How Tattoos & Piercings Affect your Ability to Donate Blood Plasma

Donating blood platelets or plasma has always been a noble pursuit to help those in need. In recent years, finding suitable donors has become increasingly more difficult, causing a drastic supply shortage. www.blood.co.uk has been encouraging more people to come forward, but a lot of willing donors are being turned away.

Determining your Eligibility
One of the reasons for this is because of the increasing popularity of body art - if you've had a tattoo or piercing within the last year, you are not eligible to donate blood along with the following....

Feel unwell Chesty cough/cold or an active cold sore?	Antibiotics Taking a course or completed a course in the past 7 days?
Dental work Any visit to a dentist, any procedure or seen a hygienist in the past 7 days?	Cardiovascular Have you got or had any heart conditions?
Infection Within the past 2 weeks?	On hospital waiting list Or currently undergoing medical tests?
Travel Travelled outside the UK (including business) within the past 6 months?	Piercings/tattoos Any new piercings or tattoos in the past 4 months?

• Piercing Eligibility Guidelines
  "Acceptable as long as the instruments used were sterile, one time use. Wait 12 months if there is any question whether or not the instruments used were sterile and free of blood contamination. This requirement is related to concerns about hepatitis."
• Tattoo Eligibility Guidelines
  "Wait 12 months after a tattoo if the tattoo was applied in a state that does not regulate tattoo facilities. This requirement is related to concerns about hepatitis. So with tattoos you must wait 12 months after tattoo application before donating blood. You should discuss your particular situation with the health historian at the time of donation.

When you go to a blood bank to give plasma, they ask you a series of questions to determine if you are eligible to donate. Obviously, they don't want to risk accepting contaminated blood, so they will ask about your sexual history, current health status and other related questions, including whether or not you have gotten a tattoo or piercing within the last twelve months.

All blood that is donated is screened for diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, Syphilis and other common blood-born ailments. However, it goes without saying that it is a waste of the blood bank's and the donor's time to harvest blood that is tainted and thus worthless. In order to avoid wasted time, they ask these questions to screen the potential donor. And although tattooing and piercing are much safer than some medical professionals like to indicate, there is still always a chance of getting and carrying a disease unknowingly. Especially Hepatitis, which has been the object of many heated arguments and stringent regulations.

If you should happen to contract a disease from a tattoo or piercing, it should show up in a screening after 12 months, which is the reason for the waiting period. Yes, maybe it's a little over-precautious, but would you want to be the one on the receiving end of dirty blood? If there is even a slight chance, it is better to be safe than sorry.

So, if body art and blood donation are both important to you, you have a very important decision to make. Sacrificing your own desires for the benefit of others is always commendable. If that is your wish, you might have to put the tattoo or piercing off for a while. On the other hand, it doesn't make you selfish to decide in favor of body art, as long as you don't forget that helping others will always provide you with even more satisfaction; and there are certainly other ways that you can be of assistance to those in need. So, if you can't give your blood, enjoy your art and reach out to someone with your money, time and your love instead.

For more information please visit www.blood.co.uk and show your support.... or register at https://secure.blood.co.uk/enrol.asp

If you love street art.....

http://www.designer-daily.com/20-awesome-examples-of-street-art-17849

The Rise of Psychedelic Truffles in Amsterdam

Purchasing and tuning a Tattoo Machine....

A tattoo machine is the most central piece of tattoo equipment. If you are serious about tattooing, then your tattoo machine purchase is very important. Whether you are looking for a tattoo machine in order to start practicing the art, or you are looking to supply a tattoo studio, purchasing this piece of equipment is a very big step. Let us show you how to go about it. The first thing you need to know before investing in a tattoo machine is the type of materials a good tattoo machine is made of. Tattoo machines need to be made of very high quality metal. This will keep them from breaking when you are working with it. Tattoo machines are normally made of conductive materials such as iron, brass, or copper. Look for tattoo machines made of these strong types of metal to be sure you are getting one of high quality. The next thing you need to know about buying a tattoo machine is what size and variety of machine to buy. Tattoo machines usually serve one purpose; lining” or shading. Many stores will try to sell you a lining machine and a shading” machine together for one price. On the other hand, some machines are made to be liners and shaders in one. These versatile machines are usually a lot more expensive and much more powerful and should be used by only the most experienced tattoo artists. This is because a tattoo machine needs to be tuned to switch between lining and shading functions. A tattoo machine that serves both purposes will need to be tuned very often. If you are new to the art of tattooing, you should consider purchasing a tattoo machine in a kit. These kits are available most everywhere and are great for tattoo artists who are just starting out. Many of these kits come with a lining and a shading machine as well as a wide variety of additional supplies.

Tuning your machine: 

This video shows you how to setup a tattoo machine to do lining and shading. Make sure the armature bar and front spring has about a 4mm gap. Once that is on, set it to about a 30-degree angle. Next with the contact spring you need to set the armature bar and the tool should be set to about 2mm. A good way to check this is with a dime. Now as long as the tattooing machine runs and sounds correctly you are all set to go. For shading, the throw on the armature bar should be 3-4mm--just a little less than the lining machine since you want the spring to do the work. Each step is illustrated and spoken through. Very easy to follow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM9c3nj4muU&feature=player_embedded