Visible Tattoos and Professional Nursing Characteristics: A Study on How Appearance Affects the Perception of Essential Qualities of Nurses

Previous studies have indicated that nurses with tattoos are viewed less favorably than nurses without tattoos, regardless of gender. Additionally, older adults are more likely to negatively evaluate nurses with tattoos than young adults. Images of male and female nurses with and without tattoos were shown to 128 participants between the ages of 18-80 years on an iPad. Participants selected according to gender which nurse possessed more of the following professional characteristics based on their initial impression of their physical traits, or selected no difference: respectfulness, kindness, trustworthiness, intelligence and competence. The study showed that male nurses with tattoos were perceived the same as male nurses without tattoos across all ages of participants, but female nurses with tattoos were perceived to be less kind and less trustworthy than female nurses without tattoos across all ages of participants. Participants’ genders did not affect their responses. The results were discussed with respect to the overall decreasing stigma of visible tattoos on nurses as well as the implications of the results for male and female nurses with tattoos