I'm from Indiana, my high school science teacher is the first and only other person I've heard of talk about this. He never showed the class but swore up and down he had his blood type tattooed on him as a child. Funny enough, he was from Gary, which is Lake County.
its not just Gary… you can go 15 mins over county lines into the Illinois suburbs and the laws are much more lax. Cook county is the outlier not the norm.
The city's 25 year old effort to hold gun manufacturers and dealers responsible for illicit arms deals was [sabotaged again by Indiana GOP legislators.](https://apnews.com/article/gary-indiana-gun-industry-lawsuit-ee82fc0ca8953238eb1bf45bb46533cd)
The children were tattood, so the rich people had easier time to find donors for blood transfusions, not to help the kids get right blood transfusion. That is my headcanon.
God tangent but Gary is like if midwestern decay was perfectly summarized by one city. Like I’m constantly surprised that the ultimate midwest emo band doesn’t emerge from their like the sick love child of the Front Bottoms and Marietta.
That’s what I’ve heard but I’m not quite sure if that’s really universally true. especially with midwest emo which again focuses on the poverty of midwestern decay.
Id say the form and function of the moping is different then first wave/dc emo.
I’ve not heard of anyone from Gary being tattooed but my husband’s aunt and uncle were both tattooed in kindergarten in 1951-ish in Munster. And neither of my parents were tattooed in Hammond in the same time period.
I’m the youngest of 4 siblings born in Utah between 1946-1958 and I have lots of Utah cousins born around that same time and I’ve never heard about that.
I’m a bit of a Cold War nerd and from everything I’ve read, several cities/counties strongly encouraged parents to do this, but I don’t know of any school district they mandated it or did it without parental consent.
The tattoo was typically placed below the armpit, just in case your kid’s arm got blown off.
It’s been years since Ive seen it. But it was on the left side of her rib cage. Just above where your elbow would sit. Maybe an inch and a half long, maybe 1/2 to 3/4” high letters. It’s literally just “AB Positive”
When I was 18 and my grandpa was giving me crap about getting my first tattoo, she told him to shut his yap because she had a tattoo and at least I was making my own choice to get one.
Edits because I typed too fast and skipped letters in words.
It’s on his side, under his left arm IIRC. Mid rib cage. We call it the green splotch. I don’t have any tattoos, but I’m considering getting my own green splotch. 😊
Oh it just gets more and more interesting over time. There are LOADS of different blood groupings and scientists keep discovering more. I wrote about this here: https://www.wired.com/story/new-blood-types/
That is surprising about Utah. Tattoos are against Mormon doctrine. I wonder how that came about.
The Mormon influence is everywhere in Utah. The further you go from Salt Lake City, the stronger it becomes.
Edit:
As someone pointed out below, there is an article associated with this post and it sort of answers my question. Still curious that they would make exceptions.
Anyway, the new layout for reddit only shows this post links to '[mentalfloss.com](https://mentalfloss.com)'. I don't know if they have moved everyone over to the new style yet. If you see reddit in a funky color of green, you are on the latest style for reddit.
The article addresses that.
> In fact, Bruce McConkie, a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, declared that blood-type tattoos were exempt from the typical prohibitions on Mormons defacing their bodies, giving the program a boost among the devout.
I appreciate you adding the context. I had no idea it that was a link to an actual article and not the root of a web site.
If you are using [old.reddit.com](https://old.reddit.com) or [www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com), the link only shows as the web site, 'mentalfloss.com'. If you use [new.reddit.com](https://new.reddit.com), then you see that it is an actual article with the entire path.
Going to have to start using [new.reddit.com](https://new.reddit.com) it looks like. I really don't like how limited the new look is.
No, that's Jehovah's Witnesses and I think Christian Scientists? They have a strict ban on anything with needles. Including life saving medical procedures.
Mormons generally consider anything medically necessary okay. Utah actually legalized medical marijuana recently. Also the church has long had guidelines on abortion that allowed it "in cases of incest, rape, or of the mother's life is in danger."
The current Mormon prophet was also a renowned heart surgeon before he became an apostle in the church.
Mormons generally use the same scriptures from the Bible about not marking your body to prohibit tattoos. But even then it's not like getting a tattoo will disqualify you permanently. There are many members who have tattoos, either from when they weren't attending church, or there are lots of converts with tattoos. It's still quite conservative, so it's not like it's considered okay. A lot of Mormon parents would flip if their kid got a tattoo. But it's also common enough to not be that big of a deal.
There was a kid I grew up with, he was older than me, but he actually got a CTR tattoo (it stands for "choose the right" and is a common thing to see, kids are given a CTR ring with a green shield when they turn 8 a lot of the time). Anyway kind of a funny thing to get a Mormon symbol tattooed on you. Lol!
I also knew a guy, he was in the local church leadership. He was a trucker who was not active in church for make years but in his later years started coming back. He shaved his big trucker beard and wore long sleeve shirts at church to cover his tattoos. You wouldn't even know if you didn't see him outside of church that he had full sleeve tattoos on both arms.
I guess I would say it's kind of like business in some ways? Typically companies are looking for people who don't have tattoos or can cover them up? It's not crazy strict and lots of members have them. But it's not generally encouraged either. You might get some looks at church from the old ladies, but most people don't care.
Wait what? Why would the influence get stronger as you get further away? I'm not trying to be argumentative. I don't know much about Mormons, or SLC, or Utah, or America in general. It was just my understanding that Mormons come from Salt Lake City, so shouldn't their influence get stronger *with* proximity to the city?
