you in 20 years, having a Good career probably still will be.
 
You can't wear anything under scrubs, so I'm not sure how you'd cover it up when you're on rotations that require scrubs.

I'm not to savvy on exactly what a half sleeve tattoo means, but I would think there would be a chance that large tattoos on your arm could be visible. I definitely wouldn't risk it.
 
AMEHigh said:
You can't wear anything under scrubs, so I'm not sure how you'd cover it up when you're on rotations that require scrubs.

I'm not to savvy on exactly what a half sleeve tattoo means, but I would think there would be a chance that large tattoos on your arm could be visible. I definitely wouldn't risk it.
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Most ppl wear band-aids and there are other things you can buy that will cover them up. Is it worth it? I don't really think so, but it's possible to cover them up.
 
LilEngineThatCould said:
Most ppl wear band-aids and there are other things you can buy that will cover them up. Is it worth it? I don't really think so, but it's possible to cover them up.
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I was just thinking how ridiculous it'd look with an arm full of band aids, ha. Because don't sleeve tattoos go allllll the way around your arm? I've never seen anyone covered up with that many band aids!
 
LilEngineThatCould said:
Most ppl wear band-aids and there are other things you can buy that will cover them up. Is it worth it? I don't really think so, but it's possible to cover them up.
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Definitely can't while in the OR.
I just wouldn't risk it. Medicine is still a conservative profession.
 
AMEHigh said:
I was just thinking how ridiculous it'd look with an arm full of band aids, ha. Because don't sleeve tattoos go allllll the way around your arm? I've never seen anyone covered up with that many band aids!
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Sleeves are just as they sound, legitimately a tattoo that covers every inch of skin on your arm. A half sleeve only goes to around your elbow.
 
ciestar said:
Sleeves are just as they sound, legitimately a tattoo that covers every inch of skin on your arm. A half sleeve only goes to around your elbow.
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lol I said I didn't think it was worth it. But there are big bandages and other products made for this. I'm not saying it's a good idea or that you could necessarily get away with it. I've known nurses and other ppl that do it because they can't show off their tattoos. I was just putting it out there that there are ways, but it's at your own risk and I certainly don't think it's worth it unless if you have your own practice and get it in your 30's/40's lol
 
OP wait til you're a practicing physician with some years of experience to get that sleeve. Before then you have no idea if you'll be able to get a job or even get through med school and residency with a full/half sleeve. I have seen doctors with tattoos, but they're usually not big or very visible.
 
I would just have tattoos that can be covered while you are in med school to be on the safe side. You will have enough to worry about from attendings as far as judgement is concerned. Once you are out of school, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's more common for docs to have tattoos than people realize. When I shadowed in college, I saw a lot of EM docs with full sleeve tattoos. Might just be common in that specialty though.
 
I'd go by the rule that says that you shouldn't get it if you can't cover it up with scrubs. I have one big tattoo on my back and will likely get more once I get in as well. All will be cover-able though.

Once you're an attending you can do whatever, because you can choose to wear a white coat over scrubs when seeing patients and they're knocked out when they're under anyway so they don't really care.

If you're in medicine, you'll just have to wear long sleeves all the time, which you should be doing anyway.
 
ridethecliche said:
I'd go by the rule that says that you shouldn't get it if you can't cover it up with scrubs. I have one big tattoo on my back and will likely get more once I get in as well. All will be cover-able though.

Once you're an attending you can do whatever, because you can choose to wear a white coat over scrubs when seeing patients and they're knocked out when they're under anyway so they don't really care.

If you're in medicine, you'll just have to wear long sleeves all the time, which you should be doing anyway.
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You always are answering to someone, even as an attending. So you'll always want to play it conservative, avoid not looking the part and keep your self expression out of view. Its just a good career move. It's not just a wait until you get into school thing. You'd need to wait until your career has gone as far as it will go.

But more than that, in the decade it's going to take before you become an attending you probably will outgrow your interests in ink.
 
radkat101 said:
... When I shadowed in college, I saw a lot of EM docs with full sleeve tattoos. Might just be common in that specialty though.
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You don't really know how much it has impacted his career though. His current job may seem "fine" to you but maybe he's not where he hoped to be, or maybe he had more hurdles to get there than he needed to.

No it's not a death sentence but it does bother enough people that it can get you write ups in that dreaded professionalism category. People prejudge you plenty as is. You don't need to make it easy for them.
 
kthxbai said:
Totally, completely, utterly unacceptable. I have a good friend who was dismissed from her hospital job (she's a nurse) over visible tattoos. Med schools are very socially conservative - your body art isn't going to make it easy for you to do you job.
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Wow, that is awful. I can't believe they didn't just tell her she needed to cover them up.

