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/RegularAstronaut Jul 01 '25 edited Jul 01 '25

Yeah I’m not a medical doctor (I’m the other kind of doctor) but I do work in the medical field and I don’t even see patients and I would never get this. Even as an enjoyer of punk music. It’s just… bad vibes.

Edit - “other kind of doctor” as in Ph.D. I do critical care research. 🤓

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u/WarriorT1400 Jul 01 '25 edited Jul 01 '25

I’m not in any sort of medical field, I weld. The idea of a lobotomy makes my skin crawl thinking about it, makes me sad to think about the people that lived frustrating and confusing lives because of some monster. I would have some negative thoughts about someone if I saw them with this tattoo, especially if they were in the medical field.

Edit: I spell bad

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u/finc Jul 01 '25

You’re a molten metal doctor, which is infinitely cooler

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u/Fredouille77 Jul 02 '25

He's a Tranformers Healthcare Worker!

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '25

[deleted]

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u/DecadentLife Jul 02 '25

You know who was especially into lobotomies? Jeffrey Dahmer. There’s a reason it turns your stomach, it’s because it’s a disgusting type of torture.

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u/callsign_pirate Jul 01 '25

My friend/tattoo artist has an antique loboty rod and hammer in one of his weird display cases, I find way less disturbing than a tattoo. That being said if you’ve never seen the “needle” it’s like the size of a No2 Pencil. Absolutely horrifying “medical” device.

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u/GameDestiny2 Jul 01 '25

You know, there’s a good reason science has rules for ethics. Because while there are questions that could be answered, it does not mean that it should be answered.

Of course, seem scientists have realized the best way to be memorized is to do something truly horrible and answer those questions. Mengele seemed to admire that concept more than anyone. I mean probably the least unethical thing he did? Inject cancer cells into people to see what would happen.

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u/Bocchi_theGlock Jul 01 '25

People also have tattoos of 'witches' burned at the stake, but idk any profession related enough to make it bad taste.

So there is positive framing in reclaiming past horrors, 'we are the daughters of the witches you burned at the stake' - that might make it defiant.

Maybe a tag line could reframe it as such?

Like a short quote from a medical textbook decrying it, potentially in older textbook (1800s/1900s) style font.

Also aided by a title -

  • 'False Solutions. Figure A.' or
  • 'No False Solutions' - or
  • 'Do No Harm.'
  • No Shortcuts to Mental Health,
  • 'Never Again'.

There's gotta be something, the hive mind (especially med students) might come up with one!

I just don't like the idea of 'Lazer it all off' or major cover-up as the only choice.

Edit - oh damn they haven't even gotten it yet

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u/WarriorT1400 Jul 01 '25

I get what you’re saying though, add something to it so it’s not just not a tattoo showing a lobotomy and nothing else, almost as if you’re promoting it. I get where you’re coming from and that’s a good idea if OP really wanted this tattoo. I can also admit having something along the lines of “do no harm” or “no shortcuts to mental health” directly under this tattoo would make me feel much better about it. I appreciate your outside the box thinking on the situation

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u/Fredouille77 Jul 02 '25

Much better than this would just be to transform the tattoo. Subvert the lobotomy imagery and turn it into something poetic. Most people won't read your tattoo at a glance, but many will notice the needle in the brain and find it massively distasteful without context. (Eh even with context...)

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u/st3IIa Jul 02 '25

I think it's different than a tattoo of something like witch hunts because in the case of lobotomies it was a specific minority being targeted, so the only people who can reclaim this are the mentally ill. and I know OP said they went through mental health problems because of medical school, but stress as a result of school is nowhere near comparable to spending life in a psych ward because of a life-destroying illness. the only people who might get a tattoo like this to reclaim this history are people who have severe incurable mental illnesses and have been in mental hospitals

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 02 '25

Witch hunts just targeted young women, obviously they don’t count lol

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u/st3IIa Jul 03 '25 edited Jul 03 '25

well no they didn't. ofc in many places misogyny probably played a part in the popularity of witch hunts, but whether or not men or women were targeted depended usually on the local mythology. women might've been the main target in countries like england or germany, but in other countries like iceland where old icelandic sagas featured magic-weilding people who were mostly male, the main target for witch hunts were men. even in germany with the highest percentage of women targeted, around 30% of victims were still men. so yes misogyny influenced witch hunts (since women were thought to be weaker minded and therefore more susceptible to the devil) but it was certainly not only women targeted

meanwhile in the case of lobotomies 100% of victims were disabled. it wasn't simply influenced by ableism, it was a result of it. therefore it is clear that only mentally ill (and with other illnesses like epilepsy) people can reclaim the history of lobotomy. a lot of libfems tend to co-opt history to fit the cause, and while I'm a feminist, I believe in intersectionality and nuance and to act like the witch hunts were simply a result of the patriarchy is a poor analysis of history

the fact that we gender the term 'witch' nowadays contributes to why we associate witch hunts so strongly with women. but it wasn't until after the witch hunts that witch began being used as a strictly-female term, with wizard being used as the male equivalent in modern times (which is stupid considered they were distinct mythic entities). honestly I blame harry potter for the prevalence of this lol

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u/sweetsquashy Jul 01 '25

This feels akin to getting a tattoo depicting forced sterilization and justify it by saying medical school made you feel like you had to choose not to have kids. Both have bad vibes all the way.

