suggested HIV-positive people get tattoos to protect others. In 1986, when AIDS was just starting to be recognized as a deadly illness transmitted through sex and intravenous drug use, conservative author William F. Dempsey has been a social worker in the HIV community for 11 years, and wanted to show solidarity with people living with the disease, as well as raise awareness.
Dempsey has a red AIDS ribbon tattoo on his chest, which he chose even before he became HIV-positive (the organization Visual AIDS created the ribbon symbol in 1991). In situations of anonymous sex, it can signal status to potential partners and, in that sense, may help with prevention, because unprotected sex with an HIV-infected individual can spread the disease, he said.įor those with HIV, seeing someone else with a biohazard symbol is a sign this is another person living with the disease who might provide support, Conley said, like a "secret identification code." "It's to let other men know that they're HIV-positive so that they don't have to come out and say it," he said.
The origins of HIV-related tattoos are murky, but the biohazard symbol is recognized in connection with HIV among many gay men, said David Dempsey, clinical director at the Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House in Chicago and The Harbor in Waukegan, Illinois, both transitional living facilities for HIV-positive individuals recovering from alcohol and substance dependence. You're a champion, you are a survivor, and that's the biggest part of the tattoo," Conley said. His tattoo, a biohazard symbol with the Celtic motif of a crown of thorns circling around it, means he's winning the fight against this disease. It's wiped out a number of us," said William Conley of Pollock Pines, California. "In the gay male community, we think about it (HIV) a lot more because it attacked our community first. That disease came to be known as human immunodeficiency virus. doctors first realized, in 1981, that there was a never-before-seen disease that could destroy the immune system. It was also among men having sex with men that U.S. And although the number of new HIV cases has remained stable in the general population, new infections rose among young, black gay and bisexual men from 2006 to 2009. Men who have sex with men accounted for 61%, or 29,300, new HIV infections in 2009, federal health officials said last week. Tattoos like Howard's biohazard symbol are especially common in men who have sex with men, the subpopulation that bears the highest burden of new HIV infections in the United States. They say these tattoos help start conversations, reduce stigma and serve as reminders of how living with HIV has changed their lives. Howard is one of many people living with HIV who have chosen to get tattoos to represent living with the disease. "It's a branding of who I am, and it's a branding of being comfortable with that, being comfortable with who I am," said Howard, 37, who lives in Portland, Oregon. Getting the wrist tattoos helped him in his journey toward self-acceptance. After his diagnosis, he felt "dirty" in his own skin, and feared infecting others if he so much as cut his hand. Howard might not have come across as such a calm person in late 2005, when he found out he was HIV-positive. As he collects the smoothie overflow in the plastic lid, he exposes the tattoos on his wrists: a biohazard symbol on the right and a radiation symbol on the left. Portland, Oregon (CNN) - As he puts a straw in his fruit smoothie, Michael Lee Howard accidentally knocks over the cup, spilling the seaweed-colored liquid.
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