History Main / FingerLickingPoison

* In an old ''Series/PerryMason'' episode, it turns out the murder weapon was poison on a brooch and a dress with no pockets. The murderer was the dress designer and the victim was the model picked to show off the dress in question. The dress was designed to wrap around the wearer in a complicated way that required both hands to accomplish, and then be pinned closed with the brooch. Since the dress had no pockets, of course the model put the brooch in her mouth while tying the dress and got a lethal dose of the poison. The murderer tried to cover up the method by putting more poison into the bottle of champagne used to toast the success of the fashion show, but of course Perry saw through that one.

* In ''Manga/DetectiveConan'', a man was murdered via [[spoiler: poison applied to the temperature control of a cooking range on which a pot of water was boiling, after which he counted money and licked the poison from his fingers]].

** In "Damned If You Do...", the VictimOfTheWeek if poisoned by a lethal dose of poison being placed on the end of his pen before he retires to write a speech. The killer then poisons the dinner being eating by everyone, including themself, with a milder dose in an attempt to make it appear he died from food poisoning.

* ''[[Series/EleventhHour 11th Hour]]'' used this one early in its first (only?) season.

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* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': twice, with the same method. First the prologue of A Feast for Crows: [[spoiler: The Alchemist (Jaqen H'ghar's new personality) pays Pate, a novice in the Citadel with a poisoned coin. Pate bites the coin, then the dust.]] Second, [[spoiler:Arya's first sanctioned killing in Dance: she deliberately botches a cutpursery to replace one of the coins of a ship owner with a poisoned one. The owner then pays a greedy insurer with said coin. The insurer also has a habit of biting the coins...]].

* In awful sex comedy ''Film/TheNakedDetective'', this trope was [[InvertedTrope inverted]] by having it be the way the murder method was ''identified'', rather than committed. The detective had been leaning against the window frame while reading the decedent's will, licked his fingers to turn the page and immediately spat at the awful taste... and realised that the dead guy's antacid pills had been left on the same window earlier while [[spoiler:his germophobic son was spraying bug repellent everywhere, inadvertently poisoning them]].

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Literature/FeetOfClay'', this is one of the theories as to how [[spoiler:Vetinari]] got poisoned, in an obvious shoutout to ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose''.

* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'': In an attempt to keep [[spoiler:Creator/{{Aristotle}}'s ''Poetics'']] hidden, an evil monk poisons the page corners so anyone who reads it will die before they can tell others about it.
** In ''The Island of the Day Before'', Eco mentions it again as a ProductionThrowback.

* This technique is mentioned in ''Literature/BridgeOfBirds'', with the added element that the books in question were pornographic.
* Classic example: in Alexandre Dumas' ''Literature/LaReineMargot'' (AKA ''Marguerite de Valois''), a poisoned book is used in attempt on King Henry of Navarre's life, but the plan backfires with disastrous results. Earlier in the same novel, an even more devious plan to poison Henry via his paramour's lipstick is employed [[spoiler: but thwarted by the would-be poisoner who couldn't murder said paramour in cold blood]].
* While it isn't poison, per se, in ''Literature/RedSeasUnderRedSkies'', the two Gentlemen Bastards use this as a way to cheat at an uncheatable casino. They're playing cards against a pair of women, one of whom is known to eat chocolates and lick her fingers as a part of her mental game to throw off her opponents. So they dust their suit linings with a powerful sleeping drug so they can keep coating the cards with it. This works especially well since the game also requires that whoever loses a particular hand must down a shot of liquor, with the losing team being the one that has one of its teammates pass out.

* The Season 4 episode [[spoiler:"Damned If You Do..."]] of ''Series/DeathInParadise'' uses a poisoned scratch pad to off its VictimOfTheWeek.

* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' Funnel kills a member of the League of Assassins by poisoning the crucifix she knows he always kisses after completing a kill.

* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' [[{{Defictionalization}} stamp-collecting]], the original Assassins' Guild 3p stamp (the Thrupenny Dreadful), is very rare, at least gummed. The in-universe reason for this is that they were recalled due to unsubstantiated rumours that the Guild was using it to fulfill contracts.

