Prosaic Paradise

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Submitted Without Comment

Filed under Uncategorized by at 2:28 pm on Jun 03 2011

“Although inking or tattoos are popular among adolescents and gang members today, many health care organizations have decided that tattoos cannot be made visible to patients. A survey of health care providers, medical and nursing students (n=513), found that no respondent group had positive attitudes towards tattooed indivduals. Women’s attitudes were more negative than those of their male counterparts and were extremely negative toward tattooed professional women. Ironically, this study was done to assess attitudes toward tattooed patients (Stuppy et. al. 1998). There are no data to suggest that a tattoo will enhance a professional image.”

From Barbara Cherry and Susan R. Jacobs’ textbook Contemporary Nursing: Issues, Trends, & Management

13 Responses to “Submitted Without Comment”

  1. 1 peregrin8on 03 Jun 2011 at 2:34 pm

    I think that “tattoos” or “tattooed women” as a general/abstract notion still makes people think of the worst instances. I have never had anyone react to my tattoos as unprofessional — and even my mom likes them. There’s a big difference between how people react to the concept and how people react to the reality.

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    Kim Reply:

    Yeah, I have oodles of problems with how this is presented. Hopefully I can form a cogent response and get a good grade on it.

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  2. 2 CSueon 03 Jun 2011 at 4:09 pm

    Can you carry around a little sign or badge that says “No, I do not have Hepatitis C”? :>

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    Kim Reply:

    Technically my clinical clearance pass is basically that!

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  3. 3 Mariaon 03 Jun 2011 at 6:18 pm

    Ugh, bad studies. I would think that, logically speaking, people would prefer a nurse who has visible proof that she has experienced Needle Pain, but people aren’t logical, I guess.

    Reminds me (sort of a tangent) of the study I once read which “proved” that having an oral-area piercing will Ruin Your Teeth! The study included a grand total of five patients, all of which either took crappy care of their teeth, or habitually clicked their tongue piercing against their teeth, or both.

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    Kim Reply:

    I was glad, at least, that this book lists the number of people polled or studied or what have you! 5 is not a reasonable sample size, ahem.

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  4. 4 PMMDJon 04 Jun 2011 at 6:08 am

    I suspect these surveys will read very differently in ten and twenty years.

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    Kim Reply:

    I was the school’s first student with a full sleeve, but since I started there have been at least two more. So much so that they asked me for the Ink Armor web site to put in the student handbook. Woo, trailblazing!

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  5. 5 Aprilon 04 Jun 2011 at 10:32 pm

    Was this a study published in 1998 (meaning it was completed around the time we were graduating from college)? If so, I would really like to see it countered with other research on changing attitudes towards tattoos… assuming there is some. At the very least there should be findable metrics on the # of patients and “average people” with tattoos.

    Although many of the first things I found in a cursory search were about tattooed peoples’ higher risk behaviors. And this: http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ790627&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ790627

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    Kim Reply:

    Hey at least that one is from 2008!! I also feel like things have changes a lot since 1998, however I will note that I live in a weird little bubble of exposure to things of my own choosing via the internet, which includes tattoo tumblrs. So.

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    April Reply:

    I was a bit disappointed that the newer study still didn’t say great things about tattoos. It’s interesting that people are actually studying this stuff, though.

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  6. 6 Jenon 06 Jun 2011 at 8:34 am

    It’s nice they give the sample number, but I have to wonder what the question types were and how they were presented. And what types and locations of tattoos?

    It’s funny, because my workplace has such a stringent dress code, but I have honestly never been given any guff personally over my tattoos in a professional environment.

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    Kim Reply:

    Neither have I, but nursing and the environment where it is performed is so radically different than my previous employment. And now of course I have been mostly covering them when interacting with patients and staff so I guess I wouldn’t know if someone would have an issue.

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