A New Jersey woman has sued her orthopedic surgeon after awakening from surgery to find a temporary tattoo below her panty line.
Elizabeth Mateo, of Camden County, N.J., filed her lawsuit Tuesday saying she found "a temporary tattoo of a red rose" below her panty line the morning after her surgery for a herniated disc, her attorney, Gregg A. Shivers, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"She was extremely emotionally upset by it," Shivers told the paper.
Her surgeon, Steven Kirshner, does not deny he placed a tattoo on Mateo. His lawyer, Robert Agre, told the Inquirer that the doctor has left washable marks on patients before to improve their spirits as they heal.
"What's offensive about this complaint is that it suggests something he did was intended to be prurient, and nothing could be further from the truth," Agre told the paper. "It was intended just to make the patient feel better."
Mateo is seeking punitive and compensatory damages.
Click here to read the full story at the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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