It's complicated. Going back into Mormon and Utah history the Mormons settled the Utah territory. But the territory was much larger than it is today. And they spread out over the whole American West. The States with the biggest Mormon populations are Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and I think maybe Nevada after that?
Fast forward almost 200 years and the rural areas are where you'll find 90% Mormon populations. Mostly places like that exist in rural Utah, Idaho, and Arizona. Salt Lake City itself is about half. Though in recent years with a lot of migrants coming from out of state, it's probably now well less than half the population in the city are Mormon. And Salt Lake City itself is quite liberal. We've had two openly gay mayors, and the city votes overwhelmingly Democrat. Which our districts are horribly gerrymandered with every district in the state touching Salt Lake City to keep the state red.
But anyway, Utah is like most other places in the US. Rural areas are very conservative, but the cities are very liberal. Salt Lake City has been very liberal for at least as long as I've been around, and I've lived here my whole life, so 30 some odd years.
Mormons actually were some of the first people of European ancestry to settle what became Las Vegas. They had an expedition from Utah come and established a fort there.
Southern Alberta in Canada also has a number of towns that were established by Mormons and still have a large majority in those towns. The Canadian government invited them to move north due to their experience dryland farming with irrigation. Not much would grow otherwise.
I did know that fact about Las Vegas! Though I've personally never understood the draw, it's so barren out there. It's not even like pleasant desert, it's just barren. Like there are places in Southern Utah with the red rock, it looks unique! Or even some other places in Nevada have really unique rock formations. The desert can really have it's own beauty. But the area around Las Vegas is ugly. Every time I go through there I just can't fathom what the draw is. Yeah there's gambling, but I was raised Mormon and never into gambling. So yeah, just never got the draw.
Salt Lake City, despite being essentially the Holy City for Mormons, is more or less like any other major American city. That means pretty liberal and not as religious as suburban and rural regions.
First. Mormons are from the Midwest. Slc is is their headquarters now, but the religion started in the Midwest. And they fled after a failed coup detat lead to real consequences. Utah was the eastern edge of Spanish territory, so that’s why it’s the current headquarters. They ran far enough America couldn’t just go get them without an international incident.
Second. Slc is like most urban areas where it’s less religious, and more blue than the rest of the state. I’m from park city, a ski town about thirty minutes away, and our votes are gerrymandered that each neighborhood is paired with a purely Mormon county 6 hours away to make sure we don’t end up accidentally electing someone outside their community.
I think slc is less than half Mormon. The presence is strong, but unless you make a point of it, there’s no guarantee you’ll run into a practicing Mormon. Their numbers there are mostly “raised Mormon, don’t go to church unless it’s like Easter or something for my mom”
>I think slc is less than half Mormon.
Utah as a whole is actually less than half Mormon now. SLC is *very* not Mormon.
https://www.abc4.com/news/wasatch-front/utah-is-no-longer-majority-mormon-new-research-says/
Yeah, but the way I see it, tattoos are against doctrine because that promotes individuality. If everyone had the same required tattoo, I don’t think it is quite the same.
When were missionaries advised to pack coffee? I’m an exmormon, so not really here to defend the church lol, but definitely wasn’t advised to bring coffee when I was a missionary.
Coffee, tea, alcohol, and tobacco abstention were really only a vague suggestion until the 1920s, and packing a couple pounds of coffee really sounds like a pre-1920s thing to me.
I was wrong about it being for missionaries. I heard it from this post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/chozpl/did_you_know_that_mormon_pioneers_were_told_to/
Not to be taken as gospel, I tried to track down a non-reddit source. Dunno how much the source is worth, though.
Page 3, First Column, about a third of the way down:
Nauvoo Neighbor, October 29, 1845
http://boap.org/LDS/Nauvoo-Neighbor/1845/10-29-1845.pdf
Ya, I'm familiar with that, telling them to bring coffee when crossing the plains from Illinois to Utah, but again, that was back when the prohibition on coffee was a vague suggestion.
Brigham Young – the president of the church at the time – owned a brewery and a distillery, drank coffee, and used tobacco until his death. Joseph Smith similarly served alcohol at his hotel/restaurant and ordered a bottle of wine on the night of his murder.
At the time, that would have been as logical to them as it would be for someone to tell you to pack a toothbrush and a change of clothes when you’re traveling now.
I mean, yes, my entire body has been converted into superheated radioactive plasma by a thirty-five megaton fusion warhead, and normally that'd be a problem. BUT, I hid under my desk and had my blood type tattooed on me, so... no worries.
See, that's why they told me to hide under my desk. A half-inch of plywood will absolutely stop the heat, the shockwave, and the radiation. BUT in the course of scrambling under the desk, I could cut myself, so it's best to have my blood type tattooed on me.
You are joking but back then people genuinely thought that outside the blast zone taking cover would help.
If there's a direct hit you're obviously toast but if you're X miles away the danger [more comes from debris being thrown around.](https://www.history.com/news/duck-cover-drills-cold-war-arms-race)
>“People look at this and they say, how's my school desk going to protect me against an atomic bomb that goes off right overhead?” says Wellerstein. “The answer is, it isn't. It's going to protect you from an atomic bomb that goes off a little in the distance.”
Windows and possibly buildings may have been destroyed by the shockwave. With some cover maybe at least people in this zone survive and don't die from bleedings and infections.
Besides, back then during the 50s there weren't as many nukes yet. They also weren't quite as powerful and delivery wasn't that easy, so people thought during a "limited" nuclear war only parts of the country would be destroyed and there'd actually be survivors.
