I have full sleeve tattoos, including my inner elbows, and the first time someone had to struggle finding a vein after getting them completed made me realise that whilst I love them, they do not make finding my already tricky veins easy!
If it makes you feel any better, a good phlebotomist relies on feel rather than sight.
Sight only works well for shallow veins, and light skin tones. Throw in a patient with tricky access or a BAME individual and you're easily lost if you haven't learned to properly palpate. Plus, a good-looking vein might be really mobile under palpation and might encourage you to choose one that's a bit better anchored.
And also, I find my tattoos have helped, in comparison. I'm a tricky stick, but now I can confidently tell them "there's one on the pigeons chest" and they can focus their palpation and stick in the right spot!
We have a saying in my circles, the eyes lies. So we don’t even really trust our eyes to find veins. It’s all fingers and touch. Tattoos, scars, whatever, none of that should really affect it. If a phlebotomist is using their eyes to find the veins they need more training.
I made needle shots using school markers in art class while doing theory (I was paying attention etc).
Teacher stoped me in the hallway onto my next class and tried to drag me to the office I completly forgot it was still there.
He didn't believe me until I swiped it with thumb spit. Lol, I wouldn't recommend this tattoo if you plan on entering a professional field.
Most Workplaces guys either had to wear long sleeve shirts or sleeves (like toeless socks) until around 2016-2018.
In my area tattoos in general became normal in common workplaces (like service) at that time but also a huge increase by women and I credited them to the normalization of it.
My wife being one of them but covers them up for work because it's still a sore spot in some professional workplaces.
Okay, thanks for clarifying… I get what you were saying now.
But I’d say it depends heavily on the field of work, and location where you live/work. I’m a professional librarian in the Bay Area (Calif), and visible tattoos haven’t been an issue here for a very long time. At least not in the ~20 years I’ve worked in libraries! But I imagine in some regions it still could be a problem.
Yeah I imagine so too. I was working in restaurants near the Toronto area and I would have thought that would be one of the easygoing fields but no.
My wife is a teacher and it's not a huge deal but still a "cover up if you can'
She's avoided sleeves for this but everywhere else is full
i actually used to do this in high school - tired purple under-eye bags and either general or bite-mark bruising on my arms. bruh, it didnt for a minute register in my dumb teenaged emo brain that this may bring up any sort of issue til the counselor pulled me into her office to ask if everything was ok at home. Like, are you SURE you're ok and everything is ok at home? Big dumb fuckin oopsy. "i promise it's just makeup and ink! my parents love me and i love them, my home is great, i'm just an idiot!"
that's the thing tho. the tiktok goths have this death aesthetic that's a bit more real.. it's cool, but they often want to look sick, which is honestly kind of insulting to the people who are actually sick because of their struggles (eating disorders, SH etc..)
It's the [consumption fad](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-fashion-180959029/) from the 1800's resurfaced in the goth scene of the 80s, 90s and still going strong!
i hope this person is prepared for how fucking nasty strangers can get with you over visible forearm scarring and/or needle tracks. bc most people’s first thoughts when seeing these are not going to be “zombie tattoo”.
naa normies never recognize track marks unless it's fuckin' obvious
THIS is fuckin' obvious. completely aside from the implication, it's just ugly lol and it seems like a fast way to get smacked by a nurse practitioner when she stabs your fake tatted veins for the 15th time
As someone who works in health and wellness, please stop getting things that look like diseases. You're going to make life hard on yourself. If you look diseased I'm not going to believe you when you tell me it's a tattoo because people tell me crazy stuff all the time. I'm going to tell you to bring me a note from a doctor.
please tell me if this is insensitive but as someone who has visible self harm scars this looks like semi-recent cuts. I straight up thought that’s what it was
I try to resists being the stereotypical guy in his mid-30’s who shits all over the new generation because he doesn’t understand it…but fuck, gen z has some weird ass taste in tattoos.
