Badly bruised and sharp pain after donating blood for first time?

I donated blood for the first time on Saturday. They told me they could not find my vein because I was not hydrated enough, but they ended up finding it (or so they say). I did feel a fair amount of pain when they were inserting the needle. After 9 hours I took off the band-aid and noticed prominent dark red spots on my arm. The next morning it bruised very badly. For the past few days I've been getting sharp pains shooting up my arm and weird feelings around the area where it is bruised. I have included a picture of what it looked like on Sunday. It;s starting to lighten up...fairly little though. I talked to a nurse yesterday and she said they may have punctued an artery, she didnt look too concerned though....any ideas? Is this normal? Should I get it checked out?
Link: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v667/m...

Some other info: I'm 17, female, 170lbs, 5'1. I donated with Canadian Blood Services...with registered nurses

You look fine to me, I bruise like that too and bruising is more noticable on light skin. No doubt the bleeding from the needle stick did not clot right away and some blood seeped out of the whole in the vein, nothing to worry about. The best thing you can do is rub the area where it hurts, it's just dried blood under the skin and will go away on its own. The needle may have been pretty large which is why the site kept bleeding. The bruising will go away and you will be fine, no need to worry. Take care.

YUCK.

Well, they didn't "get it right", and the person attempting to insert it should really not be working in this area. :-(

I have small veins--so I've been told--and have had difficulty in giving blood, probably just due to the "small veins". Perhaps you have something similar. In any event, if someone says that they "can't find your vein", then ask for someone else.

For NOW, I would suggest that "sharp pains shooting up your arm" ARE reason to see a doctor rather than taking a nurse's opinion.

Clearly, not all RNs working with CBS are of the level of experience one would desire in a position which consists entirely of inserting the tubes properly...sheesh!

Take care. :-(