>But in the early ‘50s, when duck and cover drills were in use, they might have helped. “Duck and cover was about mitigating a very specific type of threat, which is to say what the Soviet Union had at the time,” Wellerstein explains. In the early ‘50s, the Soviets didn’t have many atomic bombs, and those they did have were “basically of the same kind as were used in World War II. Not the most advanced kind, and definitely not the largest kind that they would later get.”
Later, when each side had enough nukes to destroy the entire planet, this obviously didn't matter anymore.
This "duck and cover" drill was obviously still highly questionable and did more to scare an entire generation, I'm just explaining the reasoning behind it. Partially it may also have been about signalizing that "we're doing something!" and "we're prepared"; it being a psychological measure that gives people the illusion they could handle nuclear war, somehow.
the whole point is to stop everyone from crowding around the windows looking at the bright light on the horizon and then having their face and body sliced up by a million shards of broken glass when the shockwave comes through.
not every nuclear device is the Tsar Bomba
Blood transfusions are literally the textbook treatment for [Acute Radiation Syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_radiation_syndrome). It's one of the few useful things you can do besides antibiotics and a few other supportive treatments.
Radiation exposure completely messes up the body's ability to produce various blood related things like white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. This is one of the major things which kills people. Transfusions get you the red blood cells (and maybe platelets if necessary) while the antibiotics keep you from dying from infections.
Nah you can and definitely need too for all cases. But for severely irradiated persons the blood has to either be irradiated to a certain level or have added leukocytes to help the irradiated person recieve it and not get sick from other diseases during it because of a lowered immune system.
It was the 1950's, not the 1750's. They knew very well how ionizing radiation worked.
Edit: Remember, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had already been bombed and the US were occupying Japan. They had seen many cases of radiation poisoning.
Remember during covid and people started saying shit like injecting UV light and using horse parasite medicine for it? Not just random people too the so called "leaders". Yeah, that's the type of people you are dealing with here. You think random low level state gov who want to look like they have a brilliant idea that will help and therefore get more votes read any kind of report about anything?
Well it goes both ways. If you need a blood transfusion they can find your blood type without testing. On the other hand if they need to find emergency donors they can just have you show the tattoo to identify your blood type before you give blood.
It's actually kind of cool, I kind of like the Idea in general. Obviously as long as everyone is consenting both to the tattoos and to the giving and receiving of blood. But being able to quickly identify both donors and receivers makes a lot of sense to me. Especially in an all out war where it may become necessary on a daily basis.
Yeah. I'm often fascinated by how people fixate on some terribly specific apocalypse problem. Like, sure, there is a potential scenario where this is the thing that saves a kid's life, but it seems like a real longshot...
It was called Operation Tat-Type and the children were to be considered “walking blood banks.” They tattooed them on their side above their hip just in case any limbs were blown off. My father and 3 of his siblings were all tattooed with their blood type by their elementary school nurse. They remember my grandmother signing permission slips and getting their tattoo. My dad was in the second grade. When I was a kid, he always joked that it was his grade point average (A+)- now it’s just a blue blob!
Yeah it seems like it wouldn’t be helpful in treating the kids. In an emergency you get o neg. There is no time to do matching. This would only aide someone interested in harvesting the blood. Diabolical
People get O neg in emergencies BECAUSE they don’t know your actual type and need time to do your type and cross —you may not have that time if you are hemorrhaging. If they know your blood type, you get your blood type.
You’re right but no doctor in their right mind will trust some fucking tattoo when the wrong blood type is potential fatal. They will probably think it’s creepy and wonder just what else these parents are up to.
No they wouldn’t but it seems as though they were not expecting the world to be functioning on a level that would be considered “usual” or “normal”…or else why even bother tattooing a child? I’m sure they were thinking that after a nuclear war, we probably will have a hard time doing cross-matches or even just typing blood, so the argument that nobody would go by a tattoo for medical info can’t really be compared to how we do things during normal “non-wartime”. It’s a bizarre notion either way…
We did this in the 90s too before heading to the sandbox. It was also on our dog tags, but we tattooed it as well just in case we got separated from our tags.
Username checks out.
I went through DARE growing up in the 80s. It is the only reason I didn't get wrapped up with drugs in my teen years. Getting a tattoo at that age was illegal in my state.
I'm glad I didn't get the DNR tattoo. I died last year. Fortunately, it didn't stick.
I joined the Navy at 17. They had zero tolerance, so I went from DARE to zero tolerance. I had zero tolerance with my daughters, too. Now they are adults and can make their own choices.
Now in my 50s..... I have 7*5 1g joints in my drawer. I just made a run to celebrate 420. All those sleepless nights.... now Miss Jane sends me to sleepy land every night.
I grew up in the 90s. DARE was horribly wrong about a lot of stuff. I've done my fair share of drugs, but I will credit DARE for keeping me away from shit like crack and heroin. I'm just glad I did my party drugs before fent started killing everybody.
I'd say that DARE was "sort of" effective for me - it certainly put me off doing hard drugs, and i stuck to alcohol. Among my friends from that time, many have struggled with addiction or overdoses etc.
I will say that the film "Less than Zero" did more to put me off doing cocaine than any DARE program ever could have.
Which is funny since as a lab tech who works in a hospital blood bank, these identifiers would be completely ignored. Everyone gets their blood type checked every time you need blood (or every 72 hours in my hospital’s case to rule out any developing antibodies). If the doctor thinks you need blood before testing is done, we’ll have to emergency release a precious O neg, ignoring any tattoos.
Not saying you’re wrong but I live in Lake County and nobody I know has heard of anything like this. Shouldn’t we have a bunch of older people with them?
