Can I donate blood if I have a tattoo or piercing?
Donating blood is a solidary activity that has no harm to the donor and can save the lives of people who have suffered an accident, an operation, a transplant or any other phenomenon that leads to a significant loss of blood.
Possibly, you have ever heard that people with a piercing or tattoo can never donate blood, today we are going to break this myth.
Can you donate blood if you have a tattoo or piercing?
On the official website of the Spanish Red Cross, you can check who is able to donate or not. In the section of those people who temporarily can not donate blood are those who have a tattoo or an earring. These people must wait four months from the intervention, the same time as a person who has undergone major surgery, an endoscopy or who lives with hepatitis B or C patients.
So, having a tattoo or a piercing does not prevent donating blood. If you have any questions, leave us a comment or access the Red Cross website.
Why should they wait 4 months to donate blood?
Tattoo studios may not strictly follow the hygiene rules necessary to keep sterile work tools and when getting a tattoo or piercing may become a risk to get AIDS, syphilis, hepatitis or other infectious diseases obtained by the contact with infected needles or other materials, as it happens for example in a hospital operation.
So, donated blood does not follow any "quality" control?
All donated blood is analyzed in search of the pathogens causing the aforementioned diseases, so it is highly probable that the "contaminated" blood is rejected in the blood bank before being used in any patient.
Although doing a small test before donating blood to determine if you are a suitable donor or not can save a lot of money and time in the blood test that is probably contaminated.
Reference:
Red Cross
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