Part of an article on using tourniquets to control catastrophic bleeding.

Layperson first aid teaches that if you have to handle severe, life-threatening bleeding that you can't control with direct pressure and pressure dressings, one option may be to use a tourniquet. So, for training purposes, I was asked for shots showing commercial and improvised tourniquets, how to use them, and a realistic scenario with a rescuer using one.

Realistic, but not repulsive. Heaving lunch almost certainly interferes with learning.

The challenge (and fun, if I'm honest) in shooting these was the blood -- we used LOTS of blood. As in, all over the ground, the talents' legs, arms, clothes, soaking through bandages and then some. It was everywhere and on everyone. Why? Because unless someone's bleeding this much, you don't use a tourniquet. Tourniquets hurt big time (I'm told) and can cause permanent tissue damage, so they're reserved for when the patient's bleeding so much they might die, and previous steps aren't working.

This actually simplified things in one respect. Because gauze/pressure bandaging would already be in place before using a tourniquet, we didn't need to somehow degrossify a grisly wound spouting like a crimson Old Faithful. So, no visible wound, but still a LOT of blood. In fact, I've used theatrical blood for first aid shots before, but this was the first time we ordered a gallon. Most types of theatrical blood (there are dozens) clean reasonably easy, but a gallon used over the course of several shots presented a new challenge. To help keep things from progressing beyond cleanable, we had the talent wear old (i.e. tossable) clothes, nixed the original idea of a wood shop scenario in favor of staging everything outside. Good call – when we wrapped shooting, we just hosed things down as best we could and let nature do the rest (most theatrical blood is reasonably biodegradable). Everything worked so well that other than the usual adjustments, the main Photoshop work was putting steam/smoke around the "wrecked" car -- I didn't have to enhance or edit the tourniquet, wound or amount of blood .

I was happy with what we got, but there was one lingering detail. Theatrical blood washes away  fairly well, but many types stain . It was a few days before people stopped asking why my hands were red.