Blood Type Complexities

"Your Blood Type is a Lot More Complicated Than You Think":

There are in fact hundreds of antigens that fall into 33 recognized antigen systems, many of which can cause dangerous reactions during transfusion. One person's blood can contain a long list of antigens, which means that a fully specified blood type has to be written out antigen by antigen—for example, O, r”r”, K:–1, Jk(b-). Try fitting that into that little space on your Red Cross card...