Tattoo in lieu of medical bracelet/necklace?

I have a tooth story to tell you, which will answer your question. I used to have a diasma (gap) between my top front teeth. It didn’t really bother me at all, and I was used to it. It wasn’t as big as Lauren Hutton’s, but it was noticeable (about 2/3 as wide as hers.)

One day, my father – a dentist – was cleaning my teeth and he said, do you want me to bond that gap for your? I asked a few questions, and influenced by his frowny-face when he said “that gap” I was intimidated into accepting his offer. I mean, here I was, getting an offer for free bonding that other people payed a lot of money for, what an ungrateful wretch I’d be for not saying, “Yes, thank you.” Right?

Wrong! As soon as I got home after the procedure I cried when I realized that I’d let him make a permanent change to my face without really thinking through how it would look and that it couldn’t really be un-done (the teeth are buffed down to prep for the bonding, so another dentist could try to recreate the old me but it would never be exactly the same.)

I hated it and it took years to get used to it (resigned to having the change). Now, thirty-five years later, if I could snap my fingers and have my old teeth back I’d do it in a heart-beat. Why? Because that old gap was ME. It was part of the complex and undefinable collection of features that made me who I was, and now I had these generically more “perfect” front teeth that weren’t me at all.

That’s why I don’t have a tattoo. Not only would it mar the perfectly healthy, smooth human skin that God and nature gave me, it would never come off – if I hated it in five minutes, five years, or fifteen years, my skin would never be exactly the way it was before the tattoo – not even laser tattoo removal can give you back what was taken from you by the tattoo machine.

That’s one woman’s opinion, for what it’s worth.

My sister makes customised silver jewellery and has hundreds of franchisees over the world. I could give you her website address if you wish. This is not an advert. It is a solution to a problem should you care to go down that line.

She has never made an identity tag/bracelet etc before, but when I visited her in January she and I decided to sit down and design one as the tag from the company who stores my records is as ugly as sin!

We settled on a dog tag shape with the medical symbol on the one side and nothing else, (but what you have on it is entirely up to you), and all the information on the opposite side. I could choose any chain I wanted out of quite a few. I never take it off. If you need to take it off, you could put it with your car/house keys (unless you lose those too!) or on your dressing table when you put your face on in the morning!

Of course there is nothing wrong with having a tattoo, apart from that it is is very painful, there is a high risk of infection (something as you know, diabetics do not recover from easily, and it messes with your sugars), it is permanent though can fade over time, and people other than medics cannot fail to see it, and if you do want to wear a pretty watch or bracelet, the effect is ruined.

Message me if you want more details. I could try to send a photo of mine, and remember, mine is a prototype. I one of a kind, and probably could be improved upon, but it is pretty.

I would love to see it:)

Ok, will try to do a picture, but not an expert at sending pics, so will try later. As I say, it is not on the website as it is a one off, but all the franchisees all over the world are pretty creative and accommodating.

FWIW, I haven’t found tattoos to be all that painful. It sort of tickles. I’d like to see your sister’s stuff too though. The paint is wearing off of my guitar pick thing so I need to get some heavy duty (automobile maybe?) paint to touch it up with.

I personally won’t ever get a tattoo. I stick myself with needles because I have to every day, but won’t voluntarily get needles. :slight_smile: I have a medic alert bracelet, it is on 24/7/365. It has a clasp that is difficult to get open, so I never take it off. I do love some of the tattoos here, but they are just not for me.

If I were getting a tattoo for diabetes, I would also add Type 1, because if they make a mistake and think you’re Type 2, the treatment is different, and you could just get sicker instead of getting better. This happened to me last year, and believe me, it was NO fun. I should have been in the hospital a week, maybe, but it ended up lasting a month, because they couldn’t get my BGs down, and couldn’t figure out why, and I had to fight for an appropriate insulin regimen.

Of course, if you’re young and skinny, you might think it’s obvious that you’re Type 1, but even YOU will get older :slight_smile: and for me, as a 62-year old, with an appropriately middle-age (or is that senior?) shaped body, it was NOT obvious to the medics.

And as a member of the generation that shunned tattoos, I’m having a LOT of fun asking tattooed people to show me theirs – I figure if you get one, why not let other people enjoy it too? :slight_smile:

My sports band has a metal piece that catches the paramedic’s eyes as he scans the wrist. The metal piece has the contact phone number on its back. I think this can be important in emergencies. I don’t remove the band. It goes in the shower with me. So it doesn’t get lost. Problem solved.