Can’t we really donate blood when we get a tattoo?
In: Biology
It depends on the blood bank. Tattoos can spread blood borne diseases. This is why it is so important to sterilise the equipment and use fresh needles. But this was not done in the past and may still not be done properly in cheap tattoo parlours. During the HIV epidemic most people heard about the gay community spreading the disease but this was just as big of a problem among people with tattoos. In order to contain the spread of HIV a lot of blood banks therefore implemented rules against gays and people with tattoos. And a lot of these rules are still in place to this day. However they are being lifted so this does not apply to all blood banks. And some have various criteria for people with tattoos such as not having gotten any recent tattoos or having gotten it at a properly certified parlour.
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