Clark Kauffman Iowa Capital Dispatch

A Waterloo hospital nurse who lost her job after showing colleagues her buttocks tattoo and her boyfriend’s genital piercing is not entitled to unemployment benefits, a judge has ruled.

State records indicate clinical nurse Laura Williams was fired by MercyOne Medical Center Waterloo’s Covenant Medical Center on April 24, 2025, for allegedly violating the company’s sexual harassment policies. Williams had worked for the hospital since March 2021.

According to testimony at Williams’ recent unemployment hearing, she was having a private conversation with two colleagues at work when she indicated that her boyfriend had his penis pierced and was then in the process of giving her a tattoo on her buttocks.

After one of the co-workers asked to see the tatt

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