Can You Donate Blood When You Have A Tattoo?
Yes, you can donate blood if you have tattoos If you got a tattoo in the last three months, it is completely healed, and was applied by a state-regulated facility, which uses sterile needles and fresh ink—and you meet all donor eligibility requirements—you can donate blood!.
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How long after getting a tattoo can you donate blood?
Why Can’t We Donate Blood? Tattooed people refused for donations.
The Misconception – Can A Person With Tattoo Donate Blood – You must have heard people say that if you ever get a tattoo then you are not allowed to ever donate blood. Right off the bat, this is a huge misconception. Depending on where you got your tattoo from, you can resume donating blood within the next six months, at most twelve months if we’re stretching it. I will break the reason down into points:
- Health regulations around opening a tattoo parlor in India may seem like a negligible task, but any aspiring tattoo artist is bound to do a regulation check of his parlor before opening it to the public.
- If you have recently gotten a tattoo from a parlor which is not approved by state regulation or hasn’t received its regulation permit then in those cases the answer to the question can a person with tattoo donate blood, temporarily becomes no. At least for the next six to twelve months.
- This is done because there is a potential risk that the unregulated tattoo parlor may be using unsterile needles, or maybe the same ink is reused for multiple customers.
- These practices increase the risk of HIV, Hepatitis, etc.
Also, read about: Is Tattoo Removal Safe For Health?.
Can you donate blood after getting a piercing?
– You often can’t donate blood for 3 months after getting a piercing , either. Like tattoos, piercings can introduce foreign material and pathogens into your body. Hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV can be contracted through blood contaminated by a piercing.
There’s a catch to this rule, too. Though many states regulate facilities that provide piercing services, there are specific rules regarding eligibility based on the equipment used. If your piercing was performed with a single-use gun or needle at a state-regulated facility, you should be able to donate blood.
If the gun was reusable — or you’re not absolutely sure that it was single-use — you shouldn’t give any blood until 3 months have passed.
Can you donate blood if you’ve been inked?
Some States Don’t Regulate The Tattoo Facilities – Depending on where you’ve got your tattoo done, there are different times that you’ll have to wait before you can donate blood. In The United States, most of the states do have regulatory bodies that can regulate and control the tattoo studios and other tattoo facilities that provide inking services.
For that purpose, these regulators will check if those facilities use new ink and replace needles before applying it to their clients. However, that doesn’t mean that the tattoos done in all facilities are regulated, and chances are that you will have to wait before you can donate blood.
At the moment, 10 states don’t regulate their tattoo facilities. They include:
- District of Columbia
- Idaho
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Georgia
- Utah
- New Hampshire
- Wyoming
- New York
- Pennsylvania
What does that mean? If you’ve gotten inked in one of the aforementioned states, you’ll have to wait a minimum of 3 months before you can donate blood. The waiting time can be extended up to 12 months if there was a side effect or potential infection that emerged after getting some part of your body inked. Currently, the waiting time of 3 months as stated by the Red Cross.
Can you get a tattoo in prison?
What If You Get Tattoos In Prison? – People who get their tattoos in prison travel to a local who provides legitimized services of tattooing, or apply the tattoos themselves will still have to wait a minimum of three months before they can donate blood at some of the Red Cross facilities.
