Opinion of a group of patients about health professionals with tattoos

Abstract

Objective: To learn the opinion of a group of young patients about health personnel with tattoos.

Method: Descriptive study conducted in the first semester of 2017 on patients admitted to the Obstetrics Unit of the Hospital Complex of Ourense. The data collection was carried out by means of a self-administered questionnaire prepared "in-house" where several photographs of health professionals with and without tattoos were shown. A descriptive analysis of the variables and nonparametric tests were carried out to determine the potential association between the variables, using the statistical package SPSS 15.0®.

Results: A total of 66 patients participated. Regardless of whether or not the study participants had tattoos themselves, they all scored the non-tattooed better than the tattooed health professionals, although these differences were less in the participants who had tattoos. No significant data were found in any of the cases.

Conclusions: The participants of our study scored tattooed health professionals more poorly in terms of their professionalism, credibility, closeness and involvement compared to their counterparts without tattoos.

Keywords: Apariencia física; Estigma social; Physical appearance; Social stigma; Tattooing; Tatuaje.