Vangardist's third issue has been printed with red ink mixed with the blood of three HIV+ donors, in an effort to destigmatise the AIDS virus. (The ratio is one part blood to twenty-eight parts ink.) The magazine is available in a limited edition of 2,500 copies; each one is sealed in a Mylar wrapper (like Madonna's Sex book), and the blood has been sterilised to prevent infection. The cover declares: "THIS MAGAZINE HAS BEEN PRINTED WITH THE BLOOD OF HIV+ PEOPLE".
The art installation Happy Hour (1998) by Fernando Arias also used HIV+ blood to destigmatise AIDS; Arias placed the infected blood in a sealed cocktail glass. Also, Geoffrey Robertson wrote in his memoir The Justice Game (1998) that, as a director of the ICA, he cancelled an appearance by "an HIV-positive performance artist whose idea of attaining empathy with his audience was to splatter them with infected blood (his own)."