He had only ever worn makeup for Halloween. This changed when Dalhousie nursing student Jeremy Wheeler was asked by his instructor to cover his neck and wrist tattoos for a five-week clinical placement at a nursing home.
“I have a screaming face on my neck. I can understand covering it up in the context of a dementia unit,” says Wheeler. Wheeler has an image from Pink Floyd’s The Wall on his neck, Batman and Deadpool symbols on his wrists, the symbol for the band Mudvayne on his right shin and the Star Wars Rebel Alliance and Empire logos on his hips. But he doesn’t worry that his tattoos will hurt him in the job market. “They’re pretty much crying for male nurses,” he says.
Dalhousie’s dress and uniform policy, drafted in conjunction with the IWK and Capital District Health, states, “tattoos that depict violence, pornography, gang or racial messages must be covered.” Wheeler doesn’t believe his tattoos are inappropriate. If anything, he says, they’re “a great conversation starter.”
Wheeler’s situation highlights the difference between the perceptions of body art held by young adults entering the health-care industry and the older people they are caring for. The College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia’s position statement on professionalism cites an Ipsos survey which found the public ranks nursing as one of the most trustworthy professions. “Opinion polls reinforce the belief that nurses are generally prized for their virtues, not their knowledge.”
Wheeler says he understands that many people, particularly those in nursing homes, do not equate tattoos with virtue. “Without sounding ageist, most people from their time with tattoos would be sailors and scoundrels,” he says. And so, to be professional, and to respect his instructor’s wishes, Wheeler covered up his psychedelic rock, DC and Marvel tattoos. “I didn’t want to make a fuss. It was just five weeks.”
He used Kat Von D tattoo concealer from Sephora, priced at $60 to cover his body art. “I didn’t have the patience to match up my skin tone. It just looked like a weird blotch on the side of my neck.” He kept his wrists covered by wearing a long-sleeved black t-shirt under his scrubs. “It was very hot.”
Shauna Houk, assistant director of undergraduate studies for Dalhousie’s school of nursing says, “From our perspective we don’t care if a student is covered in tattoos from top to bottom.”
The university, she says, celebrates diversity and individuality.
However, for student placements, Houk says, “we’ve aligned with our stakeholders in terms of the dress policies that they want in their agencies.”
She says if a tattoo is offensive to a patient or family it would be challenging for a nurse to develop a therapeutic relationship. Yet, she once worked with a nurse who had tattoos all over his neck and arms, and in 27 years in nursing she says tattoos have been “a non-issue.”
Dal has no specialized policy for work placement attire in other sensitive fields such as childcare or mental health, where a tattoo could be frightening. That’s left to the discretion of the clinical instructor and the health agencies where students are placed.
According to another Ipsos poll from 2012, two in 10 Canadians have at least one tattoo on their body. Still, Matt Owen of Utility Tattoo on Quinpool Road says tattoo stigma will continue to exist until the younger generation are the “grownups.” But, he says, “[The stigma] has definitely changed. People don’t freak out when they see hand tattoos or neck tattoos. Face tattoos, yes, you might be pushing your luck.”
He says that because stigma does exist,  “you’ve got to be sure you’re going to be able to get a job for the rest of your life. I don’t want to be that person who facilitates your bad decision just so I can make a hundred bucks.”
Jeremy Wheeler says he wants to find a job where his tattoos are accepted. “I would find a place that would not require me to cover them up.”
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This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2014.
To the nursing student, you’ll be fine when you graduate. I have tattoos and piercings, and I’ve been a nurse for 14 years. I’ve worked with many other nurses, paramedics, docs, techs, etc that are also tattooed and/or pierced. Best of luck!
People who choose to get this type of body modification in such a spot (not easily coverable), have to be ready to deal with this as they GROW UP!
I have a tattoo, but also realize that the first thing I should consider when getting a tattoo is what location and how it can be cover it up, so nobody can tell If I don’t want them to know.
Professional life is quiet and normal. Private life can be whatever you want. Separate the two.
Not sure about the other ones, but it’s pretty clear he should be ordered to remove the Mudvayne tat so that oxygen can start flowing to his brain again.
Star Wars? Mudvayne? Marvel Comics? Oh boy. Why don’t you just tattoo “I am a 12-year-old boy forever” on your forehead?
Being a Pink Floyd Fan, I think it’s a cool tattoo. The placement I’m not sure on but if they are a good nurse and know the stuff then it should not matter. Whether potentional employers see it that way remains to be seen.
You’ll do very well in your career for having such great insight into your own professional nursing values. As a nurse myself, I’ve worked with many coworkers and professionals with tattoos and piercings and have never encountered a problem.
I think getting a neck, or face tattoo, to begin with, shows that you’re capable of making some really bad decisions, and not realize it. You also have the personality characteristic of not thinking about the future, or preparing for it. Also, you didn’t just compromise, and get it done somewhere else so it can be hidden, which is also a bad characteristic. It’s just not professional, and as you age, most people with visible tattoos quickly begin to realize what a terrible mistake it was.
If you’re in the medical industry, that’s a literal symbol that you wear that says “I don’t make the best decisions”, and that scares me, because people DO die from mistakes made by doctors and nurses. It’s actually more common than people think. I would rather be treated by the person WITHOUT the literal visible symbol.
I have a few pieces myself, but I would NEVER get one done where I can’t hide it.
He should cover that up regardless of where he is. I am so glad I didn’t get a Pink Floyd, The Wall, tattoo when I was 16. If I had money when I was a teenager I would have even worse tattoos than I do now. I would not want to see that if I was stuck in the hospital, it’s not a good place to be.
My opinion is that if someone is providing you quality or even adequate care, stfu about their tattoo.
No visible tattoo policies are quite common in health care, law enforcement and the military. I have a friend that works in retail sales and he covers up his forearms with Ink Armor by Tat2X. He swears his commissions are better when his ink is covered.
I am a Registered Nurse with a full body suit. I am not from the generation he alludes to but agree that people with neck tattoos are scoundrels without much in the way of common sense. I have no idea why he ran to The Coast with this issue either since he “didn’t want to make a fuss”.
“Will Jeremy Wheeler’s Pink Floyd-inspired body ink frighten elderly people?’
Odd headline considering most of Pink Floyd’s original fans are between 50 and 75 years old. Roger Waters is 70, qualifying him as “elderly”.
I quite like nice modern tattoos, but I imagine that one would look particularly grotesque to a 92 year old with dementia.
Also, neck tattoos generally say, “I love meth and I might have killed a hooker once but I don’t remember for sure…”
This is the risk you run, when you get very visible tatoos… just because you (nurse) think it doesnt matter, that everyone else will think the same.
Judged!
If I had a company I would basically tolerate any tattoo that wasn’t completely offensive, but it’s not always up to you when you try to get certain jobs. Can tattoos frighten old people? Old people in Halifax are afraid of tall buildings and music on a saturday night, so yes this might confuse or scare them.