• Marissa Cohen, Donald Jeanmonod, Holly Stankewicz, Keith Habeeb, Matthew Berrios, and Rebecca Jeanmonod.
• St Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA.
• Emerg Med J. 2018 Sep 1; 35 (9): 538-543.

IntroductionPerceptions regarding body art change over time as societal norms change. Previous research regarding patients' perceptions of physicians with exposed body art have been hampered by flaws in design methodology that incorporate biases into patient responses. This study was performed to determine whether emergency department (ED) patients perceived a difference in physician competence, professionalism, caring, approachability, trustworthiness and reliability in the setting of exposed body art.MethodsStandardised surveys about physician competence, professionalism, caring, approachability, trustworthiness and reliability rating providers on a five point Likert scale were administered to patients in an ED after an encounter with a physician provider who demonstrated no body art modification, non-traditional piercings, tattoos, or both piercings and tattoos. Each provider served as their own control. Patients were blinded to the purpose of the survey.ResultsPatients did not perceive a difference in physician competence, professionalism, caring, approachability, trustworthiness or reliability in the setting of exposed body art. Patients assigned top box performance in all domains >75% of the time, regardless of physician appearance.ConclusionIn the clinical setting, having exposed body art does not significantly change patients' perception of the physician.© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

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