Can medical staff have visible tattoos? A survey study among students

Abstract

Background Tattoo is becoming an increasingly more common form of body decoration among people from various professions. The aim of this study was to find out what is the opinion of university students about medical staff having visible tattoos. Material and methods The study was conducted among the students of four universities in Gdańsk. The self-administered questionnaire contained questions about the acceptance of visible tattoos in people working in medical professions. The respondents were also asked about their attitudes about tattoos as a form of body decoration and whether they had tattoos themselves. The statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25 software. Results Completed questionnaires were obtained from 676 respondents, including 477 students of the medical university and 199 students of non-medical universities. The students who have tattoos themselves accept healthcare professionals having visible tattoos to a significantly greater extent (92%) than those who do not have tattoos, but the acceptance of visible tattoos in healthcare professionals in this group also was quite high (75%). The respondents most readily accepted a visible tattoo on the skin of laboratory diagnosticians (75%). Conclusions Regardless of their field of study, university students consider it completely acceptable for healthcare professionals to have a visible tattoo. LK - https://ejtcm.gumed.edu.pl/articles/49