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Letter
Aesthetics and identity: can tattoos help the prehospital clinician?
  1. Ewan Kyle1,
  2. D N Naumann2 and
  3. D M Bowley2
  1. 1 4 Medical Regiment, Tidworth, UK
  2. 2 Academic Department of Military Surgery and Trauma, RCDM, Birmingham, UK
  1. Correspondence to Col D M Bowley, RCDM, Birmingham B15 2WB, UK; doug.bowley586{at}mod.gov.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmilitary-2022-002097

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    Once considered the preserve of ‘sailors, criminals and prostitutes’,1 tattooing is now widely prevalent in society.1 Since the earliest recorded tattoo was found on ‘Ötzi the Iceman’, a 5300-year-old mummified body, tattoos have adorned the human body and provided information. Within the UK Defence, tattoo policy has relaxed to the point of allowing for tattoos on hands and the back of the neck. Tattoos on the face or head and offensive tattoos are still prohibited.2

    Clinicians in the prehospital environment are unable to obtain key medical background from incapacitated casualties. Service personnel (SP) are mandated to carry identity tags on operations that display identity and blood group status; however, these can be lost. Tattooing could display medical …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @davidnnaumann

    • Contributors EK initiated the project and collected the data. Data analysis was undertaken by EK and interpreted by DNN and DMB. EK wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and DNN and DMB provided critical appraisal and revisions. All authors approved the final version.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.