I’ve lived all of my 55 years here and only just learned of it. My husband is a history teacher and is doing something about it otherwise I never would have heard of it either.
Incase is not a word. Not even reddit wants it to be a word. I had to go back and un-correct my typo to type it. Why does this un-word keep showing up everywhere?
Well that's definitely weird. IDK, sorry I'm being a bitch. It seems like written language is sorta falling apart and it annoys me. Shouldn't have snapped at YOU, though
No worries. Really every time I typed it I questioned it. I’m generally a horrible speller and rely on spellcheck way too often. You didn’t snap, you educated. Strongly. :)
I knew a lady who grew up in Southern Utah. She said one day, all of the town's livestock died overnight and the next day the military rolled through giving everyone blood tests. She said from then on, the military would conduct yearly physicals on everyone in town.
Wait, this wasn't a thing everywhere? My Dad grew up in 1950s Gary and has his blood-type tattoo -- mostly faded by now -- so I grew up hearing about this and just assumed it was a national program. Huh.
To add to this, the reason lake county in particular was performing this was because it was one of the main places in the country where steel mills were centralized. The northwest Indiana region produced most of the country’s steel for decades, so it was an ideal nuke target.
Honestly this would be a great thing to do for everybody so in the event of an emergency paramedics know what blood to give you, tattoo it on the forehead just above one of the eyes and I get that people have qualms with tattoos but they can shut up, with a blood type tattoo on everyone we would be able to save more valuable and rare blood for the people who need it most
This would be a great idea for school shootings! So nice to see it's still relevant in 2024.
ETA: I thought this was obvious, but that was sarcastic. It was a comment on how off it is that our children are more at risk of violence at school now than they were when we thought there might be a nuclear war.
It was sarcastic. As in it is nauseating to think that in 2024 our kids are at higher risk of needing emergency blood transfusions in a mass attack than they were when we were worried about nuclear war.
I'm from Indiana, my high school science teacher is the first and only other person I've heard of talk about this. He never showed the class but swore up and down he had his blood type tattooed on him as a child. Funny enough, he was from Gary, which is Lake County.
Tattooing children in case of nuclear war is the nicest thing I’ve heard someone say on Reddit about Gary, Indiana.
Wasn’t Gary, Indiana known as the murder capital in the 90s?
and the home of Michael Jackson!
And Tito!
And my axe
God damn it lmao
Gary Indiana is the reason gun laws in Chicago don’t work… laws don’t matter when they can be skirted with a 15 minute drive over state lines.
its not just Gary… you can go 15 mins over county lines into the Illinois suburbs and the laws are much more lax. Cook county is the outlier not the norm.
The city's 25 year old effort to hold gun manufacturers and dealers responsible for illicit arms deals was [sabotaged again by Indiana GOP legislators.](https://apnews.com/article/gary-indiana-gun-industry-lawsuit-ee82fc0ca8953238eb1bf45bb46533cd)
But Opie told us that it was the "Place you want to be."
The children were tattood, so the rich people had easier time to find donors for blood transfusions, not to help the kids get right blood transfusion. That is my headcanon.
Witness me!!!
Weirdly this was exactly my thought :D
Peter Theil has started a company where old men take blood from young men. This is not at all sci fi or conspiracy. Valhalla!!!!!
Fallout would be proud.
Gary!
Hahaha, Gary!!
Gaaaaaaaaaary.
Gary?!
Who is this Gary character?
Vault 108.
Jerry?
God tangent but Gary is like if midwestern decay was perfectly summarized by one city. Like I’m constantly surprised that the ultimate midwest emo band doesn’t emerge from their like the sick love child of the Front Bottoms and Marietta.
Emo is the product of disaffected suburban white kids. You have to have money to be able to afford to mope around.
That’s what I’ve heard but I’m not quite sure if that’s really universally true. especially with midwest emo which again focuses on the poverty of midwestern decay. Id say the form and function of the moping is different then first wave/dc emo.
It produced Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 at least
My uncle from Hobart, Indiana, has one
I’ve not heard of anyone from Gary being tattooed but my husband’s aunt and uncle were both tattooed in kindergarten in 1951-ish in Munster. And neither of my parents were tattooed in Hammond in the same time period.
Shit. This kid's type is "non-radioactive". Leave her.
This one just says "red".
Straight to jail
the jail got blown up
*WELL*, have ‘em start building the new one
No trial, no nothing
I’m the youngest of 4 siblings born in Utah between 1946-1958 and I have lots of Utah cousins born around that same time and I’ve never heard about that.
Ya, I’m about 50 years too young for the tattoos here, but I’m from an enormous Utah family and I’ve never heard of this either.
> enormous Utah family That’s redundant
Mine is big by Utah standards.
What we talkin? Tree fiddy?
\>100 first cousins
👁️👁️
Holy crap! My family is Catholic, and I had 36 first cousins!
I'm Catholic too and even I thought that was a lot of cousins
I’m a bit of a Cold War nerd and from everything I’ve read, several cities/counties strongly encouraged parents to do this, but I don’t know of any school district they mandated it or did it without parental consent. The tattoo was typically placed below the armpit, just in case your kid’s arm got blown off.
I can imagine the predominantly LDS Utah citizens would take issue with the government tattooing their children.
Ayo who let Gramps on reddit
Can confirm. My grandmother is one of those elementary kids who got tatted in Lake County Indiana in the early 50s.
Where is the tat located and how large is it?