LilEngineThatCould said:
I have no experience with med school yet, but I have a feeling that you'd probably have to cover up pretty often if you got more visible ink like that. I have a tattoo but it's on the side of my waist/hip so nobody's seeing that lol but having worked as a CNA and now as a lab tech I've noticed that even if you don't see patients (my case working in the lab) they don't want you showing off all your tattoos. It's a professionalism thing which I don't really agree with, but for the most part many people still aren't comfortable with it and still don't think it looks professional. I've seen nurses and other healthcare workers show them off if they're on their arms or necks, but idk if it's that they're really allowed to do that or they're just being rebels lol
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Thanks for the advice. I think that I will consider a less visible placement for now - I'm thinking ribs but I don't know if I can handle the pain lol. If people don't think it's professional I'll just do my best to avoid any conflict.

DrEnderW said:
This has 0% to do with med school and 100% to do with being in a hospital in scrubs. I don't know why you're concerned about the admittance part and sitting in class.

There will be patients and attendings who care and others that will not. I personally wouldn't risk it. There are physicians that look down on others for facial hair, never mind visible tattoos. I would definitely get a half sleeve if it was something that wouldn't impede my career.
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Well I'm not at all concerned about the admittance process - obviously I'll be covering it up during interviews, but I would say it is of some importance for school. What about clinical rotations/clerkships? I'll be wearing scrubs then and probably judged by my appearance to some extent.

Law2Doc said:
Some people will care. Murphys law dictates that those will be exactly the people you need to foster a good career trajectory. Totally not worth it. There are a Thousand other ways to express yourself. And I've never met a 90 year old patient with a Tattoo that didn't chalk it off to having been stupid when younger. You outgrow this -- it won't be "cool" to you in 20 years, having a Good career probably still will be.
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I am going to have to respectfully disagree with this. I have decided to stay away from ink that's visible when I'm clothed for the time being. However, tattoos are part of my familial culture and the one tattoo I have now has an important meaning that will not go away throughout the years. By getting a tattoo, it's like I've immortalized a certain part of my life. I love that I can use my body as a canvas for self-expression and "customize" it as I please. Of course I don't know how I'll feel about it when I'm 90, but as of right now I feel that it was 100% worth it.
 
@sundancing

I'm not sure why they didn't give her a chance to cover them up, but it may have something to do with the hospital's religious affiliation (I just looked up her hospital and they're all about Jesus). Maybe it violated some morality clause?
 
I met a 70 yo patient that got red lips tattooed on her buttock for her 65th birthday.

Law2Doc said:
Some people will care. Murphys law dictates that those will be exactly the people you need to foster a good career trajectory. Totally not worth it. There are a Thousand other ways to express yourself. And I've never met a 90 year old patient with a Tattoo that didn't chalk it off to having been stupid when younger. You outgrow this -- it won't be "cool" to you in 20 years, having a Good career probably still will be.
Click to expand...
 
sundancing said:
Thanks for the advice. I think that I will consider a less visible placement for now - I'm thinking ribs but I don't know if I can handle the pain lol. If people don't think it's professional I'll just do my best to avoid any conflict.

lol my hip was horrible in some areas, my tattoo is about 6 x 3 inches and the parts that got close to bone were excruciating, but bearable; as much of a cry baby as I am, I'm surprised I was able to not cry lol ppl vary in their pain thresholds though
I think it's best to just save the big tats until you're a doctor with lots of experience. I think with time this whole tattoo = unprofessional thing will dwindle a bit more than ppl think. Just look at how many ppl have them now vs just 20 years ago. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting more tats once I'm older too, not everybody outgrows their fascination 😉
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lol I somehow managed to put my reply inside the quotes lol

@sundancing My hip was horrible in some areas, my tattoo is about 6 x 3 inches and the parts that got close to bone were excruciating, but bearable; as much of a cry baby as I am, I'm surprised I was able to not cry lol ppl vary in their pain thresholds though
I think it's best to just save the big tats until you're a doctor with lots of experience. I think with time this whole tattoo = unprofessional thing will dwindle a bit more than ppl think. Just look at how many ppl have them now vs just 20 years ago. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting more tats once I'm older too, not everybody outgrows their fascination 😉
 
Law2Doc said:
You don't really know how much it has impacted his career though. His current job may seem "fine" to you but maybe he's not where he hoped to be, or maybe he had more hurdles to get there than he needed to.

No it's not a death sentence but it does bother enough people that it can get you write ups in that dreaded professionalism category. People prejudge you plenty as is. You don't need to make it easy for them.
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I agree, that's why I mentioned waiting until a job was secured first. The impression I got from the doctors was that they were not tattoos they'd had for very long.
 
In my culture, tattoos are very important and most of people have them on the face (still don't know if I'm gonna do it) My friend has huge visible tattoos all over her arms and she's fine in med school, nobody discusses it and when she works in the hospital, people usually just ask what it is and find it fascinating because it has a lot of significance.
But can't really answer your question except by saying: be who you are.
 