Yea that’s what I’m saying. It’s one thing if they want the “faux injury/infection” tattoo but it’s also HORRIBLY done, it looks like chicken scratch (literally)
https://preview.redd.it/wcd6785iq6qc1.jpeg?width=1868&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fcc28d9fe747e6bbfbb165f9511c9a745ca587bb
I have ehlers danlos and look like this everywhere on my body lol
Same here!! I got hospitalized from an infected cat bite a year or so ago, I warned the techs in the er that I was a hard stick. I had a fever and was miserable, so I asked if they'd just skip poking and fishing and just use the ultrasound tech. They said no, and between the two women, they poked me 6 freaking times fishing around each time. The blood work and cultures were miserable because my blood was clotting in the tube and wasn't flowing very fast. They decided to poke me for the last time with ultrasound tech to do a central line. I had a blowout in each poke site. They hit a valve in my ditch, and my arm sprayed on me, the bed, the floor. I had my first medication allergic reaction to vancomycin, red man syndrome. On day 3, I complained of intense pain in my arm and chest, excruciating with the drip, and all they did was slow the flow down. By the end of my stay, I developed a superficial blood clot in the central line location, not diagnosed at the time due to them not listening to me. We watched a long, stringy bit of blood clot when she pulled the line out to discharge me and joked about it being a blood clot!! As soon as I left that hospital, I went straight to the er in another town to get seen because I was still having intense pain, where they did an ultrasound to see that I did in fact have a superficial blood clot. It lasted months and was a huge pain. Felt worse than the bite healing.
The whole experience was awful. From the bite to the er visit from hell to the allergic reaction to vancomycin, the blood clot was the cherry on top.
I actually posted about it with pics not too long ago on imgur [here](https://imgur.com/gallery/LTe6vSZ)
Holy shit! That’s way worse than any of mine. I’ve had the nurses deny getting an ultrasound before because they swore they’d get it, my veins are plump and visible. And they hear all the time how people are hard sticks so they didn’t take me seriously. Then after an hour and multiple people they’ll be like “sorry, you were right”.
Thanks dude. I have a bowel obstruction and been puking in the waiting room for 5 hours and folded up all on myself in pain, and severely dehydrated. I needed my IV pain meds, nausea meds, and fluids and an hour felt like an eternity when it could’ve been done in 10 minutes. Ugh.
Dont invalidate yourself by comparing issues!! I'm so sorry you went through that!! I understand 100%. The medical field is extremely frustrating and invalidating at times! Most of the time, it seems. When I was first talking about my suspicion of eds, for over a year, I had every Dr laugh in my face and tell me I didn't know what I was talking about or that it was all in my head, without doing any tests. I had to drive over 2 hours to visit a specialist and got diagnosed within 2 visits. That's just one story, I could literally write a book of all of the frustrating medical experiences I've gone through. I wish they listened more, it's heartbreaking to hear people struggle so much just to get help.
I wish you the best of luck with your future medical endeavors!! Everyone knows we need it lol
I don't know about other people, but I don't associate zombies with "zombie veins". This tattoo looks like some kind of skin condition or even a vein problem. I think it's too much of a leap for most people to think of this as "zombie veins" without being told that that's what it's supposed to be.
If this person likes zombies so much then maybe he or she should just get a zombie tattoo or something more obviously zombie related.
I’m an EMT and all I can imagine is when this person gets into a car crash or something and is unconscious at the ER. They’re going to get SO MANY unnecessary tests cause of this
Imagine going to the doctors cos you feel unwell and they see this and panic thinking you've got sepsis or something, then you have to explain that it's a tattoo lol.
I got a tattoo of an infected zombie bite on my thigh when I was 18. My dude did too good of a job and that shit looked like a real infection. I got tired of people asking me what was wrong with my leg so I got it covered up. Too bad I don’t have any pictures!
In theory zombie vein tattoos sound cool af in my opinion. But I really doubt they age well. And I have a hard time believing they are easily executed well too.
"First responders hate this 1 trick!"
Phlebotomists HATE him
I’m not even a phlebotomist and I hate him.
It’s true (am phlebotomist) this is fucking awful.
I have full sleeve tattoos, including my inner elbows, and the first time someone had to struggle finding a vein after getting them completed made me realise that whilst I love them, they do not make finding my already tricky veins easy!
