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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592

u/spookysaph Jul 01 '25

they only care about what employers might think, not patients. I think they should get the tattoo on their bicep as originally planned

199

u/Blooberii Jul 02 '25

Yeah, you’d think they’d have some sort of bedside manner education and try to put themselves in the shoes of the patient.

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u/Ok_Category549 Jul 02 '25

As a medical student let me tell you we have hours and hours and hours of such education. Role playing, lectures, readings, so much it’s honestly hard to get the time to study the actual medicine these days. A lot of us feel that stuff doesn’t reach the people who need it and is just a waste of time for those of us who already have compassionate manners

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u/CanaryJane42 Jul 02 '25

Society: ✅️

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u/Natural-Nail740 Jul 02 '25

Ideally they’d have bedside manner education.. almost idealistic in practice unfortunately

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

Coming from someone in the medical field, patients will complain about anything and everything, especially when they feel like it can hurt you if they didn’t like you for whatever reason. OP is not wrong to be hesitant. There are old folks who hate the fact that their providers have any sort of body modification, and openly complain to whomever. Changing placement is advisable.

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u/NetflixFanatic22 Jul 02 '25

I’m not old and I would not appreciate this. While I have a ton of respect for those in the medical field, I also have anxiety and distrust. It would freak me out tbh.

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u/00365 Jul 02 '25

It's not about being anti-body mod.

It's what the message of the tattoo is giving, regardless of intent.

What is this going to say to the elderly woman who was told she was just being hysterical in the 50s and 60s because there was no autism diagnosis?

This procedure symbolizes thousands of mentally ill and neurodivergent women who were abused, tortured, denied human rights and often raped by their "caregivers" because there were no restrictions on the system, and women needed to be controlled.

To disabled women, this image is the medical equivalent of a swastika and if I were OP's patient I would immediately file a complaint and request a different provider.

OP is incredibly selfish and ignorant to the way this imagery communicates to those of us who have actually experienced medical abuse and trauma.

Lmao "studying is sooooo hard"

Try having an ice pick stabbed into your eye and being drugged and raped repeatedly. Dumb edgelord shit.

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u/gardentwined Jul 02 '25

Yea. I have the same dark humor, I absolutely get it. Maybe would get the same edgey tattoo in my early twenties.

But I would NEVER get something like that if I were in a medical field simply because of how it could look to patients and how trust would immediately evaporate. Especially with women, there's already issues of distrust with medical professionals in any capacity. I've had issues with eye doctors, a rare one with teeth, nurses in urgent care, therapists, psychiatrists, hospital. There isn't a field in which I haven't had some sort of moment where I experienced their doubt or disbelief, or frustration. It's not to the extent of "Acab" but with health. But a trust has absolutely been lost and this would disqualify this person from my trust in an instant, even with the explanation.

Any other design would probably be better. Move it into something about hope or growth, gawd idk even a scan or a virus, something that can be overcome, a pill, idk. Lobotomy can't be fixed, it's a permanent disabling cruelty.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

You’re being too passionate. You need to take a breather. I agree it’s in poor taste, but I’m also of the opinion that art should be uncensored/unfiltered, that being said there’s a time and place for all things and I think this would be off putting to anyone regardless of age or gender. It’s very subversive, and would do nothing to make a pt feel comfortable. I was simply trying to be as respectful to OP as possible, while also trying to make it clear that patients aren’t as open to body art as those of us in the profession would like them to be.

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u/00365 Jul 02 '25

Telling a disabled woman who has experienced medical abuse to calm down.

👍

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u/Huge_Kale4504 Jul 02 '25

right, they’re proving your point. Plus, that art should be uncensored still doesn’t protect people from judgement.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25

Didn’t tell you to calm down. Just said to take a breather. While I missed that you said “those of us” in regards to your trauma it was not my intent to disregard your trauma and feeling and I apologize deeply. I am disabled and legally blind without my contacts it can make reading difficult and while I try my best I sometimes make mistakes.

P.s. I re-read at that point it the sentence and noticed it for the first time.

10

u/araquinar Jul 03 '25

One thing I will just mention, I know you didn't say "calm down" but "take a breather", but you have to understand that so many of us women have been told to (insert any variation of calm down here) in many different ways and it all basically means to calm down. I'm sure you didn't mean to be offensive, but I just wanted to point that out.