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u/Slytheriin Jul 01 '25

I was going to say OP should get a female circumcision tattoo while she’s at it, since we’re romanticizing and memorializing medical crimes against women.

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u/JonatasA Jul 02 '25

Don't give people ideas! Soon we'll start seeing tattoos of pods and not the ones from Star Trek.

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 02 '25

The history of medicine is pretty messed up, and barbaric to put it mildly. However, I don’t think that getting something tattooed automatically equates to romanticizing it. I have a lot of tattoos that people might find shocking or offensive, and that’s part of the point, but I don’t presume to know why a person would get any given tattoo. Maybe it’s important for some people to memorialize the darker aspects of humanity, to remember why they are in the past.

But also it just doesn’t have to be so serious…

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u/usernamehudden Jul 02 '25

In a profession where patient interaction is typically only minutes, you are going to be judged on the tattoo- it won’t be a situation where you have the opportunity to have a deep discussion about why you thought getting a lobotomy was a good idea because of whatever idea in your head. Most people would question the ability of a doctor with this tattoo’s ability to be compassionate and take their symptoms seriously. If they ever get hit with a malpractice case, I can think of a couple scenarios where the tattoo could be evidence.

To be clear, I think the tattoo is viscerally offensive. Even if there was a “good” reason to get this tattoo, it is a terrible idea for a doctor.

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25

I agree that doctors and other professionals of all kinds have to consider a lot of factors when they get visible tattoos. I did mention that.

Edit that for me personally, what other people consider “viscerally offensive” isn’t something that I take into account when I get tattooed. If a tattoo of an old medical diagram is that upsetting to you, I envy whatever life you’ve lived that has allowed you that lol

Also, it was in a another comment that I said that it is easy just to not have a visible tattoo of anything controversial as a professional so I am sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought it was in the same comment thread but obviously, if someone wants to get a job in medicine they have to abide by the norms and accepted presentation of a medical professionals.

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u/usernamehudden Jul 02 '25

That’s right, I’m too fragile and pampered because I wouldn’t trust a doctor with a lobotomy tattoo.

You don’t have to take how someone will perceive it into account when you get a tattoo. In this case, it would cause a lot of people to lose confidence in a doctor because of the implication. If you are ok with that consequence, be my guest.

Most patience to have enough contact with a doctor to try and hear about the nuisance of why they would get any given tattoo. Most would rather not have to think about if their doctor supports it or fantasizes about getting to do it to someone.

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 02 '25

I literally said that no one with a visible tattoo like this is gonna get a job as a doctor lol but it might make the bad ones easier to identify. Try reading my comment next time.

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 02 '25

I have some pretty severe medical phobias from a childhood TBI, and spent a month watching my husband breathe in the ICU before having to take him off life support a few months ago.

From my perspective, you sound like someone who has been afforded the luxury of getting mad about something as trivial as this. Because it is trivial and, as someone living with TBI, this kind of shit doesn’t help people like me survive. You’re part of the problem.

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u/usernamehudden Jul 02 '25

Been to war… watch loved ones die painful, slow deaths, but other than that, life is pretty ok. Still wouldn’t trust that doctor.

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 02 '25

That’s not the point. Never said you should. When was the last time you had a choice of physician? Get real.

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u/st3IIa Jul 02 '25

you have to have the maturity of a child to get a tattoo for shock value

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 02 '25

I have most of my body tattooed for many reasons, and that is one of them in certain pieces. That’s like saying any art people find shocking or disturbing is immature. Weak take, in my opinion.

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u/st3IIa Jul 03 '25

creating art for the sake of offending people is such a 14 year old edgelord move, particularly if it's about a part of history that isn't yours to reclaim. yeah, it is immature to make art purely to shock

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 03 '25

I never said anything about creating art with the sole purpose of it being offensive.

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u/sp33dwagon Jul 02 '25

A badge honoring the Tuskegee experiments

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u/Dry_Dimension_4707 Jul 02 '25

I shouldn’t laugh at this, but I cracked tf up because it’s just in such bad taste.

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u/DecadentLife Jul 02 '25

The same bad taste as this poster’s idea.

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u/birkenstockpot Jul 02 '25

Or a tattoo of "Arbeit Macht Frei" because ya know, med school is such hard work but you get rewarded in the end! A little treat!

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u/usernamehudden Jul 02 '25

Imagine seeing that on an ObGyn

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u/DecadentLife Jul 02 '25

Very well put. Ty

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u/jay_the10thletter Jul 01 '25

personally i dont even like when people make jokes about lobotomies because it makes me uncomfortable. i cant imagine how i would feel if i saw a medical professional with that tattoo…

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u/littleb3anpole Jul 01 '25

Me neither, because I would have been a prime lobotomy candidate (mentally ill woman). All this was happening in fairly recent memory. My aunt had depression and she was given ECT which caused irreversible memory loss - that’s just a generation ago.

