Rumor has it that if you get a tattoo you are not allowed to donate blood. It’s not us who is saying that, but the internet is full of questions such as “Can I Donate Blood If I Have A Tattoo?” In short, yes, you are allowed to save another person’s life by donating your blood, even if you are marked with ink for the rest of your life.
You just have to wait four months after being tattooed before donating the precious liquid. Actually, the four-month quarantine is just a month longer than the minimum donation cycle for women. So, basically, yes, you have no excuse for not donating blood even if you have a full sleeve.
Whilst the need for blood is constant—or even growing—and every action taken to promote donating blood counts as a positive, The Finnish Red Cross Blood Service decided to take inspiration from the tattoo-vs-blood donation misconception and do something that would catch the attention of the whole Nordic country.
So, the NGO planned to offer a small, yet permanent visual gift to those who decide to save a life: free blood type tattoos to blood donors. The initiative was carried out with the help of agency TBWA/Helsinki and aims promote more frequent blood donations and dismantles antiquated misapprehension around tattoos and the life-saving practice.
“We need 800 donors on a daily basis to ensure that there is enough blood for those in need. To raise awareness towards blood donation and dismantle old taboos we decided to hold an event that allowed blood donors to be marked for life,” says Anne Lind, Marketing Manager at the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service. “For us, the younger audience, especially young men, are a particularly difficult demographic to reach. The blood type tattoo campaign was a great way to connect with the new generation of donors in a way that genuinely spoke to them”, continues Lind.
The event was held on February the 2nd and gathered only people who wanted to donate blood. Everyone who participated was then invited to get a free tattoo that, besides from showing a nice illustration, included their blood type. Legacy Tattoo was responsible for designing six different images for each blood type that people could choose from.
“We saw this as an important event and message that we could stand behind. The stigmas around tattoos are luckily becoming old news and naturally, we understand the importance that blood donation pays in the lives of hundreds of people every day”, explains Sailor Andy aka Anton Holmberg of Legacy Tattoo.
The event was tremendously appreciated by the public, who gathered in hundreds. According to the Helsinki-based agency, people ended up queuing up for hours before the event. The tattoo designs are free to use, with any tattooist in the country being allowed to use them on other people interested in becoming a part of this initiative. How about you? Would you get such a tattoo? Or, if you were a tattoo artist, would you enjoy designing such a tattoo? Let us know in the comments below!