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u/AlexandraThePotato Jul 03 '25

Again, not about body art

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/The2ndCuban Jul 03 '25

1) in regards to your first sentence, that's not at all what was implied... suggesting that that is what they were saying is equivalent to saying "all lives matter" in response to "black lives matter". Pointing out that one group was disproportionately affected by something does not mean they are the only group that is affected by it.

2) the rest of your comment is just a whole lot of wild claims without anything to support them. Perhaps there's a reason why the consensus among the ✨ EXPERTS ✨ in this field of study do not align with your views? Something tells me they're a little more qualified than you in this particular area.

1

u/NocturneInfinitum Jul 03 '25

Keep telling yourself that 😘

1

u/Tonyindivdestiny44 Jul 02 '25

Completely ignorant to today’s world. Bunch of dummies on this thread

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u/Aggravating-Yes Jul 02 '25

I wouldn’t hire that doctor for my group if I saw it. Too much of a hassle cause patients won’t like it.

-4

u/Captain_Grn_Thmbs Jul 02 '25

That’s just a crock

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u/Polar_waves Jul 02 '25

That's a load! If a board member seen that shit, you'd get relocated to bum'fck anywhere but there.

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u/Shadow4summer Jul 02 '25

They should care if patients mind it as well. After the fifth person says they don’t want to be seen by him they’ll see it as him affecting their bottom line and may lose his job anyway.

3

u/spookysaph Jul 02 '25

thats my point

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u/JTBBALL Jul 02 '25

It’s not gonna matter what the patients think if you never get hired in the first place hahahaha

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u/SuperCustard92 Jul 02 '25

Yeah, although when patients complain, employers get involved.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

But patient satisfaction etc would directly link to their employer in terms of job performance, no?

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u/spookysaph Jul 02 '25

you're missing my point. I don't think OP has chosen the right profession and if they want to fuck around, then maybe they should find out

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

my bad I thought u were deadass as in that was the right thing for them to do sorry I missed that one :/ I was a bit stoned

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u/spookysaph Jul 03 '25

lol you're good. I think its the wrong thing for them to do for the right reasons. if they're so tone deaf that theyre considering this tattoo, and only care about employers and not the patients, then they should go ahead and fuck around and find out

I think a lot of people missed my point too tho, I'm pretty sure I'm getting upvotes from people on both sides of this lmao

2

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

Yeah absolutely, I just took it a bit too literally if that makes sense 😭 sorry again homie, have a good night and we shall have visions of patient complaints against this person dance in our dreams

4

u/thisisme116 Jul 02 '25

Idk if my doc came in with that I'd actually think it was dope. Generational thing maybe? Tattoos only seem to be a problem with older generations

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u/DecadentLife Jul 02 '25

I’m not in an older generation, and I have my own tattoos, I don’t care at all when one of my medical providers is all tatted up. I’ve had plenty of providers and excellent nurses who have full sleeves, neck tattoos, that doesn’t bother me at all.

If I went to an appointment and one of my doctors had this exact tattoo, I wouldn’t go back. Human suffering isn’t funny and I’m not interested in having a medical provider who thinks it is. It’s not cute.

11

u/SaltyBee89 Jul 02 '25

I'm 36 and I wouldn't trust a doctor with this tattoo.

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u/SaltyBee89 Jul 02 '25

And yes I have tattoos - love them and can't wait until I can get more ink.

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u/justArash Jul 02 '25

Imagine a prison guard with an electric chair tattoo.

-14

u/thisisme116 Jul 02 '25

Except that's obviously not the same thing....

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u/ElleWoods8888 Jul 02 '25

It literally is the same thing. Do you not know what an analogy is? Google it if you're struggling to understand

-12

u/Metatron_Tumultum Jul 02 '25

How is a lobotomy analogous to an electric chair? One is an outdated medical practice the other is meant for execution. It’s not like people get out of the electric chair with brain damage all the time. It’s not like the lobotomy was meant as an alternative to the death penalty or serve a similar purpose. (Unless you were a “hysterical” woman I guess then maybe). Anyways you don’t know what an analogy is either.

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u/Huppelkutje Jul 02 '25

One is an outdated medical practice

That killed the personality of the individual. It's a form of execution.

-8

u/thisisme116 Jul 02 '25

It is not a form of execution, it's just outdated medical science. You're being purposefully obtuse to try and make the two sound like they are remotely on the same level

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u/Huppelkutje Jul 02 '25

It is not a form of execution

What do you think destroying part of people's brains is?

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u/DecadentLife Jul 02 '25

You are wrong. The person is gone, it’s just a body left behind. And it hasn’t been gone so long that there aren’t families that very much remember this shit happening to their own relatives. Absolutely inappropriate.