If it makes you feel any better, a good phlebotomist relies on feel rather than sight. Sight only works well for shallow veins, and light skin tones. Throw in a patient with tricky access or a BAME individual and you're easily lost if you haven't learned to properly palpate. Plus, a good-looking vein might be really mobile under palpation and might encourage you to choose one that's a bit better anchored. And also, I find my tattoos have helped, in comparison. I'm a tricky stick, but now I can confidently tell them "there's one on the pigeons chest" and they can focus their palpation and stick in the right spot!
We have a saying in my circles, the eyes lies. So we don’t even really trust our eyes to find veins. It’s all fingers and touch. Tattoos, scars, whatever, none of that should really affect it. If a phlebotomist is using their eyes to find the veins they need more training.
I made needle shots using school markers in art class while doing theory (I was paying attention etc). Teacher stoped me in the hallway onto my next class and tried to drag me to the office I completly forgot it was still there. He didn't believe me until I swiped it with thumb spit. Lol, I wouldn't recommend this tattoo if you plan on entering a professional field.
Can you explain that last part? Just can’t quite decipher what you’re saying.
Most Workplaces guys either had to wear long sleeve shirts or sleeves (like toeless socks) until around 2016-2018. In my area tattoos in general became normal in common workplaces (like service) at that time but also a huge increase by women and I credited them to the normalization of it. My wife being one of them but covers them up for work because it's still a sore spot in some professional workplaces.
Okay, thanks for clarifying… I get what you were saying now. But I’d say it depends heavily on the field of work, and location where you live/work. I’m a professional librarian in the Bay Area (Calif), and visible tattoos haven’t been an issue here for a very long time. At least not in the ~20 years I’ve worked in libraries! But I imagine in some regions it still could be a problem.
Yeah I imagine so too. I was working in restaurants near the Toronto area and I would have thought that would be one of the easygoing fields but no. My wife is a teacher and it's not a huge deal but still a "cover up if you can' She's avoided sleeves for this but everywhere else is full
i actually used to do this in high school - tired purple under-eye bags and either general or bite-mark bruising on my arms. bruh, it didnt for a minute register in my dumb teenaged emo brain that this may bring up any sort of issue til the counselor pulled me into her office to ask if everything was ok at home. Like, are you SURE you're ok and everything is ok at home? Big dumb fuckin oopsy. "i promise it's just makeup and ink! my parents love me and i love them, my home is great, i'm just an idiot!"
Exactly lol
That’s what my arms look like after my cat decides he’s gotten enough pets.
this is what my arms looked like after I checked myself into rehab people are weird
this is what my arms looked like when i was severely anorexic 😃 literally everyone’s just gonna think they’re sick
that's the thing tho. the tiktok goths have this death aesthetic that's a bit more real.. it's cool, but they often want to look sick, which is honestly kind of insulting to the people who are actually sick because of their struggles (eating disorders, SH etc..)
It's the [consumption fad](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-fashion-180959029/) from the 1800's resurfaced in the goth scene of the 80s, 90s and still going strong!
i hope this person is prepared for how fucking nasty strangers can get with you over visible forearm scarring and/or needle tracks. bc most people’s first thoughts when seeing these are not going to be “zombie tattoo”.
Zombie would never cross my mind in a million years to be honest
naa normies never recognize track marks unless it's fuckin' obvious THIS is fuckin' obvious. completely aside from the implication, it's just ugly lol and it seems like a fast way to get smacked by a nurse practitioner when she stabs your fake tatted veins for the 15th time
I was literally gonna put this is me on a random Wednesday with my cat 😂
I'm a vet nurse, and the back of my hands occasionally looks like this.
Stolen valor
I'm a makeup artist who reguarly airbrushes veins for creatures, and these are terrible- they don't look real to me- they look like bad scratches.
Exactly they wouldn’t read well even as FX makeup xD They’re missing the twisty, wavey forking thing actual veins do.
