Growing Trend: Medical Tattoos
By: Stephanie Castillo
Updated: November 14, 2011
SAN ANTONIO -- Many people with medical conditions wear necklaces or bracelets to alert others of their conditions in case of an emergency.
With the population of body art growing many have replaced the their medical jewelry with medical tattoos.
San Antonio tattoo artist, James Delgado, has been tattooing people in San Antonio for years. Recently he's taken on a new initiative of designing health related tattoos for people with serious medical conditions. The Twisted Tattoo owner says a light bulb went off, because it makes perfect sense for a lot of people to do.
Customers with medical conditions request tattoos that bring attention to their disease, some in order to remind themselves. One customer says he got the tattoo so he could say goodbye to his medical bracelet because it can come off --which can lead to deadly consequences. Many don't want to worry about the bracelet not being there -- saying because a tattoo isn't going anywhere and doesn't fade.
Unfortunately many in the medical field have not necessarily caught on to the idea of medical tattoos, some first responders say they don't look for tattoos when transporting a patient. If the trend continues to grow the Assistant Medical Director of the San Antonio Fire Department says it may look into training hospital personnel to look for the tattoos.
With the population of body art growing many have replaced the their medical jewelry with medical tattoos.
San Antonio tattoo artist, James Delgado, has been tattooing people in San Antonio for years. Recently he's taken on a new initiative of designing health related tattoos for people with serious medical conditions. The Twisted Tattoo owner says a light bulb went off, because it makes perfect sense for a lot of people to do.
Customers with medical conditions request tattoos that bring attention to their disease, some in order to remind themselves. One customer says he got the tattoo so he could say goodbye to his medical bracelet because it can come off --which can lead to deadly consequences. Many don't want to worry about the bracelet not being there -- saying because a tattoo isn't going anywhere and doesn't fade.
Unfortunately many in the medical field have not necessarily caught on to the idea of medical tattoos, some first responders say they don't look for tattoos when transporting a patient. If the trend continues to grow the Assistant Medical Director of the San Antonio Fire Department says it may look into training hospital personnel to look for the tattoos.
