I've been playing guitar for a few years now and I play pretty hard so my finger tips get really rough and callused, but they still bleed sometime and I've practically ripped nails completely off my strumming hand because I always end up dropping the Goddamned pick so my hands are a bloody, blistery, ragged, and callused mess and I've tried everything. I can put lotion on my hands because it make my fingers too slippery to grip the strings and I've tried taping my nails down and though that helps a little it doesn't solve the problem.

But, one thing I recently learned that's really worked is Super Glue. If you glue your finger tips together and then rip them apart over and over again, it not only smooths out the calluses a little but it also protects the skin so they don't get more calluses or bleed or blister or anything.

Cheers,
Lost

Uh, dude, if you have callouses, you shoudn't bleed. I had mine for 6 years, until last week, when I got sick, and my skin got all nasty, and it just started falling off. Playing hurts sooo bad now. I never realized how intensive some of the playing I do is.