History Main / TaintedVeins

*** When Thor and Loki are zapped by the [[ShockCollar shock devices]] (which likely contains a neurotoxin) for long enough, they develop purple veins.

*** When Thor and Loki are zapped by the [[ShockCollar shock devices]] for long enough, they develop purple veins.

** Instead of the expected fire effects, movieverse Jean Grey/Phoenix gets Tainted Veins and BlackEyesOfEvil when in Dark Phoenix mode in X3.

** ''Film/ThorRagnarok''

* Tony Stark's Palladium poisoning in ''Film/IronMan2'' displayed these symptoms.

->''"He has veins on his forehead now, which is the official ''Franchise/StarTrek'' code for "This poor bastard is in for a horribly painful transformation and/or death." Seriously, if you are ever yourself in a ''Star Trek'' episode and you see this happening to yourself'', [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled turn your phaser on yourself]]. ''There is no hope if you have a veiny head unless you are an alien or a main cast member. Just put yourself out of your own misery."''

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'':
** When the supervillain Virus injects his victims with the mind-control serum, their veins turn dark green around the injection site.
** Cyborg supervillain La Constructeuse has this sort of thing going on with her own body, but the vein-tracery looks like circuitry.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'' this was the first sign that a drug user was infected with the virus Poppy tainted the drugs with; blue veins started appearing all over the user's body.

* Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo: After Apollo gets [[spoiler: scratched by a [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier eurynomos]]]] the infection that threatens to eventually kill him and raise him as a [[OurZombiesAreDifferent vrykolakas]], he slowly starts to get purple veins spreading all over his body. A sign that the infection is reaching its final stages.

** In ''Literature/ProvenGuilty'', when Harry looks upon a heroin addict with the Sight and sees her addiction manifesting as green-black veins under her skin ending at dozens of tiny, hungry mouths opening and closing where her needle marks were in the real world.

* In the ''Literature/ChaosGods'' series, when the demonic energy tainting Ki's body rises to the surface, her skin becomes covered in black lines.

* ''Literature/ShadesOfMagic'' has a HarmonyVersusDiscipline divide over how people use magic. Those who try to impose their will over magic for brute power have their veins turn black, which is implied to be a [[TheDarkside very bad thing]]. The same happens to people who are being infected and overwhelmed by a sentient magical effect, in which case they have much more immediate problems.

* Dark Willow on ''Series/{{Buffy|The Vampire Slayer}}''.

* In ''Series/{{Helix}},'' victims of TheVirus develop black veins, particularly visible in the denuded infected lab rats the CDC researchers use for testing.

* Zhu'er's (Yin Li) disfigurement in the 2019 adaptation of Literature/HeavenSwordAndDragonSabre.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'':
** Eclipsa and [[spoiler: Moon]] have dark purple veins on their hands as a result of using dark magic.

This is a JustifiedTrope (TropesAreNotBad): There are toxins that cause venous thrombosis (clotting of blood in veins) which can make surface veins visible and dark -- especially if the clotting is in deep tissue in an affected limb.

* In 'Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'', the magic sword Nightblood feeds on the magic energy (called Breath) of whoever is holding it when it is fully drawn. It destroys anything it touches into a cloud of black smoke, but if the wielder run out of Breaths [[spoiler: or [[Literature/TheStormlightArchive Stormlight]]]], black veins begin to climb up their arm as the sword consumes their life force. Despite all that, the sword is was created to do ''good'', with the magic purpose of destroying evil.

* Nightblood, the animated sword from ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' feeds on the magic energy (called Breath) of whoever is holding it. If they run out of Breaths [[spoiler: or [[Literature/TheStormlightArchive Stormlight]]]], black veins begin to climb up their arm as the sword consumes their life force. Despite all that, the sword is was created to do ''good'', with the magic purpose of destroying evil.

* BigBad Salem from ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' sports prominent black veins all over her body, including on her exposed hands and face. This is apparently normal for... whatever she is.