Tattoos and Piercing: A Review for the Emergency Department Physician

Abstract

Tattoos and piercings are increasingly part of everyday life for large sections of the population, and more emergency physicians are seeing these body modifications (BM) adorn their patients. In this review we elucidate the most common forms of these BMs, we describe how they may affect both the physical and psychological health of the patient undergoing treatment, and also try to educate around any potential pitfalls in treating associated complications. [West J Emerg Med. 2011;12(4):393–398.]

Keywords

• Tatoo
• piercing
• pocketing
• complications
• emergency medicine
• body modification