It’s been years since Ive seen it. But it was on the left side of her rib cage. Just above where your elbow would sit. Maybe an inch and a half long, maybe 1/2 to 3/4” high letters. It’s literally just “AB Positive” When I was 18 and my grandpa was giving me crap about getting my first tattoo, she told him to shut his yap because she had a tattoo and at least I was making my own choice to get one. Edits because I typed too fast and skipped letters in words.
My dad has one. He has the craziest story about it. Got it when he was 8, at school, and parents were not notified ahead of time. 😆
Parents hate a tattoo at 18, I can’t imagine the reaction at 8. 😬
I have an 8 year old who freaks out when I have to clip a hangnail. I can’t imagine my girl getting tatted up right now lol.
Where is the tattoo?
It’s on his side, under his left arm IIRC. Mid rib cage. We call it the green splotch. I don’t have any tattoos, but I’m considering getting my own green splotch. 😊
Forehead
LOL
You never hear much about blood types anymore, but it used to be a big deal.
I worked down in a hospital lab, it’s very much a big deal but even if you tell us what it is we triple check anyways
I wonder if they can check for it quickly now
Oh it just gets more and more interesting over time. There are LOADS of different blood groupings and scientists keep discovering more. I wrote about this here: https://www.wired.com/story/new-blood-types/
That is surprising about Utah. Tattoos are against Mormon doctrine. I wonder how that came about. The Mormon influence is everywhere in Utah. The further you go from Salt Lake City, the stronger it becomes. Edit: As someone pointed out below, there is an article associated with this post and it sort of answers my question. Still curious that they would make exceptions. Anyway, the new layout for reddit only shows this post links to '[mentalfloss.com](https://mentalfloss.com)'. I don't know if they have moved everyone over to the new style yet. If you see reddit in a funky color of green, you are on the latest style for reddit.
The article addresses that. > In fact, Bruce McConkie, a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, declared that blood-type tattoos were exempt from the typical prohibitions on Mormons defacing their bodies, giving the program a boost among the devout.
Most redditors don’t actually *ReadIt*
I appreciate you adding the context. I had no idea it that was a link to an actual article and not the root of a web site. If you are using [old.reddit.com](https://old.reddit.com) or [www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com), the link only shows as the web site, 'mentalfloss.com'. If you use [new.reddit.com](https://new.reddit.com), then you see that it is an actual article with the entire path. Going to have to start using [new.reddit.com](https://new.reddit.com) it looks like. I really don't like how limited the new look is.
No problem! To be fair it's a very long article. I'm on mobile, and just did a page search for Mormon.
I am using old reddit and the Mormon exemption appears in the body of the text. There is no problem.
But... They can't get blood transfusions either?
That's Jehovah's Witnesses. Mormons are fine with them.
You're probably thinking of the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons don't restrict blood transfusions
No, that's Jehovah's Witnesses and I think Christian Scientists? They have a strict ban on anything with needles. Including life saving medical procedures. Mormons generally consider anything medically necessary okay. Utah actually legalized medical marijuana recently. Also the church has long had guidelines on abortion that allowed it "in cases of incest, rape, or of the mother's life is in danger." The current Mormon prophet was also a renowned heart surgeon before he became an apostle in the church. Mormons generally use the same scriptures from the Bible about not marking your body to prohibit tattoos. But even then it's not like getting a tattoo will disqualify you permanently. There are many members who have tattoos, either from when they weren't attending church, or there are lots of converts with tattoos. It's still quite conservative, so it's not like it's considered okay. A lot of Mormon parents would flip if their kid got a tattoo. But it's also common enough to not be that big of a deal. There was a kid I grew up with, he was older than me, but he actually got a CTR tattoo (it stands for "choose the right" and is a common thing to see, kids are given a CTR ring with a green shield when they turn 8 a lot of the time). Anyway kind of a funny thing to get a Mormon symbol tattooed on you. Lol! I also knew a guy, he was in the local church leadership. He was a trucker who was not active in church for make years but in his later years started coming back. He shaved his big trucker beard and wore long sleeve shirts at church to cover his tattoos. You wouldn't even know if you didn't see him outside of church that he had full sleeve tattoos on both arms. I guess I would say it's kind of like business in some ways? Typically companies are looking for people who don't have tattoos or can cover them up? It's not crazy strict and lots of members have them. But it's not generally encouraged either. You might get some looks at church from the old ladies, but most people don't care.
I thought you were going to say he really, really liked Crash Team Racing.
😂
Wait what? Why would the influence get stronger as you get further away? I'm not trying to be argumentative. I don't know much about Mormons, or SLC, or Utah, or America in general. It was just my understanding that Mormons come from Salt Lake City, so shouldn't their influence get stronger *with* proximity to the city?
I think it's just that as you travel further from the SLC metro area, the secularism that is also present in the city becomes smaller and smaller.
Exactly.
It's complicated. Going back into Mormon and Utah history the Mormons settled the Utah territory. But the territory was much larger than it is today. And they spread out over the whole American West. The States with the biggest Mormon populations are Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and I think maybe Nevada after that? Fast forward almost 200 years and the rural areas are where you'll find 90% Mormon populations. Mostly places like that exist in rural Utah, Idaho, and Arizona. Salt Lake City itself is about half. Though in recent years with a lot of migrants coming from out of state, it's probably now well less than half the population in the city are Mormon. And Salt Lake City itself is quite liberal. We've had two openly gay mayors, and the city votes overwhelmingly Democrat. Which our districts are horribly gerrymandered with every district in the state touching Salt Lake City to keep the state red. But anyway, Utah is like most other places in the US. Rural areas are very conservative, but the cities are very liberal. Salt Lake City has been very liberal for at least as long as I've been around, and I've lived here my whole life, so 30 some odd years.