Monika12 said:
In my culture, tattoos are very important and most of people have them on the face (still don't know if I'm gonna do it) My friend has huge visible tattoos all over her arms and she's fine in med school, nobody discusses it and when she works in the hospital, people usually just ask what it is and find it fascinating because it has a lot of significance.
But can't really answer your question except by saying: be who you are.
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Interesting - do you mind if I ask what culture this is?
 
Isn't it always cold in the hospital?! If it bothers ppl just wear long sleeves 😀
 
People (patients and doctors) are constantly judging you in medicine. People's perception of you change on a whim, so why give anyone a reason to dislike you? The culture of medicine is still conservative and I think it would not be smart to have ink showing.
 
Medicine is conservative, you are just starting out. Make things easier on yourself by avoiding ink that can be easily seen with a set of scrubs on. So eliminate plans for any tattoos on the neck, mid bicep and below. That still leaves plenty of real estate to express yourself. When you are an attending, you can do a risk benefit analysis to decide if you want anything more visible. You probably wont want to if you go into a surgical specialty
 
Think of it from a patient perspective. Would you prefer to be treated by a guy who has 50%+ of their skin covered in ink (or piercing as that's also asked) or someone who fits the "doctor" image?

If you really want ink, good places are on your pecs, butt, and legs.
 
Mr Roboto said:
I met a 70 yo patient that got red lips tattooed on her buttock for her 65th birthday.
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Yes, but the issues you face won't come from the patients who like tattoos. They will come from the little old men and women who associate tattoos with hoodlums and the more conservative supervising doctors who think a lot of ink on arm, neck or face are unprofessional. The popular culture in the US may be more open to tattoos, but in the more conservative professions attitudes haven't changed as fast. To be honest, I'm not even close to the conservative attitudes you might meet in medicine, but I certainly will tell you my view of someone certainly changes if they have a lot of bad ink in a very visible place, or get something immature ( muppet, a Disney character, etc) tattooed someplace visible or have a tramp stamp. You may be trying to self express, but sometimes to the outside world it says something very different (eg I make bad decisions, I'm unprofessional, I'm more interested in looking cool than getting a job, etc). Keep your self expression under your scrubs and you'll be fine.
 
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Monika12 said:
Isn't it always cold in the hospital?! If it bothers ppl just wear long sleeves 😀
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Um no. Long sleeves aren't sterile and you really don't want to be bringing people's bodily fluids and MRSA home. You will always be losing the coat for anything you do. Running a code -- lose the sleeves. Going to scrub in on anything, lose the sleeves. Helping turn a patient to check the ulcers on their back, lose the sleeves. It's a bloody messy career. You don't want sleeves. And you are running around enough during calls you usually work up a sweat -- not really an issue of being cold. This isn't grays anatomy where everybody looks beautiful and clean at the end if every day, sorry. You are going to be gross and sweaty and want minimal clothing you can toss into the scrub machine deposit.
 
Law2Doc said:
If you are a female from Africa or southeast Asia sometimes a tattoo or nose ring squeaks by as cultural. Old white men don't know enough about other cultures to give you a hard time. For everyone else, keep it under your scrubs.
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So, I'm just curious.
If an old white man doesn't like tattoos and everything that looks different, what about religious stuff like veil for Muslim women (who also need long sleeves), Jewish, Jewish orthodox...etc who wear clothes that actually are different and significative.
My question is: what are they supposed to do?! Not become a doctor?! Or is there a rule in the hospital that explains what to do?

I know that in UK has a law about this by letting anyone wear anything that is religious with some guidance (women can wear Long disposable sleeves for example)
 
There are a couple girls in my med school class who have hijabs, so I'm assuming it's fine. And quite a few of us have tattoos. Just make sure they are covered by scrubs and you will be fine.
 
Monika12 said:
So, I'm just curious.
If an old white man doesn't like tattoos and everything that looks different, what about religious stuff like veil for Muslim women (who also need long sleeves), Jewish, Jewish orthodox...etc who wear clothes that actually are different and significative.
My question is: what are they supposed to do?! Not become a doctor?! Or is there a rule in the hospital that explains what to do?

I know that in UK has a law about this by letting anyone wear anything that is religious with some guidance (women can wear Long disposable sleeves for example)
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Most religions have built in exceptions for doctors "saving lives." So for example orthodox Jews are technically allowed to work on religious holidays if no other alternatives and wear OR appropriate clothing.

You aren't allowed to discriminate against religions or religious garb, but you bet people still need to follow rules of the OR, scrubbing and sterile fields. Bugs don't give you a bye because you are Muslim. And keeping covered isnt worth bringing bugs home.
 
