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Shortages in blood banks caused by the US war in Korea and the subsequent Cold War conflict meant that in the middle of the last century in the United States a program was created under which children were tattooed a blood type on the chest. While this controversial solution was promoted as useful when the need for rapid blood transfusions arose, it also had a dark side.
- American doctors in the 50s had an unusual idea and, with the support of the government, began the Tat-Type operation, in which they tattooed dozens of children
- Dr. Andrew C. Ivy was responsible for the program, who saw similar solutions in Waffen-SS members. He watched them during his work in Nuremberg
- Tattooing American children was officially supposed to make it easier for medics to perform rapid blood transfusions and was promoted as a painless procedure. In practice, of course, it cost the children a lot of pain and fear
- The project was continued after the end of the Korean war, but it did not enjoy much support from the public, government or doctors
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
In the 50s, American blood banks began to run out of supplies as it was shipped to soldiers participating in armed fighting in Korea. Additionally, the USSR at that time was in full military power. As a communist power, he was seen as a huge threat to America, to which he could send a powerful missile with a nuclear warhead at any time. In addition to building nuclear shelters in gardens or hanging dog tags on children (similar to military ones), Americans came up with another idea to improve saving the lives of citizens who would be injured in the event of an attack.
As part of the Tat-Type operation, children began to be tattooed, and while official reports said these activities were aimed at speeding up proper blood group matching and immediate transfusion, in reality young Americans and Americans could become walking blood banks. Each of them was to be a donor, but not a recipient, and a blood type tattoo was to be used so that, if necessary, such a child could be quickly taken even from the street and transported to a place where blood would be taken from him.
Who was involved in the Tat-Type program? “I realized that it would be my turn soon”
Operation Tat-Type was approved in the 50s by Dr. Andrew C. Ivy of the Chicago Medical Civil Defense Committee (CCDC), and was promoted as a painless procedure, compared to finger pricking for blood donation or vaccination. This, as you might guess, was not true.
A key role in the program was played by Ivy who, notably, served as a consultant to the American Medical Association at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal and dealt with Waffen-SS Nazis wearing blood type tattoos (mostly on the inside of their arm). In their case, the tattoo was supposed to help save lives in the frontline, but after the war it was one of the methods of identification that allowed them to be placed on the benches of the accused and judged.
While the Waffen-SS Nazi tattoos may have been one of the sources of inspiration for the unusual plan of tattooing a blood group on American children’s bodies, it’s worth adding that Ivy made some modification. Instead of tattooing arms and legs, which might have been torn off during the blast, a blood type was placed on one side of the chest (the Nazis also used this method, but relatively rarely) or on the hip.
Despite Ivy’s efforts to get the program implemented in Chicago, he failed to do so. However, he was welcomed with open arms in Lake County, Indiana, where the operation met with great support from local medics. By the end of 1951, 15 people were enrolled in the project. Lake County residents, and three-quarters of those enrolled eventually qualified.
In January 1952, Operation Tat-Type was carried out in five primary schools in the city of Hobart. The blood type was tattooed to children whose parents had signed the relevant documents. On the day the procedure was performed, the toddlers were blood drawn from the finger and after receiving the blood type result, they were invited to the waiting room. The children were then called one by one to sit in the same room behind the curtain.
On the obtained results cards, the medic checked which group the child had, who then had to take off the top of their clothes, and the tattoo artist prepared the razor. As you can guess, the children who had their first tattoo done cried, which caused a lot of nervousness in the other kids waiting in the line.
– I remember exactly the day when the children screamed and it terrified me a lot. I tried to leave but couldn’t, and when I realized it was my turn soon, I started to cry. I was sobbing. When I felt a terrible sting, I just cried, cried and cried – years later Annella Petkovich-Dixon, quoted by the Amusing Planet website.
The plan to tattoo children was also propagated in Utah, supported by a fraternal duo of Omar Samuel Budge and Oliver Wendell Budge. A key role, however, was played by the help of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose clergy announced that Mormons may wear blood type tattoos and in this case are exempt from the religious prohibition.
Low effectiveness
However, the operation of tattooing children did not last long, because in 1953 the war in Korea ended, so there was no such high demand for blood and it did not have to be exported. Importantly, before the transfusion is performed, the so-called blood crucifixion, so donor prediction could not be as beneficial to the general public as assumed.
It is also worth noting here that the program was voluntary, so it could not be highly effective. Adults who wanted to support the project could also make a choice – whether they would agree to get a tattoo or choose a dog tag. A study in the states of Michigan and Massachusetts, where the action was also carried out, found that one in four who received a dog tag lost it, and 60 percent lost it. the writers refused to get a tattoo.
One of the factors that contributed to the completion of the program was also the costs (research, work of medical personnel and tattoo artists) associated with mass-scale tattooing of civilians.
By the end of 1955, some 60 people had been tattooed in Lake County. children and adults, and several thousand more in Cache and Rich Counties, Utah (at Beaver County Hospital in Milford, as part of the program, even a newborn was tattooed two hours after its birth).
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