You Can't Get a Blood Test If You Have a Tattoo on Your Elbow Ditch?

Sometimes there are clients who ask me they want to avoid tattoos on the inside of the elbow because they're worried about blood tests. They concern whether a nurse or phlebotomist might not be able to find a vein through a tattoo.

I ended up doing exactly that experiment myself, completely by accident.

It's almost been 3 years since I tattooed my left arm myself. The strip runs right across the exact centre of my elbow ditch, the perfect spot for drawing blood.

For a while, I automatically held out the other arm every time I went in for a blood test. I get one every 3 months for occupational health checks because of the nature of my job, since I work with needles and in an environment where I am exposed to blood.

Today, I completely forgot to mention it to the pathologist taking my blood and was just sitting there zoning out, and she found my vein straight away with no hesitation, no fussing around, and had my blood drawn in seconds.

Later when I took the bandage off, I could see exactly which part of my tattoo the needle had gone into. I now know exactly where my vein is! 😂

For those of you planning a sleeve or a tattoo on the inside of the arm, you don't need to worry about future injections or blood tests. Veins don't hide behind ink. The people drawing your blood are professionals who handle needles every day too, just like I do. Leave finding veins to them. I will handle leaving beautiful marks. 😄