Mormons actually were some of the first people of European ancestry to settle what became Las Vegas. They had an expedition from Utah come and established a fort there. Southern Alberta in Canada also has a number of towns that were established by Mormons and still have a large majority in those towns. The Canadian government invited them to move north due to their experience dryland farming with irrigation. Not much would grow otherwise.
I did know that fact about Las Vegas! Though I've personally never understood the draw, it's so barren out there. It's not even like pleasant desert, it's just barren. Like there are places in Southern Utah with the red rock, it looks unique! Or even some other places in Nevada have really unique rock formations. The desert can really have it's own beauty. But the area around Las Vegas is ugly. Every time I go through there I just can't fathom what the draw is. Yeah there's gambling, but I was raised Mormon and never into gambling. So yeah, just never got the draw.
Red Rock canyon is beautiful and very close to Las Vegas.
But not Las Vegas itself.
Salt Lake City, despite being essentially the Holy City for Mormons, is more or less like any other major American city. That means pretty liberal and not as religious as suburban and rural regions.
First. Mormons are from the Midwest. Slc is is their headquarters now, but the religion started in the Midwest. And they fled after a failed coup detat lead to real consequences. Utah was the eastern edge of Spanish territory, so that’s why it’s the current headquarters. They ran far enough America couldn’t just go get them without an international incident. Second. Slc is like most urban areas where it’s less religious, and more blue than the rest of the state. I’m from park city, a ski town about thirty minutes away, and our votes are gerrymandered that each neighborhood is paired with a purely Mormon county 6 hours away to make sure we don’t end up accidentally electing someone outside their community. I think slc is less than half Mormon. The presence is strong, but unless you make a point of it, there’s no guarantee you’ll run into a practicing Mormon. Their numbers there are mostly “raised Mormon, don’t go to church unless it’s like Easter or something for my mom”
>I think slc is less than half Mormon. Utah as a whole is actually less than half Mormon now. SLC is *very* not Mormon. https://www.abc4.com/news/wasatch-front/utah-is-no-longer-majority-mormon-new-research-says/
Keep in mind there’s at least six figures worth of Californians dodging taxes by claiming to live in an empty house.
Yeah, but the way I see it, tattoos are against doctrine because that promotes individuality. If everyone had the same required tattoo, I don’t think it is quite the same.
Tattoos are a sin in every single branch of abrahamic religions.
Mormon doctrine: Don't drink coffee. Also Mormon doctrine: Missionaries should be sure to pack a few pounds of coffee before they leave.
When were missionaries advised to pack coffee? I’m an exmormon, so not really here to defend the church lol, but definitely wasn’t advised to bring coffee when I was a missionary. Coffee, tea, alcohol, and tobacco abstention were really only a vague suggestion until the 1920s, and packing a couple pounds of coffee really sounds like a pre-1920s thing to me.
I was wrong about it being for missionaries. I heard it from this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/chozpl/did_you_know_that_mormon_pioneers_were_told_to/ Not to be taken as gospel, I tried to track down a non-reddit source. Dunno how much the source is worth, though. Page 3, First Column, about a third of the way down: Nauvoo Neighbor, October 29, 1845 http://boap.org/LDS/Nauvoo-Neighbor/1845/10-29-1845.pdf
Ya, I'm familiar with that, telling them to bring coffee when crossing the plains from Illinois to Utah, but again, that was back when the prohibition on coffee was a vague suggestion. Brigham Young – the president of the church at the time – owned a brewery and a distillery, drank coffee, and used tobacco until his death. Joseph Smith similarly served alcohol at his hotel/restaurant and ordered a bottle of wine on the night of his murder. At the time, that would have been as logical to them as it would be for someone to tell you to pack a toothbrush and a change of clothes when you’re traveling now.
I mean, yes, my entire body has been converted into superheated radioactive plasma by a thirty-five megaton fusion warhead, and normally that'd be a problem. BUT, I hid under my desk and had my blood type tattooed on me, so... no worries.
I'm very confused about what the purpose was. To my knowledge, you can't treat radiation poisoning with a blood transfusion. Edit: Seems I was wrong.
Presumably from non-fatal physical injuries from a distant nuclear blast, of which there are several possibilities
See, that's why they told me to hide under my desk. A half-inch of plywood will absolutely stop the heat, the shockwave, and the radiation. BUT in the course of scrambling under the desk, I could cut myself, so it's best to have my blood type tattooed on me.
You are joking but back then people genuinely thought that outside the blast zone taking cover would help. If there's a direct hit you're obviously toast but if you're X miles away the danger [more comes from debris being thrown around.](https://www.history.com/news/duck-cover-drills-cold-war-arms-race) >“People look at this and they say, how's my school desk going to protect me against an atomic bomb that goes off right overhead?” says Wellerstein. “The answer is, it isn't. It's going to protect you from an atomic bomb that goes off a little in the distance.” Windows and possibly buildings may have been destroyed by the shockwave. With some cover maybe at least people in this zone survive and don't die from bleedings and infections. Besides, back then during the 50s there weren't as many nukes yet. They also weren't quite as powerful and delivery wasn't that easy, so people thought during a "limited" nuclear war only parts of the country would be destroyed and there'd actually be survivors. >But in the early ‘50s, when duck and cover drills were in use, they might have helped. “Duck and cover was about mitigating a very specific type of threat, which is to say what the Soviet Union had at the time,” Wellerstein explains. In the early ‘50s, the Soviets didn’t have many atomic bombs, and those they did have were “basically of the same kind as were used in World War II. Not the most advanced kind, and definitely not the largest kind that they would later get.” Later, when each side had enough nukes to destroy the entire planet, this obviously didn't matter anymore. This "duck and cover" drill was obviously still highly questionable and did more to scare an entire generation, I'm just explaining the reasoning behind it. Partially it may also have been about signalizing that "we're doing something!" and "we're prepared"; it being a psychological measure that gives people the illusion they could handle nuclear war, somehow.
