New tatt? We're ok with that! Relaxing the tattoo deferral for plasmapheresis donors maintains safety and increases donations.

Background and objectives: Tattooing is one of the leading donor deferral reasons in Australia. Until September 2020, donors were deferred from all donation types for 4 months after a tattoo. At this time, our guideline changed such that donations of plasma for further manufacture were accepted immediately, provided the tattoo was administered in a licensed or regulated Australian establishment. We examined the effects of this change.

Materials and methods: Donors with a tattoo deferral in the 2 years before or after the guideline change were identified and followed up until 3 November 2022. Between the two periods, we compared blood-borne virus (BBV) incidence, donor return, and the number of donors and donations regained after deferral.

Results: The incidence of BBV infection in donors after a tattoo deferral was zero in both periods. To exceed a residual risk of 1 in 1 million for hepatitis C virus, 190 donors would need to be infected yearly from a tattoo. Donors returned to donate significantly faster after the change (median return 85 days compared with 278 days). An extra 187 donations per 10,000 person-years of observation were gained, yielding a total of 44,674 additional plasma donations nationally 0-4 months after getting a tattoo.

Conclusion: Allowing plasma donations immediately post-tattoo resulted in a substantial donation gain with no adverse safety effect. Lifeblood subsequently reduced the deferral for transfusible component donations to 7 days for tattoos in Australian licensed/regulated establishments.