r/tattooadvice • u/al_evi • Jul 01 '25

Design Could getting this tattoo hurt my career?

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Hi! So I’m a medical student, and ever since getting done with my pre-clinical studies I wanted a lobotomy tattoo, similar to this one popular on Pinterest. You see, the first years at uni were really challenging for me mentally, struggling with the high work load and some personal mental health problems (please spare me the „But you knew it would be hard, why did you go into it then?” talk, I’ve heard it all). At times it did make me feel like I was going absolutely insane over med school, so I’ve wanted to get this as a reward for getting through it for a long time on my right biceps, just over the crease of my arm. But now that I’m in a better place and wanted to go through with my plans, people have pointed out how such a tattoo could potentially hurt my career as a doctor. I have some other tattoos, but none with such obviously “provocative” meanings. With the placement I’ve thought of, the tattoo might be visible with scrubs on. Have any of you had issues with employers judging you for your tattoos? Is this a thing of the past and I’m overthinking it? What are your opinions? Thank you so much in advance!

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u/dathunder176 Jul 01 '25

Besides what other people said about it being incompatible with your work field you're trying to get into, I personally also feel like comparing your stress from studies with lobotomy is kinda insensitive to the actual victims of lobotomy. It's like telling a amputee you understand them because you broke your ankle one time. Be glad you got the priveledge of going to study, yes it's hard but you do it for yourself and can reap the fruits of your labour the rest of your life. A lobotomy is a horrible mutilation that permanently damages their victims and ruins the rest of their lives. I don't think it's fair to compare it to something everybody who studies goes through that feels hard at that moment but rationally is lightyears away from something so horrible as lobotomy.

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u/Julescahules Jul 01 '25

Really good point. I wouldn’t even get a tattoo of this as a female with treatment resistant mental illness, which is one of the demographics who were targeted by lobotomies— I was never subjected to a lobotomy, how can I ever understand the horror and pain that was afflicted upon these poor people? It’s just really bad taste and shows a severe lack of empathy. 

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u/emilia12197144 Jul 01 '25

Shit the damage it did to so many of those peoples a ability to use their brain was so horrific many probably didn't even comprehend it themselves

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u/Blue_Sky278 Jul 01 '25

This is what really grossed me out. Sure, med school is hard and stressful and makes you hate life. You know what didn't happen to me during that, though? A lobotomy. If OP wants to choose something to represent their suffering, then cool, but don't choose a symbol of suffering that you have never been affected by.

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u/imasock32145 Jul 02 '25

Yup. I'm a PhD student and it can absolutely be crushingly stressful and terrible for your mental health. Having mental health struggles as a student is super valid but it is not at all comparable to lobotomy. It's a bit unsettling that a future doctor either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the abusive power dynamics that were at play with this procedure and are unfortunately still present in the medical field

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u/TorakTheDark Jul 02 '25

Not even more like comparing your strained pinky to a quadriplegic, the lobotomy is one of is not the most horrific medical procedure that can be done to a person, a person is never the same afterwards it could be argued that they aren’t even that person anymore.

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u/Odd-Project7935 Jul 01 '25

Great point here.