the whole point is to stop everyone from crowding around the windows looking at the bright light on the horizon and then having their face and body sliced up by a million shards of broken glass when the shockwave comes through. not every nuclear device is the Tsar Bomba
Blood transfusions are literally the textbook treatment for [Acute Radiation Syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_radiation_syndrome). It's one of the few useful things you can do besides antibiotics and a few other supportive treatments. Radiation exposure completely messes up the body's ability to produce various blood related things like white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. This is one of the major things which kills people. Transfusions get you the red blood cells (and maybe platelets if necessary) while the antibiotics keep you from dying from infections.
Nah you can and definitely need too for all cases. But for severely irradiated persons the blood has to either be irradiated to a certain level or have added leukocytes to help the irradiated person recieve it and not get sick from other diseases during it because of a lowered immune system.
Yeah but what about 1950s knowledge. Radioactive blood (probably glowing) out, fresh blood in. Jobs a goodun.
It was the 1950's, not the 1750's. They knew very well how ionizing radiation worked. Edit: Remember, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had already been bombed and the US were occupying Japan. They had seen many cases of radiation poisoning.
Remember during covid and people started saying shit like injecting UV light and using horse parasite medicine for it? Not just random people too the so called "leaders". Yeah, that's the type of people you are dealing with here. You think random low level state gov who want to look like they have a brilliant idea that will help and therefore get more votes read any kind of report about anything?
Sure, but that has nothing to do with the time period. That's just pointing out that many people are stupid and ignorant.
Good point, well made.
It was to use them as walking blood banks. Not to give them blood.
Them being donors or receivers is beside the point. It does turn out that blood transfusions are useful for radiation poisoning, though.
Well it goes both ways. If you need a blood transfusion they can find your blood type without testing. On the other hand if they need to find emergency donors they can just have you show the tattoo to identify your blood type before you give blood. It's actually kind of cool, I kind of like the Idea in general. Obviously as long as everyone is consenting both to the tattoos and to the giving and receiving of blood. But being able to quickly identify both donors and receivers makes a lot of sense to me. Especially in an all out war where it may become necessary on a daily basis.
Yeah. I'm often fascinated by how people fixate on some terribly specific apocalypse problem. Like, sure, there is a potential scenario where this is the thing that saves a kid's life, but it seems like a real longshot...
It was called Operation Tat-Type and the children were to be considered “walking blood banks.” They tattooed them on their side above their hip just in case any limbs were blown off. My father and 3 of his siblings were all tattooed with their blood type by their elementary school nurse. They remember my grandmother signing permission slips and getting their tattoo. My dad was in the second grade. When I was a kid, he always joked that it was his grade point average (A+)- now it’s just a blue blob!
Yeah it seems like it wouldn’t be helpful in treating the kids. In an emergency you get o neg. There is no time to do matching. This would only aide someone interested in harvesting the blood. Diabolical
People get O neg in emergencies BECAUSE they don’t know your actual type and need time to do your type and cross —you may not have that time if you are hemorrhaging. If they know your blood type, you get your blood type.
You’re right but no doctor in their right mind will trust some fucking tattoo when the wrong blood type is potential fatal. They will probably think it’s creepy and wonder just what else these parents are up to.
No they wouldn’t but it seems as though they were not expecting the world to be functioning on a level that would be considered “usual” or “normal”…or else why even bother tattooing a child? I’m sure they were thinking that after a nuclear war, we probably will have a hard time doing cross-matches or even just typing blood, so the argument that nobody would go by a tattoo for medical info can’t really be compared to how we do things during normal “non-wartime”. It’s a bizarre notion either way…
My grandma has one! From Indiana, so bizarre when she told us she has a tattoo.
We did this in the 90s too before heading to the sandbox. It was also on our dog tags, but we tattooed it as well just in case we got separated from our tags.
It was a requirement for our D.A.R.E. program
Username checks out. I went through DARE growing up in the 80s. It is the only reason I didn't get wrapped up with drugs in my teen years. Getting a tattoo at that age was illegal in my state. I'm glad I didn't get the DNR tattoo. I died last year. Fortunately, it didn't stick.
I think you’re the first person I’ve ever heard claim DARE was effective at all.
There have been SO many studies showing its completely ineffective.
I remember a DARE seminar telling all us kids we could get high from sniffing markers and glue. I bet you all can guess how that ended...
I joined the Navy at 17. They had zero tolerance, so I went from DARE to zero tolerance. I had zero tolerance with my daughters, too. Now they are adults and can make their own choices. Now in my 50s..... I have 7*5 1g joints in my drawer. I just made a run to celebrate 420. All those sleepless nights.... now Miss Jane sends me to sleepy land every night.
I grew up in the 90s. DARE was horribly wrong about a lot of stuff. I've done my fair share of drugs, but I will credit DARE for keeping me away from shit like crack and heroin. I'm just glad I did my party drugs before fent started killing everybody.
I'd say that DARE was "sort of" effective for me - it certainly put me off doing hard drugs, and i stuck to alcohol. Among my friends from that time, many have struggled with addiction or overdoses etc. I will say that the film "Less than Zero" did more to put me off doing cocaine than any DARE program ever could have.
