The tattoo issue is really shocking. It’s basically on the honor system for telling them when they got the tattoos and whether the tattoo business was certified with sterile new equipment for each customer. With the massive craze of increased tattoos in the last decade, nearly everyone has at least one or two new tattoos. It’s become a land mine for the blood donation industry.
But I was told that I’d be deferred for five years after successful prostate cancer surgery. Completely cured, but they still have to have a fresh PSA test from a doctors certification every time I donate.
With the "mad cow" scare they went to the other extreme--for years you could not donate if you had spent more than 6 months in Europe after Jan. 1, 1980. I was in Europe for more than 6 months in 1980. If they had made the cut-off 1981 I would have been OK. Finally they changed it to five years in Europe so I was allowed to donate again.
Meanwhile people who have lived in Europe all their lives can donate blood there.