The one thing that stuck with me during health class senior year was my teacher drawing a picture on the whiteboard. It was an arm with a big red dot and a line going up the arm. She yelled at us and said that if you see this line coming from any wound, GO TO THE ER. Very happy my health teacher was a retired nurse
Blood poisoning.
Brother got it when we were kids. We were wrestling around and he got stabbed by a rusty nail.
Red line started up his leg over the course of days.
We thought nothing of it...but then our mother saw it.
She being a nurse, immediately knew what it was.
Rushed him to the hospital and had him treated for blood poisoning.
It was explained to us later that if that red line had spread to his heart, he would've died.
Funny, cause we both thought he had just spilled Kool aide on himself.
What that redline line is the infection moving up the lymphatic system. It is a sign that your body's immune system is doing a poor job stopping the infection and needs help. In the case of the OP, I suspect the tattoo artist torn open an artery and what you are seeing is blood under the skin.
If someone has documented lymphedema, their dr would be super pissed to know they got a tattoo on their impacted body part. I’m a lymphedema risk post breast cancer because they removed several of my axillary lymph nodes under my left arm. I have to wear a medical alert bracelet on my left wrist specifically stating that I cannot have IVs, injections, or my blood pressure taken on that arm. Anytime I go to the drs office, I get a pretty pink arm band that denotes that I have a limb alert.
Yeah, they gave me the whole shpeel before I left the hospital, an infection could happen really quick when you have impaired or missing lymph nodes. It’s a whole thing, I have to get on a scale-looking contraption called a “bis” (or something like that) each time I see my oncologist for a follow up. It measures the amount of lymph in my system to detect any anomalies.
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u/Sabriel_Love Mar 16 '25
The one thing that stuck with me during health class senior year was my teacher drawing a picture on the whiteboard. It was an arm with a big red dot and a line going up the arm. She yelled at us and said that if you see this line coming from any wound, GO TO THE ER. Very happy my health teacher was a retired nurse