* Non-poison example: In ''Red Seas Under Red Skies'', Locke and Jean win a card game by sprinkling a sleep-inducing drug on the cards. One of their opponents is notorious for eating and licking her fingers while she plays, and she forfeits the game when the drug puts her to sleep.
* ''Literature/JoePickett'': In ''In Plain Sight'', J.W. Keely murders a prisoner by smuggling him a can of chewing tobacco laced with cyanide. He hopes that the prison guard who probed the tobacco with his finger doesn't lick his fingers afterwards.
* ''Literature/TheThinkingMachine'': In "My First Experience with the Great Logician", the narrator accidentally poisons himself by smoking a cigar he stored in a jacket pocket where, several months earlier, he had carried a packet of insecticidal powder. Some of the powder had leaked and coated the tip of the cigar.

* There was a ''Series/RemingtonSteele'' episode where the poison was in the glue on some envelopes Steele and Laura were expected to lick.
** This is either ripped off or [[{{Homage}} homaged]] on ''Series/PortCharles'' where an enemy of Scott's does the same thing to him. Aside from sickening Scott, there's a very tense scene where his daughter Serena almost licks one of them.
* In ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' George's fiancee is accidentally poisoned by the cheap glue on the wedding invitation envelopes, because George was too stingy to pay for better ones (and too lazy to seal any invitations himself).
** And Susan herself was too stupid to use a sponge rather than lick the envelopes herself---poison or not, those seals taste terrible.
* In the ''Series/JonathanCreek'' episode "The House Of Monkeys" the victim was sent a request for a signed copy of his book. The murderer included a stamped addressed envelope to send the book in... stamped, addressed and poisoned with a psychotropic drug on the flap you lick.

* In the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Poison," the team discovers that groups of people who had been slipped LSD had ingested it by licking bank envelopes whose seals were coated in the drug. Later in the same episode, the [=UnSub=] tries to poison a group of people with botulism via the same method.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Benson}}'', a person with a habit of sucking on the earpiece of his reading glasses was killed by poison placed on the earpiece.
* In an old ''Series/PerryMason'' episode, it turns out the murder weapon was poison on a brooch and a dress with no pockets. The murderer was the dress designer and the victim was the model picked to show off the dress in question. The dress was designed to wrap around the wearer in a complicated way that required both hands to accomplish, and then be pinned closed with the brooch. Since the dress had no pockets, of course the model put the brooch in her mouth while tying the dress and got a lethal dose of the poison. The murderer tried to cover up the method by putting more poison into the bottle of champagne used to toast the success of the fashion show, but of course Perry saw through that one.
* ''Series/FatherBrown'':
** In "The Time Machine", one victim was killed by having strychnine placed in the bowl of his pipe.
** In "The Wrath of Baron Samedi", a musician is murdered when the killer coats the reed of his saxophone in poison. The killer later dusts Father Brown's toothbrush with the same poison.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', this is one of the theories as to how [[spoiler:Vetinari]] got poisoned, in an obvious shoutout to ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose''.

* ''Series/DeathInParadise'' has done this twice. In the first case, [[spoiler: it was stamps]], and the twist was that the murder was based on knowing the victim's habits, allowing the murderer to be flying on an airplane at the time of the murder. In the second, [[spoiler: it was an envelope]], and the twist was that the dose had been low enough to be slow-acting, allowing the murderer to be conveniently away and then return when the victim collapses to plant a much higher (and therefore fast-acting) dose [[spoiler: in the victim's champagne glass]], making it look as if the victim had been poisoned in a very short gap of time for which the murderer had the perfect alibi of being nowhere near.

* The stamp variant occurs in a series 3 episode of ''Series/DeathInParadise'': the murderer knows that the victim writes postcards each time she lands somewhere new, including licking stamps to send them, and uses this knowledge to poison the stamps and thus the vic. [[spoiler: And in doing so gets an alibi since the actual death occurs on the ground while the murderer is still on an aeroplane en route.]]

