Deferral policies for prospective blood donors who have been "branded" as a result of pledging a fraternity

A colleague in the Carolinas is interested in finding out how different blood centers handle donors who have been "branded" as a result of pledging a fraternity. Branding is a technique for applying 'body art' that involves scarification of the skin by burning it. There are at least two methods of branding; strike and cautery pen. Strike branding is a traditional method of heating pieces of metal (stainless steel) in a flame and pressing them quickly against the skin to create a burn. Each line or curve is a separate piece ("iron"), so one design may consist of many separate strikes with different irons. Cautery pen branding employs a red hot pen tip. With this tool, one can actually "draw" a design on the skin. She reports that at her blood center 'branded" individual are accepted as blood donors so long as the "brand" (wound) is well healed and the iron used to make the brand was red hot in between branding different people. The inquiring colleague's blood center policy is set, in part, because they do several college blood drives, and the fraternity brothers come together to the donor center to make their blood donations. The inquiring colleague has been told that they would lose a significant number of donors and some fraternity sponsors if blood collections were disallowed because of branding. However, she has heard that other centers do defer "branded" individuals for one year. She would like to know what the practice is in the community regarding the acceptability or deferral of branded individuals, and if anyone has actually collected data to support their policy decision.

The following comments have been received.

ADDENDA Dec. 21, 2004

1. A blood center CEO reports that his organization addresses this scenario by defining tattoo as a "permanent mark or design on the skin by application of pigment or heat." Therefore, potential donors who have undergone this ritual would be subject to a 12-month deferral.

ADDENDA Dec. 27, 2004

2. A transfusion medicine physician in Sacramento agrees with the above comment. Since she does not know how one could be certain that the branding iron had been thoroughly decontaminated between applications, she would treat a 'branding' like a tattoo and defer the potential donor for 1 year from the date of the branding. The only exception her institution allows for tattoos is the application of permanent makeup in a doctor's office.

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