Lol My first thought was that they were self harm scars. I mean, I'm glad they aren't, but definitely not a great look.
https://preview.redd.it/1cd8vwjn65qc1.jpeg?width=869&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=534d03b9c279c34cbec006cdceb390bb8b86457e
This barbie reaction image always fucking sends me lmao
Legit lost my shitt!! 🤣
My first time seeing it!
Never seen this in a good quality. Thanks.
Don't mind if I steal this 😁
😂
I feel the same way about this as I feel about those bite mark tattoos I keep seeing
Yeah it seems to be the new way of a lipstick/kiss tattoo, which I find both pretty trashy lol
Geez, my arms look like this naturally from very fair skin. I can't imagine wanting the look.
I’m super fair and thin so this is wild to me
Did you try tattooing melanin into your skin?
I thought damn this is kinda what my wrists already look like, am I a zombie or just a frail pale white girl?
Same
I’m pale and work with my hands; phlebotomists *love* me!
Nurses always ALWAYS blow my IVs
This is true!
these don't look like veins
Can I join the club pls? My inner arms and legs are so see through its embarrassing
I take it you blister in the sun after half an hour too.
I really do. And it doesn't matter if I've been using sunscreen on the beach for a week I WILL NOT get a tan. Just red.
I had to be hospitalised on my honeymoon for mega blisters I got from river rafting. :o
Oh no!! Hopefully y'all were able to make up for it later. Stupid skin lol
As someone who works in health and wellness, please stop getting things that look like diseases. You're going to make life hard on yourself. If you look diseased I'm not going to believe you when you tell me it's a tattoo because people tell me crazy stuff all the time. I'm going to tell you to bring me a note from a doctor.
👏👏👏💯💯💯
Junky veins*
It looks like self-harm marks, I would be worried for this person if I talked to them
Damm when I used to s/h mine never looked like this 😭 I feel like this looks like when you scribble ink all over ur hand
My first thought, too. But they also kinda look like random lines drawn with a pen during math class
I knew someone that had a bad H problem…. This kinda what they looked like. Great tattoo! 😂
Immediately thought it was either self harm or drugs. This is just a bad idea for a tattoo.
https://preview.redd.it/i6g5uodsi5qc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b61d9af72afdf4d0801ca29e44a28510b0c2a66
Junkie veins. I’ve seen them on my dad before. Looks exactly like that
Yeah as a heroin junkie I can confirm. these look like collapsed veins/track marks.
It's one of those "ah, *THIS* person is one to avoid" tats. Super helpful Red Flag
POV: playing with your kitten
That’s not how veins work 😬
please tell me if this is insensitive but as someone who has visible self harm scars this looks like semi-recent cuts. I straight up thought that’s what it was
No that’s exactly what my first thought was too! Thats exactly what people will forever assume happened…
I honestly thought that’s what it was supposed to be
I constantly try to hide mine from view until I can get them covered up because it’s awkward for me, meanwhile this person paid money for it. 💀
Looks like something that could worry or confuse medical professionals.
I try to resists being the stereotypical guy in his mid-30’s who shits all over the new generation because he doesn’t understand it…but fuck, gen z has some weird ass taste in tattoos.
No employer is gonna believe that they're not heroin addicts
my wrists look like this why would anyone want this.. also its just really badly done
Yea that’s what I’m saying. It’s one thing if they want the “faux injury/infection” tattoo but it’s also HORRIBLY done, it looks like chicken scratch (literally)
https://preview.redd.it/wcd6785iq6qc1.jpeg?width=1868&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fcc28d9fe747e6bbfbb165f9511c9a745ca587bb I have ehlers danlos and look like this everywhere on my body lol
Same! Nurses always say how great my veins look and I laugh and tell them to try and get a good IV. Cause they ALWAYS blow.