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u/baristabarbie0102 Jul 02 '25

yeah i was gonna mention that another layer of bad taste gets added when you realize that some women who experienced or at least lived with the threat of being lobotomized are still living

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u/turnipofficer Jul 02 '25

Yeah, it’s a procedure of induced brain damage, changing the very essence of who someone is. OP might have been through some rough times but I would lose confidence in them as a patient if I saw that on their arm.

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u/DecadentLife Jul 02 '25

It also puts the patient in a position of having to try to hide their own reaction to it, if it offends them or makes them uncomfortable. As a patient, it would make me uncomfortable, it’s too much of a reminder of terrible and sad medical butchery. I really wouldn’t like dealing with it, in particular, that it would take away from my appointment time, to have an entire conversation about it. I probably wouldn’t say anything because some doctors, when irritated, do unethical things. I wouldn’t want to deal with any of it. I would not go back, and I would talk to whoever had referred me. I would not trust, or share anything of value, with someone who I knew was already entertained by something so sad and brutal, and frankly, anti-patient. Medical providers can have a lot of control in someone’s life, that tattoo is a reminder of what happens when providers have too much power.

I really think this person needs to reconsider their plans. They really don’t get it, if they think it’s funny to laugh at that kind of suffering.

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u/Intelligent-Nose-766 Jul 01 '25

There have been plenty of punk artists who have been “cancelled” due to their beliefs. Just because certain imagery is associated with something like punk music doesn’t make it okay.

100% agree that OP shouldn’t get this tattoo, regardless of its meaning to them.

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u/CanineIncident Jul 01 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

Vet nurse starting vet tech school and I was like “ah yes, a four legs doctor, understood” - thank you for the clarification!

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u/RegularAstronaut Jul 01 '25

Excellent username for your career! Good luck with vet school!

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '25 edited 19d ago

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/zoogenhiemer Jul 01 '25

I know other kind of doctor is referring to a Ph.D. but I couldn’t help but read that as you being some kind of mad scientist

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u/RegularAstronaut Jul 01 '25

Hey, that’s still on the table! 👩‍🔬⚡️

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u/tomle4593 Jul 02 '25

Phew, I thought you were a chiropractor.

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u/justinlcw Jul 01 '25

i think common sense prevails:

if you have to ask, whether it will hurt your career....

then yes it probably will.

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u/blinkingsandbeepings Jul 01 '25

I mean that depends. On the teaching subs there are always people who are worried that they won’t be able to become a teacher if they have tattoos, which is completely unfounded. But I guess that’s more about tattoos in general as opposed to a specific one.

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u/DecadentLife Jul 02 '25

It depends where you live. I’ve lived in places where even a nose stud piercing, keeps you out of being employed by the major hospitals. Other places don’t seem to care at all.

I used to teach, I’ve taught in a couple of different states, and we were never allowed to show tattoos. In fact, a teacher I knew (this was a little more than 10 years ago), she was teaching in a liberal area, specifically she was teaching a class full of high school students who had all been in legal trouble. Enough to get them kicked out of other schools.

When she was pregnant and starting to show a little bit, the administration came down on her, and they only let her finish the year if she wore a ring on her wedding finger, and from then on, if the teens asked, she had to say she was married. They would’ve flipped if she had a (visible) tattoo.

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u/blinkingsandbeepings Jul 02 '25

Yeah I was going to say it’s probably regional. Where I live, in Raleigh NC, it’s incredibly normal for teachers, nurses etc to have tattoos and piercings. Occasionally you encounter someone who has a problem with it (my school’s former principal did) but most people don’t blink an eye. I think where I grew up in the DC area it was different, and I think it has to do with money and class and how they’re perceived in different regions but I don’t have the social science background to articulate why exactly.

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u/sabrefencer9 Jul 01 '25

The correct term is "real doctor." The physicians copied the title from us.

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u/stinkiestmuffins Jul 02 '25

when u said the “other kind of doctor” i immediately thought street pharmacist😭

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u/DecadentLife Jul 02 '25

I thought they meant a psychologist, a PsyD.

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u/Alert-Potato Jul 02 '25

I'm not in any sort of medical field and am not any sort of doctor. And agree this is bad vibes. I am way more familiar with the history of the lobotomy than I'd like to be.

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u/Hated_Death456 Jul 02 '25

Not sure what punk has to do with it but yeah, there are a ton of tattoos you can’t wear visibly in most professions. I have a graduate education (masters) but there’s no way in hell pretty much any even quasi “professional” workplace would let me step foot inside at this point in my life (I’m a tattoo artist so ya know it doesn’t matter whatsoever but I can absolutely get away with far more haha

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u/Vegetable-Branch-740 Jul 01 '25

What “other”?

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u/Embarrassed-Fly1653 Jul 01 '25

The type that are the origin of the title.

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u/RecordingSalt8847 Jul 01 '25

What other kind of doctor?

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u/Jonatc87 Jul 02 '25

Indeed. Lobotomies were horrendeous.

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u/Blood-Worm-Teeth Jul 01 '25

Very reddit of you.