Sharing needles while injecting drugs, getting tattoos or having a part of your body pierced can transmit the disease. It can also be transmitted through the transfer of bodily fluids via an unhealed piercing, such as a tongue stud. It cannot go through pores. Abstinence is the only 100-percent effective protection. Many think condoms will protect them.
Condoms only offer a slightly less-dangerous alternative.
But add one drop of blood and it becomes highly infectious. It takes more than one test to establish whether a person is HIV-free. A negative HIV test means that you were HIV-free six months ago. Actually, it could take that long before you are symptomatic. That's a long time for people to go around with this virus and not know they're infected.