Have you ever marked on your skin with ink only to find that it was very hard to get off later? The hand stamps that we receive in the mornings at school are a perfect example of this, and they should be switched out with less permanent ones. There are several problems with these stamps, which leads me to believe that they should be replaced.
The first problem would be the amount of scrubbing, rubbing, or washing that it takes to get these off. I have personally experienced this myself. After taking a 40-minute shower, with soap and other chemicals, a blue smiley-face stamp is still visible on my right arm. I have heard multiple people state that they could not get them off while attempting to scrub the darned ink off in the shower. If students wash their hands too many times, it could cause them to dry out. On the other hand, rubbing at their skin too much might cause it to become raw or sore.
Secondly, the stamps are only necessary for tracking who has had their temperature checked during school hours, so they shouldn’t be visible by the end of the day when we go to sleep. In the day, it is understandable that these stamps need to be visible on our skin for security reasons. But we do not want these blots of ink staying on us throughout the night and into the next day. There seems to be no real reason to keep them on, as we only need them for seven hours maximum. It’s rather unnecessary.
Finally, the stamps can get in the way when people are participating in activities that may require them to be off. What if you were dressing up for a fancy night out with your friends or a significant other? Many of us might want the stamps gone in order to appear fresh. Now imagine you are a model that’s about to head off to a photo shoot, and your stamp is still on you. You wipe it, maybe even scrub at it, but it won’t come off, no matter what you do. The permanency of these imprints is ridiculous. Another example might be picture day. Who wants a blue or red mark on their arm showing up in their school photos?
Some might use the popular claim that the harder the stamps are to come off, the more students will wash their hands. However, if students could not get them off after trying so hard, why would they ever try again? The statement contradicts itself, and can also relate back to my first claim that using harsh methods to get the markings off can be harmful. All in all, we should start using washable stamps because it can benefit our skin, it can come off easily for particular activities, and it doesn’t stay on for an unnecessary amount of time.
Carter Corps News 