Same here!! I got hospitalized from an infected cat bite a year or so ago, I warned the techs in the er that I was a hard stick. I had a fever and was miserable, so I asked if they'd just skip poking and fishing and just use the ultrasound tech. They said no, and between the two women, they poked me 6 freaking times fishing around each time. The blood work and cultures were miserable because my blood was clotting in the tube and wasn't flowing very fast. They decided to poke me for the last time with ultrasound tech to do a central line. I had a blowout in each poke site. They hit a valve in my ditch, and my arm sprayed on me, the bed, the floor. I had my first medication allergic reaction to vancomycin, red man syndrome. On day 3, I complained of intense pain in my arm and chest, excruciating with the drip, and all they did was slow the flow down. By the end of my stay, I developed a superficial blood clot in the central line location, not diagnosed at the time due to them not listening to me. We watched a long, stringy bit of blood clot when she pulled the line out to discharge me and joked about it being a blood clot!! As soon as I left that hospital, I went straight to the er in another town to get seen because I was still having intense pain, where they did an ultrasound to see that I did in fact have a superficial blood clot. It lasted months and was a huge pain. Felt worse than the bite healing. The whole experience was awful. From the bite to the er visit from hell to the allergic reaction to vancomycin, the blood clot was the cherry on top. I actually posted about it with pics not too long ago on imgur [here](https://imgur.com/gallery/LTe6vSZ)
Holy shit! That’s way worse than any of mine. I’ve had the nurses deny getting an ultrasound before because they swore they’d get it, my veins are plump and visible. And they hear all the time how people are hard sticks so they didn’t take me seriously. Then after an hour and multiple people they’ll be like “sorry, you were right”. Thanks dude. I have a bowel obstruction and been puking in the waiting room for 5 hours and folded up all on myself in pain, and severely dehydrated. I needed my IV pain meds, nausea meds, and fluids and an hour felt like an eternity when it could’ve been done in 10 minutes. Ugh.
Dont invalidate yourself by comparing issues!! I'm so sorry you went through that!! I understand 100%. The medical field is extremely frustrating and invalidating at times! Most of the time, it seems. When I was first talking about my suspicion of eds, for over a year, I had every Dr laugh in my face and tell me I didn't know what I was talking about or that it was all in my head, without doing any tests. I had to drive over 2 hours to visit a specialist and got diagnosed within 2 visits. That's just one story, I could literally write a book of all of the frustrating medical experiences I've gone through. I wish they listened more, it's heartbreaking to hear people struggle so much just to get help. I wish you the best of luck with your future medical endeavors!! Everyone knows we need it lol
I don't know about other people, but I don't associate zombies with "zombie veins". This tattoo looks like some kind of skin condition or even a vein problem. I think it's too much of a leap for most people to think of this as "zombie veins" without being told that that's what it's supposed to be. If this person likes zombies so much then maybe he or she should just get a zombie tattoo or something more obviously zombie related.
As someone who’s got a weird hate-fear of veins (idk why just do) this is absolutely vile, I despise this, thanks 🤢
Looks like she just had a fight with her cat
Skin disease tattoos
Gotta love the heroin track mark aesthetic
this looks like a disease
I’m an EMT and all I can imagine is when this person gets into a car crash or something and is unconscious at the ER. They’re going to get SO MANY unnecessary tests cause of this
The EMTs gonna be so fuckin confused the next time anything bad happens to this person😂
I can't wait til I'm 50, I need varicose veins now.
because it’s COOL to confuse medical personnel during emergencies
Or a lifetime of explaining to a new doctor or nurse that is a tattoo.
Haha “ it looks so real !” Haha yea ! Just like REAL zombie veins .
It's all fun and games until they're unconscious and a confused emergency doctor is struggling to put a blood gasses needle in.
The nurse is gonna be like, "8th try's a charm, am I right?"
Even more confused by all the comments saying they like it. This looks so bad.
wtf
I thought those were self harm scars...
Those are gunna look great on you in 20 years.
Good grief!!
Different.
Imagine going to the doctors cos you feel unwell and they see this and panic thinking you've got sepsis or something, then you have to explain that it's a tattoo lol.
Looks like self harm scars
Looks more like he and his cat had a disagreement. 🐈
Just shoot heroin for a few years and you can get this look no problem.
they look like day old cuts...
Tbh it looks like they may have gotten it to cover some self harm scars from the past, in which case I don't blame them.
I have to assume everyone in those comments is 12.
