The use of blood-type tattoos during the Cold War.
BACKGROUND
We have seen a number of individuals who received blood-type tattoos on the left side of the chest as schoolchildren in northwest Indiana during the 1950s.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the history of blood-type tattooing.


METHODS
Historical research was conducted using newspaper and journal articles found in medical libraries, online archives, American Medical Association archives, Chicago Historical Society records, local medical society documents, in addition to personal interviews.


RESULTS
Blood-type tattoos were used during the Cold War to enable rapid transfusions as part of a "walking blood bank" in case of atomic attack. Nationwide blood-typing programs occurred to inform individuals of their own blood types and to provide local communities with lists of possible donors. The blood-type tattooing program was part of this effort, but community-wide tattooing occurred only in two parts of the United States: Lake County, Indiana, and Cache and Rich counties, Utah. In these communities, during 1951 and 1952, schoolchildren were tattooed to facilitate emergency transfusions.


CONCLUSIONS
Events occurred more than 50 years ago, so we relied on original documents and interviews from individuals involved in the program who are still alive.


CONCLUSIONS
The use of blood-type tattoos was short lived, lasting less than a year, and ultimately failed because physicians did not trust tattoos for medical information.
Wolf
Elizabeth K
EK
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.
Laumann
Anne E
AE
D001788:Blood Grouping and Crossmatching / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D013653:Tattooing / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States; D014857:Warfare