Why wear a bracelet when you can simply tattoo your medical information on your skin? A tattoo sounds like a good idea at first. You never have to worry about forgetting to wear your information, because you can’t leave home without your skin. While there are a few benefits to medical alert tattoos, the drawbacks are what give me pause for thought.
As with many new ideas, people are jumping onboard before all of the data is in. To date, there is no official set of guidelines telling patients or tattoo artists what information a tattoo should contain, or what it should look like. Nor are medical professionals trained, as of yet, to search for tattoos. Will health care providers, particularly emergency medics, know to look for a tattoo? And even if they see it, will they know what they are looking at? And as gruesome as this is, some accidents cause a lot of blood loss. Will it be easy to see your tattoo, in the dark, in an emergency, if you are badly bleeding?
Okay, that was a dark scenario. Here’s a bright one. What if science finds a cure for your disease? Are you going to want the tattoo then? Or are you going to want a bracelet that you can take off forever?
Medical alert jewelry can become part of your wardrobe. You can use it to accessorize and to express yourself. Styles change. You can change/update the style of your bracelet, but will you want to update your tattoo every few years?
With a tattoo, it’s just a one shot deal. What if, in five years, you decide you don’t like your tattoo? And in thirty years? When your skin has changed color and shape? Will your medical alert morph into something unsightly and impractical?
Some people will laugh at this, but in some circles, there is still a social stigma attached to having tattoos. You might not always have a chance to explain your skin art, and you might find yourself in a situation where you wish you didn’t have any.
And for what its worth, in some states, getting a tattoo will prevent you from being able to donate blood for a year.
Of course, “To each his own” rings true. If you are into tattoos, this might be the solution for you. Just be aware that it is not foolproof. Just be sure to weigh all the pros and cons before you go under the needle.
This guest post was written by Robin Merrill from Wisconsin Dells Hotels
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this reads like reasons not to get tattoos in general, not reasons not to get medicalert tattoos. if you don’t want a tattoo don’t freaking get one. this article makes it sound like these are issues that only apply to medicalert tattoos, when in reality they apply to all tattoos. just as with any other skin art, you should think it through, and not choose a design that you may not like in 10 years. I have a medicalert tattoo and am very happy with it, and would hate to see someone scared away from an idea which could save their lives because of this article. as long as you have the medicalert symbol and your condition, and it is in an obvious place such as your wrist, the paramedics WILL know what they are looking at, and will NOT have to “search for tattoos” anymore than they would “search for jewelry”. please think through your articles before you offer advice like this, and maybe do some research. no paramedic or first responder I have ever spoken to has had issues with medicalert tattoos, they are a well known phenomenon, and are increasingly common. if your medicalert tattoo cant be easily located then it isn’t because it is a tattoo, it is because you have chosen a poor place for it, just as it would be a poor idea to wear medicalert jewelry in a hard to locate spot.