I dream of a day when tats will no longer be such a taboo in the professional world. I don't see this happening in my lifetime or maybe ever lol You can't even have an uncommon shade of hair color because that's enough to mean you're probably some crazy immature brat...yeah ok.
I actually met a pharmacist who had tats and piercings, plus violet hair. I was taken back even though I'm pretty open-minded, but once I talked to her and saw how professional and knowledgeable she was I lost my pre-conceived notions of her. I'm sure this may not be the case for older generations who grew up when tats were reserved for criminals and Navy men. But it'd be nice for ppl not to assume things just because you have a lot of ink.
Oh well, this is the profession we have chosen and whether or not we like it, old fart bags get to decide how we should express ourselves.
 
Law2Doc said:
You always are answering to someone, even as an attending. So you'll always want to play it conservative, avoid not looking the part and keep your self expression out of view. Its just a good career move. It's not just a wait until you get into school thing. You'd need to wait until your career has gone as far as it will go.

But more than that, in the decade it's going to take before you become an attending you probably will outgrow your interests in ink.
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Depends on how good you are in what you do and what your tattoo is. If it can be covered up during with regular clothes people will likely not care.

Surgery and medicine are also different.
 
LilEngineThatCould said:
I dream of a day when tats will no longer be such a taboo in the professional world. I don't see this happening in my lifetime or maybe ever lol You can't even have an uncommon shade of hair color because that's enough to mean you're probably some crazy immature brat...yeah ok.
I actually met a pharmacist who had tats and piercings, plus violet hair. I was taken back even though I'm pretty open-minded, but once I talked to her and saw how professional and knowledgeable she was I lost my pre-conceived notions of her. I'm sure this may not be the case for older generations who grew up when tats were reserved for criminals and Navy men. But it'd be nice for ppl not to assume things just because you have a lot of ink.
Oh well, this is the profession we have chosen and whether or not we like it, old fart bags get to decide how we should express ourselves.
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These "old fart bags" are the profession you are asking to join. The founders and most of the existing members. They are happy to let you apply for admission to THEIR ranks. It's the height of arrogance to expect them to bend to your view of the world and body image rather than the other way round.
 
ridethecliche said:
Depends on how good you are in what you do and what your tattoo is. If it can be covered up during with regular clothes people will likely not care.

Surgery and medicine are also different.
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Nobody will ever decide you are "good at what you do" if you hit them with what they regard as an unprofessional appearance. It's a holywood myth that you can shine and people will get past the green hair and dragon tattoo.

Both surgery and medicine go through the same med school last I checked. And even beyond, medicine is going to be at their share of codes and mucky wounds they dont want to get sleeves in. If anything the medical doc is often going to be doing much more thorough physical exams each morning. And more likely to get puked, coughed and drooled on.
 
Law2Doc said:
Nobody will ever decide you are "good at what you do" if you hit them with what they regard as an unprofessional appearance. It's a holywood myth that you can shine and people will get past the green hair and dragon tattoo.

Both surgery and medicine go through the same med school last I checked. And even beyond, medicine is going to be at their share of codes and mucky wounds they dont want to get sleeves in. If anything the medical doc is often going to be doing much more thorough physical exams each morning. And more likely to get puked, coughed and drooled on.
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I know med students and residents with tattoos, I know others have them, and I have one as well. Mine is on my back and will never be visible at the work place. My recommendation for anyone that wants them is to get them where they're not going to be visible. Shoulders, back, legs, etc, i.e. areas that will not be openly visible during the day. Scrubs cover shoulders and the pants bottoms are full. Most people don't wear shorts in a professional setting, so stuff shouldn't be visible.

I'm not advocating for visible tattoos as they're still looked down upon. I've seen them mostly on ER docs and Trauma surgeons when it comes to open ones, but the east coast academic center where I am is still very conservative. I've heard the west coast is a bit more lax, but medicine is still pretty conservative about this stuff.

If anyone wants full sleeves, then know that getting them is going to be off putting to some people you work for and some patients as well. Take that for what you will. Unless you're planning on doing physical exams shirtless or pantless you'll be fine. I've never seen that in my experience, but Law2Doc might have had a different experience.
 
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I'm not asking that these old fart bags bend to my whim, of course I understand why they feel the way they do and I will abide as necessary. Hence why I said that while I wouldn't judge someone based on their appearance I certainly wouldn't expect an older and more conservative person to have the same view. None of my tats will be visible, nor am I advising anyone to get visible ones, so I'm not sure why I need your reasoning as if I don't understand all this.

All I'm saying is I wish ppl wouldn't stereotype and simply take a person for their worth, not what they look like because you think they decided to be "immature" or have "lower class" and get a tattoo that doesn't bend to society's and the profession's standards as you all are suggesting. Idk why ppl are getting defensive about the whole thing lol I know that these things will not change simply because we will continue to do what they tell us to.

Viva la revolucion! hahaha 😛
 
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