Veins hard to see in arm?

Whenever I get blood taken or donate blood, they can NEVER find my vein...one time they thought they found it and then they said it jumped and my arm was bruised for weeks. Why don't my veins show? I was thinking maybe if I have fat arms since a lot of skinny people or weight lifters have their veins popping out. Does it mean I have to lose weight? Last time they had to take blood from my hand and that hurts 10x more. I've only had someone find it once and that was after squeezing my arms hard, wrapping something tight on my arms, and switching arms back and forth..it's so annoying now I'm just scared if I ever give birth b/c they'll be more problems with the IVs..ahh

I used to draw blood for the Red Cross.
Listen to me; I know what I'm talking about...drink more water, milk & juice...ESPECIALLY 3 days before having bloodwork done.
Caffeine dehydrates you & causes the veins to collapse.
The more hydrated you are, the more plump your veins will be & the less their chances of missing!
Guys tend to be more vascular (showing veins) because women "tend" to have more upper body fat, but women tolerate venipunctures better. If you can give birth; what's a freakin' needle!
Exercise will also help your veins become more visible.

Well just lift a little or loose some weight. It also shows up better if you flex your muscle.

oh well. some veins are just deeper under the skin. mine are really close to the surface in my arms and theyre easy to see. but my friends are deeper and you cant see them as well. nothing to worry about. sereously... chill. if they put an IV in they they could put them in your hand. when i had my surgery they put it there. so dont worry if they cant find it. look at all the technology they have. i will gaurentee you that they will be able to find your vein

im gonna be a jerk and say use skin whitener. makes your skin more transparent.

If youre not very athletic and have thicker skin and deeper veins this may always be a problem. Doing daily cardio excercises like treadmill or jogging, etc., may help to increase the size of your veins. As one of the other's said to increase your fluids a few hours prior to getting blood drawn may help next time.

you don't need to lose weight. that's ridiculous. my mother, for example, is a thin woman, but you can't easily find the veins in her arm, either. There isn't anything wrong with that, except it sucks to get blood drawn or get an IV or anything that involves finding a vein. It's just the way your body is made. some people have easy to find veins, and others don't. I think it has to do with the muscle in your arms. your veins are probably just underneath the muscle, so it's harder to find them. I know you're thinking that can't be true because weight-lifters have their veins popping out, but the fact is, they only "pop out" after strenuous excercise which forces the veins out; and this is what doctors have to do to find your veins - they have to sqeeze your arm and such to make it easier to find the vein. Again, it's not like body builders or weight lifters walk around with their veins popping out all the time - only when they work out. Unfortunately, I think you're just going to have to deal with this as best you can. maybe right before you go in to get blood drawn or anything like that you can flex your arm(s) a little bit to help make the veins easier to find. yes, it sucks and it can be very annoying, but there's not much of a choice. i wish you the best of luck!