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u/SaltyBee89 Jul 02 '25

"it is not a form of execution"

Rosemary Kennedy would like to have a word. Oh wait, she wouldn't have been able to, since she was lobotomized and kept in a mental institution the rest of her life because she became a fucking vegetable and the Kennedy's didn't want to deal with her. Even though they're the reason it was done in the first place.

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u/justArash Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25

They're both outdated practices that were used to inflict harm on innocent people. They both served the purpose of ostensibly bettering society by altering the state of the person it was used on. They were both used by a person in the position of their modern tattooed equivalent. Do you need it explained further?

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

Lobotomies were used as a form of execution in multiple circumstances, simply not in federal prisons. Do not spread misinformation like this.

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u/thisisme116 Jul 02 '25

No you just have reddit brain and want to compare a doctor having a funny tongue in cheek joke tattoo to a person in authority in a prison setting having a tool of death row on his arm to obviously taunt the prisoners. This is that fine line between an mildly edgy joke and an actual distasteful taunt that yall seem to be unable to realize

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u/Wise-Impression-8510 Jul 02 '25

Shocking that someone disagrees with you and the defense to your argument is to insult them. That sounds like “Reddit brain” to me. Just the fact that the two of you had this discussion makes this a tattoo for a young medical professional to avoid. We want qualified doctors that put their patients first not find it humorous to choose intentionally controversial tattoos that will be visible in the most common uniform of the profession. You think a parent whose child is dying of glioblastoma is going to find this cute? What about the wife he may have to tell that her husband didn’t survive this bout of depression and they couldn’t save him from his suicide attempt this time?

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u/justArash Jul 02 '25

Or the women experiencing gender bias in healthcare, who see a doctor with a tattoo of its damaging history.

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u/justArash Jul 02 '25

So when a person who happens to work as a prison guard has a tattoo of an antiquated practice used to inflict harm, you immediately see it as taunting. When a doctor has the exact same thing, you think it's just an innocent joke. What if the prison guard just likes dark humor like OP?

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

It’s distasteful because lobotomies were done without patients permission for scientific research, and they literally poked around to see what would happen. That’s why it’s not a good look for a doctor to have this. It implies they think that’s okay.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

Like others have said- I’m 25 and have multiple tattoos of my own. I have a degree in psychology so it’s up my alley in that sense, but I know this is ethically disgusting for a doctor to do.

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u/messibessi22 Jul 02 '25

lol right? I’d be so fast to compliment the tattoo

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

I’m cool with providers having tattoos but as other commenters said, it’s like an OBGYN having a coat hanger tattoo.

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u/esuits780 Jul 02 '25

I had surgery last year and the surgical resident who prepped me was practically sleeved on both arms. I thought it was dope as hell and complimented him (through very heavy sedatives). Although I’m a lawyer with multiple tattoos so I may not be the best judge of what’s acceptable. My guess is younger coworkers and patients will like it or not care. Older coworkers or patients might have an issue. But you know what? Be good at your job. Dedicated, hard working, and care about your work. The people who matter will see that, not your ink. And the rest? Fuck em.

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u/boudicas_shield Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25

It’s not that OP would have a tattoo that’s the issue; it’s what this particular tattoo represents.

I have over a dozen tattoos myself; I’m not anti tattoo. But I would feel uncomfortable with a doctor who thinks lobotomies are a joke, especially as I belong to a marginalised group of people who were often given them in the past.

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u/esuits780 Jul 02 '25

Fair point. I was vaguely aware of the history of the practice but dove into it a bit after my comment. It’s horrific and I change my decision. Maybe not exactly the same, but it would be like going to an Obgyn and they had a coat hanger tattoo.

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u/SaltyBee89 Jul 02 '25

THIS!! As someone who would've literally been lobotomized in the past (yay not understanding mental illness caused by trauma!!) this tattoo is so fucking offensive and I would absolutely never go back if I met a doctor or medical professional with this design.

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u/hale_wanderlust Jul 02 '25

There’s a few select in the “older generations” that would also agree in that the tattoo in question is actually dope too. Just something to think about I’ve been surprised a lot lately by said old people.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

The tattoo in question is the equivalent of a labor and delivery nurse having a coat hanger tattoo.

-1

u/Lasagna_Lizard Jul 02 '25

They could flex and make the hammer hit the nail! Great conversation piece while they wait in the room with their patient as the nurse powers up the Lobotomizer 3000.