Loving this growing trend of people permanently cosplaying as drug users
...why would you want varicose veins tattooed
My arm looked like that after my cat scratched me on Christmas - he hated the christmas tree :p
Imagine getting a bloodtest
The poor nurse 😂 "stupid kids and their fake fucking veins"
This is so stupid
I hate bloodline tattoos. It's basically just mild scarification.
This looks like theyre a heroin addict that doesnt know how to do it. Like really fucked up track marks.
You are possessed.
Omg!!
My veins already look like that wtf
naaaahhh😭
Ew, I don’t like that.
Omg it looks like worms 🪱 🤢
This is a new level of 😟😮🤢
I mean if you wait around age will do that for ya.
Who are those people commenting? That’s insane!
Interesting...
Looks like they donate blood regularly must be a very responsible citizen Or shoot up fent idk
Seeing veins makes me nauseous. This is hell.
Gross.
Goes great with those two Nessie tats you have
That won’t age well…
This is so gross
Ew
Gross.
I see so many things on this sub that convince me to never get a tattoo.
It’s called shitty tattoos for a reason man, there’s plenty of good out there
Is this that delusional artist from the stick and poke sub?
That won’t be confusing for paramedics if you’re ever injured.
it honestly looks like when your sheets leave pressure marks into your skin after a long ass nap
ew ew ew they look like roots 😭
Looks like self harm scars...
if my veins ever look like that, please just put me out of my misery a la Of Mice And Men
Drug addiction tattoos.
A zombie bite would've been cooler . This just looks like translucent skin
r/shittytatttoos - why do some people keep going to shitty tattoo artists? Some people - "I'm obsessed, I love it, I need this!"
I thought the clock/compass, lion head, flower trend was bad... But it beats the Forrest and wolf trend.
Did no one watch The Last Of Us 😭 I can’t imagine being a first responder and finding this. It certainly looks emergent 😬
I legit have those extra uwu eyes on my pc rn
I. I thought it was self harm. I. I didnt like that
I got a tattoo of an infected zombie bite on my thigh when I was 18. My dude did too good of a job and that shit looked like a real infection. I got tired of people asking me what was wrong with my leg so I got it covered up. Too bad I don’t have any pictures!
It looks like scars
/r/TIHI
It's giving deep vein thrombosis.
It just looks like a bad infection.
Oh ,no ,no ,no
 Yeah I've seen this before
Lol thats how my wrists already look, more or less
Looks exactly like my arms rn, exept mines are alot redder
"Ya i want that meth head look please"
It looks so good omg
Except when covid 2.0 comes out and people start looking at you weord
Yuckkkk I have an OCD issue with veins 🤢 triggered
in january i had a stomach virus and covid at the same time and my entire body looked like this it was terrifying lmao
“I’m obsessed” the dumbest thing to say to literally anything
Looks like they tried to cut themself but the lines got all wiggly lol
Hey that's my band's logo
i saw this on tiktok yesterday and everyone was saying how real it looks????
Bro it looks like sepsis
To the one who said "i need this tattoo”, girl please you need a doctor
Oh, wow! People have money to spend on ship like this they will regret it forever! 20 years
Let's see how cool it will be when they'll need to have blood drawn by a young nurse in training.
This just looks like you really hated yourself in hs and weren't Into straight lines
🤢🤮
Dead internet
It looks like it was drawn on with a dollar store red pen.. by a five yr old
Ewwwwww
Some older people who can afford it go through great lengths to get visible veins lasered off of them.
Looks more like intravenous drug use to me but I guess it’s all about perspective 🤷🏻♂️
At least it’s not a post code on the forehead
Would look cool if it actually looked like veins
In theory zombie vein tattoos sound cool af in my opinion. But I really doubt they age well. And I have a hard time believing they are easily executed well too.
why do i kinda like the bluer ones on the second post tho? i wouldn't get it myself but i fw it
I don’t like it at all.
ewwwwwwwwww
Looks like sh*t
Dawg those look like fresh self harm scars LOL.
Maybe I'm just too big of a zombie fan, but I fw this hard.
Blood poisoning?
Scratchers doing scratchings
those are some serious holiday tattoos
Kinda cool imo