Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2023

DOI

10.1057/s41271-023-00403-y

Publication Title

Journal of Public Health Policy

Volume

44

Pages

242–254

Abstract

We summarize and consolidate disparate sources of information about the practice of tattooing and its potential implications for military population health and policy. Each branch of the United States military has policies about tattoos for service members, but these have varied over time and do not cover health protection. The number of veterans receiving disability payments and the cost of those payments has been rising over time; the broad category of skin conditions accounts for 11% of disability claims. Any additional factor, such as tattoos that may increase the occurrence of adverse skin reactions, can substantially impact veteran benefit expenses and budgets. This may be a consideration for the military as it evaluates its policies related to tattoos among service members.

Rights

Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Data Availability

Article states: All articles and information related to this article may be obtained directly by contacting the corresponding author.

Original Publication Citation

Blando, J. D., & Guigni, B. A. (2023). Potential chemical risks from tattoos and their relevance to military health policy in the United States. Journal of Public Health Policy, 44, 242–254. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-023-00403-y

ORCID

0000-0001-5619-499X (Blando)

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