* In the old TV show, ''WesternAnimation/JacobTwoTwo'', a bad guy puts into motion a plot to kill people via this method. [[spoiler:He fails]]
** It wasn't murder he was after; he wanted to brainwash them into buying his products. [[spoiler: He failed because the titular character and his best friend didn't lick their fingers while reading and so were able to figure out his scam.]]

* OlderThanPrint: ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The Arabian Nights]]'' tale ''The Tale of the Vizier and the Sage Duban'', wherein the Duban, sentenced to execution by a treacherous king, gives him a book with orders not to read it until after his head has been cut off. After that's done, the head comes back to life and instructs the king to turn three pages with his left hand. When the king turns the pages (naturally, licking his finger along the way) and finds nothing written there, the Duban essentially tells him the pages were poisoned and if the Duban had to go, he was [[TakingYouWithMe taking the king with him]]. CrowningMomentOfAwesome for a [[LosingYourHead severed head]]. (Unfortunately, this makes the vizier who ''caused'' the execution a KarmaHoudini, as he didn't touch the book and sure as hell wouldn't after seeing what happened to his king.)

** In an episode of ''Series/{{CSINy}}'', a woman is killed via poisoned toenail polish, worn by the young woman working as the "table" at a restaurant serving BodySushi. [[spoiler:The young woman was the victim's former personal assistant, fired after refusing her boss's sexual advances and unable to find better work than the body sushi job. On discovering her former PA's new job, the victim took to specifically requesting her table in order to continue harassing her, and particularly enjoyed sucking on the young woman's toes.]]

** One episode involved poison-laced nail polish.

* In the old TV show, ''JacobTwoTwo'', a bad guy puts into motion a plot to kill people via this method. [[spoiler:He fails]]

* In the first book of the "Grimtooths Traps" series by Flying Buffalo had an 'additional trap', to 'punish' players who read the book. On the trap page, Grimtooth claimed that the book pages had been liberally coated with a deadly neurotoxin absorbed through the skin ... with two blackened fingerprint outlines right where a normal reader would hold the book when reading.

* In an old ''{{Perry Mason}}'' episode, it turns out the murder weapon was poison on a brooch and a dress with no pockets. The murderer was the dress designer and the victim was the model picked to show off the dress in question. The dress was designed to wrap around the wearer in a complicated way that required both hands to accomplish, and then be pinned closed with the brooch. Since the dress had no pockets, of course the model put the brooch in her mouth while tying the dress and got a lethal dose of the poison. The murderer tried to cover up the method by putting more poison into the bottle of champagne used to toast the success of the fashion show, but of course Perry saw through that one.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' did this one -- during the course of an attempted murder, the apparent victim spilled ricin on her pen, and then killed herself by biting the end of it. [[ArtisticLicenseBiology This isn't actually possible]], as while injected ricin kills in very small doses, a human body can survive ingesting nearly a whole gram of it.
** Another ''CSI'' episode involved poison-laced nail polish.

* In one episode of ''{{Benson}}'', a person with a habit of sucking on the earpiece of his reading glasses was killed by poison placed on the earpiece.

* While it isn't poison, per se, in ''Literature/RedSeasUnderRedSkies'', the two remaining Gentlemen Bastards use this as a way to cheat at an uncheatable casino. They're playing cards against a pair of women, one of whom is known to eat chocolates and lick her fingers as a part of her mental game to throw off her opponents. So they dust their suit linings with a powerful sleeping drug so they can keep coating the cards with it. This works especially well since the game is

* ''The Three Widows'', by ElleryQueen had a victim being slowly poisoned even though everything she ate and drank was carefully screened beforehand. It turned out the would-be killer was [[spoiler: her doctor]] and the poison was [[spoiler: on the thermometer with which he took her temperature each day.]]

* ''Series/DeathInParadise'': In "Damned If You Do...", the VictimOfTheWeek if poisoned by a lethal dose of poison being placed on the end of his pen before he retires to write a speech. The killer then poisons the dinner being eating by everyone, including themself, with a milder dose in an attempt to make it appear he died from food poisoning.