Myers sampling kit doesn't protect you when trying to gather blood by using proper tools, and 17 fire defense doesn't help, either. Wearing a containment suit would seem like it might protect you, but then you wouldn't be able to wear the hospital pants.
I was able to gather wearing a frigid scarf, cosplay polearm, Midgard blastshield, holocaust coat, wispy hospital pants and a Myers sampling kit. The only difference in equipment from my previous attempt is the cosplay polearm instead of a fire axe.
My effects were Puzzled Out, Sparkling Blood, Bone Spikes, Bone Eye, Burning Vision, Ocean Sight. I may not have had the bone/burning vision stuff active last time.
Also, with all of the above, swapping the Myers sampling kit for a flower of the dragon resulted in me dying again. So I'm not sure what's up.
Edit: Heard back from Kinak. Looks like we'll want to disregard previous data points on gathering blood.
There's various weapons that cover your hands (antique control glove, grappler gauntlets, Midgard heavy gauntlets, Moodlight glove, ghoul maw?, etc.) — may be something to try.
After slaying dragon, I could not pluck the flower, despite having Burning Vision. I think that might have been a coincidence when it seemed like that helped before?
Failed with:
2 Etheric Power
4 Evasion Power
3 Fire Power
6 Melee Power
9 Etheric Defense
2 Melee Defense
-3 Fire Defense
22 Etheric, 22 Burning Vision
But —- managed to gather blood with:
Hat: (None)
Weapon: Midgard heavy gauntlets
Offhand: (None)
Shirt: (None)
Pants: wispy hospital pants
Gadget: Myers sampling kit
You gather a flask of the pooling blood, thankful that none of the droplets burn through your top's weighty gloves. The fluid sputters and hisses in the flask.
You found: dragon blood
EDIT: antique control glove, grappler gauntlets, Midgard heavy gauntlets, Moodlight glove, ghoul maw all (almost suspiciously) worked, and gave the "top's weighty gloves" message, which may not be quite right.
Trying to gather blood with the flower of the dragon equipped doesn't seem to do anything other than get you killed because of a lack of a sampling kit. The fact that the flower is a gadget while the encounters we've found that use it don't require it to be equipped seems suspicious, though.
With 4 EP, I failed to pluck the flower.
Swapped out my fire etched sword for a black gemstone (now at 12 EP), I successfully plucked it. Both cases had Burning Vision. Is this an Etheric Power check?