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Do Not Resuscitate Orders, ID Bracelets & Experiences
Aging Well | Last Active: Mar 17 12:29pm | Replies (73)Comment receiving replies
From Healthline:
"You may not be able to donate blood if your (tattoo) ink is less than 3 months old.
Giving blood after recently getting a tattoo can be dangerous. Though uncommon, an unclean tattoo needle can carry a number of blood borne viruses, such as
*hepatitis B
*hepatitis C
*HIV
People with new tattoos have traditionally been advised to wait a year before giving blood in order to reduce their risk of unknowingly transmitting these viruses.....Its best to work with licensed artists who work in state-regulated shops. Oftentimes, their certifications are prominently displayed on the shop walls." Thank you, Dr. Google!
While I was donating blood to my local hospital, (donated 4+ gallons before MGUS was diagnosed) I felt wistful about getting better eyebrows tattooed around my skimpy wisps. Then read the ink used would have contained iron, which might interfere with brain imaging, should that ever be necessary. That vanity is tossed aside for good! Call me Bald Brows!
A wonderfully helpful Ikon on our smart phones shows a red heart on a white field. It has the word "Health" beneath it. Have you ever opened it and filled it out? If more people even knew that it exists to be helpful, our shared concerns about DNR and other requests could be easily remedied. Yet when I stopped in at my local fire department those heroes-to-the-rescue didn't know it was there. They also were uninformed about their team members' health requests. So I sat down at the table with them and suggested they take out their own smart phones and start filling them out. I keep mine up to date and hope others will do the same. Stay well!
Replies to "From Healthline: "You may not be able to donate blood if your (tattoo) ink is less..."
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@raye
Hi,
My grandson is a licensed tattoo artist, educated at a licensed tattoo school, working in a licensed shop. I was amazed at what he learned and how they practiced their techniques. Instructions are strict, classes small and before they can get their certificate, they will actually do a tattoo on one of their classmates . The Health Department randomly makes checks on shops and they are very nit picky which is great. Certificates have to be on display and everything labeled and , of course, the shop is clean. On my grandsons first random check he had 2 bottles with no labels (not ink) and got points deducted from his score. He knew what was in the bottles but that didn’t fly with the Health Dept. His station is cleaner and neater than his room ever was growing up lol.
“Dr Goggle” offers a lot of misinformation on all subjects. Any of the tattoo ink should not get into the bloodstream as a good technician will not go deep enough for that to occur. But yes, it can happen. It depends on the skill of the artist. The ink must travel past the epidermis into the deeper dermis level. If ink does get into the bloodstream, the immune system immediately goes into action because it is a foreign substance. Inks also have evolved over the history of this profession and most don’t contain the harmful and toxic heavy metals they use to. However, like everything else, it depends where you get your products from. Artist generally buy their own inks and needles and equipment along the way.
So the caveat is to go to a reputable shop. Believe me, a shop does not want to get the whiff of a bad reputation in this very competitive business and a Junior artist has to work 2 years to attain Sr artist status and there is always a lead artist or owner (years of experience) present .
For ongoing tattoos (working on a full sleeve for example) there is a 2 week waiting period for healing purposes and to see if there is an allergic reaction before continuing. I asked him about the 3 month waiting period you mentioned and he said he would suggest 3 weeks before any blood drawing. But it is what anyone is comfortable with.
I think everyone here is somewhat knowledgeable about the tattoo industry now? 😀…it’s good to know though.
FL Mary