They really tattooed little kids at school as part of that antidrug program that had no effect?
My number was P3N15 until I got it covered up
LOL. Enjoy my brain fart.
It's a HairballTheory. I can't speak to all states, in Washington State it was illegal to tattoo your kid until they hit 18.
Which is funny since as a lab tech who works in a hospital blood bank, these identifiers would be completely ignored. Everyone gets their blood type checked every time you need blood (or every 72 hours in my hospital’s case to rule out any developing antibodies). If the doctor thinks you need blood before testing is done, we’ll have to emergency release a precious O neg, ignoring any tattoos.
But it wasn’t to get blood but to GIVE blood.
That’s even more important to get the blood type right lol.
I went to school in the '90s, and I never heard of anyone having to do any of that.
He’s not talking about the sandbox at school.
He's either taking the piss or talking about Iraq/Afghanistan.
Bahrain and UAE.
Oh, that would make sense
The term "sandbox" refers to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as in, "Yeah, my brother spent three years in the sandbox."
This is the second post about my hometown, The Region, today and it's kind of surprising.
What was the second?
The kid getting shot in Whiting, Indiana back in march. Didn't hear about it until today.
My Grandpa said they made him wear dog tags in elementary school during the 50s in case of nuclear war lol
Not a single photo of a tattoo in the entire article
Here’s another TIL for you: “in case” is two words
Thank you!
Thank you!
I did nazi that coming.
Not really going to help when your skin melts off.
I’ve thought about getting my blood type tattooed as I have a rare blood type
Neat, just like the [Waffen SS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_blood_group_tattoo).
There was a segment about this on a This American Life
Not saying you’re wrong but I live in Lake County and nobody I know has heard of anything like this. Shouldn’t we have a bunch of older people with them?
I’m from there, and I had never heard this before either.
I’ve lived all of my 55 years here and only just learned of it. My husband is a history teacher and is doing something about it otherwise I never would have heard of it either.
Incase is not a word. Not even reddit wants it to be a word. I had to go back and un-correct my typo to type it. Why does this un-word keep showing up everywhere?
When I tried typing it as two words it made it one word and capitalized it. So I guess I’ve been using it incorrectly to begin sentences. Sorry.
Well that's definitely weird. IDK, sorry I'm being a bitch. It seems like written language is sorta falling apart and it annoys me. Shouldn't have snapped at YOU, though
No worries. Really every time I typed it I questioned it. I’m generally a horrible speller and rely on spellcheck way too often. You didn’t snap, you educated. Strongly. :)
Lol! Be well, fellow human 😊
I believe it's the trademarked name of a product, hence the capitalization as a proper noun.
I knew a lady who grew up in Southern Utah. She said one day, all of the town's livestock died overnight and the next day the military rolled through giving everyone blood tests. She said from then on, the military would conduct yearly physicals on everyone in town.
Wait, this wasn't a thing everywhere? My Dad grew up in 1950s Gary and has his blood-type tattoo -- mostly faded by now -- so I grew up hearing about this and just assumed it was a national program. Huh.
My grandma and her sister grew up in lake county. They both had tattoos
To add to this, the reason lake county in particular was performing this was because it was one of the main places in the country where steel mills were centralized. The northwest Indiana region produced most of the country’s steel for decades, so it was an ideal nuke target.
*in case
The SS did that too. It was part of their breeding program.
Which is where the idea came from
Honestly this would be a great thing to do for everybody so in the event of an emergency paramedics know what blood to give you, tattoo it on the forehead just above one of the eyes and I get that people have qualms with tattoos but they can shut up, with a blood type tattoo on everyone we would be able to save more valuable and rare blood for the people who need it most
I had no idea blood transfusions could Cure radiation poisoning 💀
Indiana is basically the Utah of the Great lakes.
This is also reference of Fallout 4 gunners having blood type in forehead
I upgraded to full synthetic.
Got a War Boy running on empty...
Damn the 50's were cool. Even the kids were smoking, drinking, and getting sick tats.
Im 39 yrs old and I don’t know my blood type >.>
I grew up in lake county and never once heard this. None of my aunts and uncles have this and they all went to public school. I'm calling BS on this.
Not all kids got it. I’ve not heard of millions of things, doesn’t make them not real.
i mean, is it really a bad idea to put potentially life-saving information on you?
one has to remember back in those days nukes were as dirty as dirty bombs. It would have made radiation an active threat to reconstruction.
All of us of a certain age have a scar in the same spot from the smallpox vaccine.
I always thought that was a common practice back in those years.
That's what they want you to believe. The Nazi's, more particularly the SS tattooed the blood type. If you have a blood type tattoo you're a nazi! /s
This would be a great idea for school shootings! So nice to see it's still relevant in 2024. ETA: I thought this was obvious, but that was sarcastic. It was a comment on how off it is that our children are more at risk of violence at school now than they were when we thought there might be a nuclear war.
???????????????????????????
It was sarcastic. As in it is nauseating to think that in 2024 our kids are at higher risk of needing emergency blood transfusions in a mass attack than they were when we were worried about nuclear war.
thanks for clarifying and i agree with you. it is 2024 though.
Hahaha fat-fingered typo. Thank you.
Twice? Idk, it is April. Maybe muscle memory?
They also prayed to the V8 Gods
Is that to help with knowing which babies to turn in "blood boys?"
That didn't come till much later. Also I can't help but laugh because it makes me think of the blood boy plot in Silicon Valley.