blood on shirt

[csa steward]

just wondering if anybody think be ok if i put some blood on my shirt when i on the field as a steward.

[NoahBriggs]

If bloodstains must be anywhere on you I'd think it should be around the cuffs of your shirt, since the hands will be doing most of the work.

[rcsob657]

Do me a favor and make sure it's either fake blood or 'clean' pig blood. I really don't want someone I don't know with blood from who knows where touch me for X reason.

[Slickrick214]

I don't see a problem with. As NoahBriggs said put some of the blood on your cuffs and your surgeon apron. If you have a local butcher shop near you see what you can do about getting animal blood. If you don't have a butcher shop near by you could see if you have a 4-H club in your county and find out where they bring their livestock to be slaughtered. I'm not sure but animal blood might smell even after it dries. I never butchered an animal before so I never had the chance to stick my face in the carcass to smell its blood. It might be something you want to think about especially in the summer time.

[celtfiddler]

Bugs are attracted to both real and fake blood

[Jas. Cox]

I don't see a problem with. As NoahBriggs said put some of the blood on your cuffs and your surgeon apron. If you have a local butcher shop near you see what you can do about getting animal blood. If you don't have a butcher shop near by you could see if you have a 4-H club in your county and find out where they bring their livestock to be slaughtered. I'm not sure but animal blood might smell even after it dries. I never butchered an animal before so I never had the chance to stick my face in the carcass to smell its blood. It might be something you want to think about especially in the summer time.

Blood (in large amounts) is not like it is in the movies. It's very thin/watery and when it dries it's more like a rust stain brown. I've never noticed a strong smell from it and I don't think one should be doing a Carrie effect anyway. So just a bit and remember when it dries it won't look like blood.

Bugs are attracted to both real and fake blood

I'm not sure how a small amount of dried real blood will be attractive to insects. Homemade fake blood is traditionally made from mixing Karo Syrup with red food coloring and a touch of blue. That will attract bugs. However, the new method is to use hair gel mixed with red food coloring (if the hair gel has a blue tint then that's good). Also try a little yellow and experiment with the color. The fake blood will look real, but it won't look real.

[NoahBriggs]

Your apron is supposed to keep your clothing from getting in the way of random drops and spatters. Contrary to the aprons in the field they are not supposed to look like they were used on the set of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Certainly not used for wiping the saws and the knives. That's your steward's job, and he uses spare cloth for that. Once the aprons/cloths/bandages were done being used they were handed off to the hospital laundresses (government contractors, BTW) to be washed, as walking around anywhere with a bloody apron will be disconcerting to the patients.

A little blood on the apron goes a long way. Blood flows in narrow streams, not broad bands of red. there will be medium-sized spatter from the scalpels and knives and will depend on the procedure being performed.

I think there are more important things to consider about a medical impression than whether or not accessories should be "bloodstained" and with what.

Then again, what do I know. I've never been a surgeon. I just pretend to be one in the field.

[hanktrent]

Blood (in large amounts) is not like it is in the movies. It's very thin/watery and when it dries it's more like a rust stain brown. I've never noticed a strong smell from it and I don't think one should be doing a Carrie effect anyway. So just a bit and remember when it dries it won't look like blood.

What he said. As for the smell, it takes a day or more to develop the characteristic strong smell, though I don't know that it ever would if the quantity is small and dried, as on the cuffs of a shirt. My parents and I were in a car accident when I was about ten, in which they were almost killed, and when the car was towed to our house afterwards, the smell of blood in the interior was very strong.

In the period, I'd guess the smell would be coming from unwashed bandages and bloody uniforms that hadn't dried and sat for a while, rather than the much fainter and "cleaner" odor of fresh blood.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!

I would echo what Herr Hank said.. and add that:

It is hard to impossible to "fake" the distinctive flat, dry, metallic smell of blood.

In brief and to over-generalize...

But beyond the nuances of smell, blood is a complex creature. Oxygen rich blood from arteries is a brigher red than blood from veins. The bright red "blood' we are used to seeing from Hollyweird (when they do not just use Hershey's chocolate syrup for old blood pools) is a temporary rarity as blood quickly darkens and coagulates/congeals into a darkening reddish brown and often dries very brownish and even reddish-black.
So, fresh arterial spray is a horse of a different color than several day's old blood residue- or where the iron in blood serves as a mordant to set the stain's color in fabric that is hard to impossible to launder out.

Others mileage, will vary...

CHS
Who has seen more blood, mine and others, than I care to remember

[Parault]

What Curt voiced above is true concerning colors and stains. I find it rather erroneous to see "blood stains" on someone protraying medical personel,simply because the ingredients that is used to fashion the right texture and color,appears as a sad reproduction.
I have witnessed the flowing of blood from almost every conceivable wound, and they can vary from the color range of the blood spectrum, including the way they will mark your attire.