Ask HN: My tattoo artist made comment about the Covid vaccine that confused me | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: My tattoo artist made comment about the Covid vaccine that confused me

7 pointsneom15 comments

I've been getting some of my sleeve expanded and I was in session yesterday, after a couple of hours I said it's crazy how little I'm bleeding on this one, and the tattoo artist said "yah, since the vaccine people don't bleed the same way anymore" and shrugged. I couldn't ask anything else about it because I got a pit in my stomach and waited till the end of the session and then dove in, the artist is young college age and has a group with other young tattoo artist, and they were laughing in it about how accurately they can nail how many doses people have had and when (including me) by how their skin and blood reacts to the tattoo.

Am I right to feel a bit weird about this?

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Tl;Dr: I'd be really careful with artists and things they tell you they have seen.

Art careers often require a constant, heavy moderation of the gap between subjective sensory perception and objective (commonly perceived or measured) sensory perception. At first the artist may have to force the gap to become fluid. But over time the gap naturally starts to seem very fluid by itself.

The imagination fills in objectively-perceived gaps of missing information very easily, either in terms of imagery or in reasoning/logic.

When I did some casual qualitative interviews with cultist-artists, they were the one group that wanted to believe in their belief systems based mostly on subjective sensory experiences. They were the largest "I've seen things you wouldn't believe" group.

(With respect to the individuals involved; other groups had different perception preferences that would also moderate various issues)

This is really what I was asking, so thanks for posting it. I'm not an anti-vaxxer or anything like that, I believe in science etc, I was just pretty taken a back by what was said and i didn't have any outlet to explore it (so I hope dang will pardon me for posting something like this as I realize it's at a line).

This has been floating around in antivax circles for a while, that the vaccine somehow changes the coagulants or oxygenation of blood (depending on who and when you ask). There's absolutely zero evidence to show that the COVID vaccines do anything different to your blood than any other vaccine, which is to say, nothing at all.

The spike protein however is known to cause clots and other blood related issues. This applies to both the infected and vaccinated. Like excess deaths being elevated, there are a number of other rarer conditions that have above average statistics during the pandemic.

Until it's studied (anecdotes inform experimental and observational studies that could clarify this), it's hard to say for certain. The problem is how much data is available from The Before Times™; it'll be hard to find people who are covid-negative, unvaccinated, and have any desire to get a tattoo soon after voluntarily becoming vaccinated, so I imagine an experimental study is largely out the window.

It's easier to draw a parallel outcome that could speak to the above perception, though: I'll venture a bet that this is more a consequence of negative perception of the vaccine by the artists you interacted with; a drop in bleeding during tattooing would manifest in bloodwork as well, and I'd think such bloodwork would show differences in platelet counts, blood concentration, etc. compared to pre-covid samples.

Not an expert; would love an expert opinion on this. But tl;dr: I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah, you're right to feel weird.

Ironically, he probably can guess who's been vaccinated. So can I. The MAGA hat wearer: zero doses. The one with the stethoscope: triple jab. He attributes this to blood, because he doesn't know what study blinding is. Because he doesn't know anything about science, and yet is putting his judgment over that of people who do.

You are putting your life in this man's hands. He is being forced to follow rules that are designed to protect you from dirty needles, dirty hands, and other causes of death. He is putting his own guesses above those of people who know what they're talking about, and you will never know if that applies to sanitary procedures and other protective measures. I would never allow such a person to touch me.

You know that this tattoo artist is college age and you have this little bit of context:

> I said it's crazy how little I'm bleeding on this one, and the tattoo artist said "yah, since the vaccine people don't bleed the same way anymore" and shrugged

How did you get from that to this:

> He is putting his own guesses above those of people who know what they're talking about, and you will never know if that applies to sanitary procedures and other protective measures. I would never allow such a person to touch me.

This feels like some sort of social equivalent of cytokine storm. This is a story about a person making small talk about something they saw in their work, seemingly without any judgment in any direction, and you appear to have written them off as a human.

I'm saying he's wrong. People bleed differently. He has no idea how often his guesses are right, and even when they are, it's not due to the blood. He hasn't even considered how to take actual data.

I know that because it would not have escaped the notice of so many scientists taking actual data. There is no chance of him being correct. So he's either stupid or lying. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt by saying he's stupid.

> So he's either stupid or lying.

Imagine that you're getting a haircut. You're sitting there for a half hour or so. To fill the empty space you say something mindless like, "this weather, huh?", and they say "I know right, it seems like it gets colder every winter".

Do you write them off as a climate change denier? Or do you recognize that this is just two humans beating back the monotony of everyday life with a little small talk.

Maybe there is more to the story, maybe they went on a 10 minute rant about bill gates and 5g, but that wasn't written here.

Not everyone is a scientist giving a lecture. Not everyone is the enemy. Some people are just bog standard humans getting through the day.

You are right to feel a bit weird.

Also: Women who have not been vaccinated have been having the same heavy and frequent menstruation issues as women who have been vaccinated. I do not know of studies citing this but I have witnessed it firsthand and been told its "been discussed".

There is this: https://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/083021-COVID-19-vacc...

from last August

Can he also tell if you took MMR vaccine as a kid? Or flu shot last year? The changes are in antibodies. And I doubt your tattoo artist can see them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_windshield_pitting_epi...

Even if it were proven that this was indeed true, the proof would certainly not be allowed to reach mainstream audiences. The author would be discredited, face character assassination (and sometimes physical assassination), and/or blacklisting from the scientific community. At the very least they would never be able to secure funding for future projects and their loved would start suffering from tragic “accidents”.

You need Alex Jones in your life

Sounds like we need a new crazy episode of Joe Rogan

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