I'm welcome back to another vlog. Today's vlog is all about tattoos, hair colours. I don't think this is just the UK, I think this is across some other countries as well. So I just really wanted to cover this topic and hopefully provide some sort of information for you. So I've only had two negative comments about my tattoos in the 11, 12 years that I've worked in healthcare. So I was on placement and not please always at the end of my placement on my last days. So I think I'm very, again, no offense to anyone, this is my own personal things that I do. When I'm out on placement, or when I was out on placement as a student nurse, I angle my tattoos in certain ways. So the people, it's not the first thing that people notice because I like people to get to know me for who I am and build that trust with them before they first leave judge me because I've got a tattoo, that makes sense. So I'm quite fortunate that when I've got my tunic on, it does cover my arms so you don't see the top ones. It's only the wrists and when I'm doing things, I do it automatically I think because no one ever notices them. But this one day, I'd care for this, actually the two comments come on the same day from the same day. So maybe they were talking about it, I don't know. So I really bonded with this one patient and his family. In particular his wife, we really got on and it was just lovely, really, really nice. On my last day that I was sort of, I can't remember what I was doing. I think I'd given her a cup of tea so my arm naturally went like that. I'm sure it was a cup of tea or water or something. Anyway, so my arm naturally went like that as a pastrit and she went, you've got tattoos clear. I didn't expect that of you. I was like, what do you mean? Obviously you didn't say that. In my head I was like, it's like a good thing or a bad thing, really not too sure. I literally just brushed it off. I was just like, oh yeah, I've got a couple of tattoos, something I've had done over the past. That was it. There was nothing more said about it, but that comment, I was just like, oh, no one's ever said this. How do I respond? And then again, I was helping another patient in that day and they noticed my tattoos and they're like, you've got tattoos. Do you like them? And I was like, yeah, they're all right, you know, I've had them. So there's not much I can do about them now. And they're like, they're a bit common, no, aren't they? Very common. I thought, are you calling me common or common as in people have them a lot now? I don't know. Again, I just laughed it off and I was like, okay, no problem. And what do I? I don't reply to these sort of comments. I just see it as people will have their opinions on them. It doesn't affect me in any way. It doesn't bring me down. It just happens. I should get off and I move on. So officially as a nurse or a student nurse or any healthcare professional, every single trust and every place that you work or you go to or university even will have a uniform policy. And I think nine times out of ten, the public, you can look up your trust policies and procedures. So have a look at those and see what they say about tattoos. I know Birmingham in particular, there is a tattoo policy and it literally just says tattoos are okay as long as they don't offend anybody. No problem. However, if they did offend somebody, I don't know how they would do that. I'm assuming they would ask you to cover it up maybe, but if it's on your wrist, you can't really have anything on your wrist, but there are different makeups and things like that that you can buy that cover tattoos. Maybe they would get you to do that. I don't know, but I just know that in Birmingham, I've read up a few of the trust policies and procedures and they all say that you're okay to have tattoos in there. As long as they don't, they aren't offensive. Now hair colour, hair colour, I think is a little bit different. So on the policies, it says that your hair should be natural, natural browns, grey, ginger, redheads, blonde, strawberry blonde, orburn. Whatever colour your hair colour is naturally is how they say you should have it. However, I do know people with different coloured hairs. I know people with bits of red in it, like bright red, like this colour red. I've seen people with bits of blue, pink in the hair and I've never seen anyone, luckily, have a problem with it and I think a lot of trusts are okay with it. However, again, you need to read up on your local trust policies and procedures and you know, it is a profession so we do kind of have to abide by those. I'm not saying it's right, but if there's a policy or procedure in place for you, you kind of, you have to follow it. But that doesn't mean that we can't ask questions about it. So if you see a policy or procedure for a trust you want to work at and it says absolutely not, you know, I would any funky hair colours or anything like that. Ask the management, ask the chief executives, ask your ward, just ask is it okay because they might just be like, oh actually that's a real policy we don't mind. So there's no harm in asking people and asking why that is and to do it in a professional way, don't go in their organs blazing, I've got this colour here, blah blah blah, no, please do it professionally and politely and lovely, we are professionals after all. So yeah, I don't think there's any harm in asking and I think some trust, a lot of trusts now are a lot more lenient and they're okay with different hair colours. I've seen on Twitter especially a lot of people share these things. So like different doctors are showing their tattoos and their hair different hair colours. I think it's amazing, I think I personally, I love it. If I was a manager or a chief executive or something like that, everyone would be able to have different coloured hair if they want to, they could have tattoos, again as long as they're not offensive. So there's different tattoos and things. I think it's great, I think it stands for individuality, it represents you as a person, although some tattoos might be a mistake, who knows? But I think it's brilliant, I think it just makes people who they are, it makes you unique and I personally, I don't mind it. So yeah, so I hope that's a little bit helpful, I don't know if it is or not, but I know a few of you have asked me to do a vlog on tattoos in particular as a nurse, so I thought I would just cover it and hopefully it's going to help a little bit. There's not much more I can really say other than just check your local policies and guidelines and please don't be afraid to ask a question if you think that something's not right or whatever, just go for it. And just one final note, if you are in a true store, if you've had any of these positives or negatives, please comment below and let's just get a conversation going about it maybe and if you know that your trust does allow tattoos or hair colors, comment here as well so that other people can see just so that they can be informed if that makes sense. So thank you so so much as always for watching, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't subscribed, if you don't want to, don't worry about it, I'm not going to get offended, but thank you so much for tuning in and making it to the end of the vlog.