Up For Grabs

Description:

For some reason, a character never leaves home without donning either a pair of gloves, or a single glove. If the glove is worn only on one hand, it is always the same hand. The gloves might be worn to hide a Red Right Hand, hide an injury, hide a prosthesis, a social stigma, or simply personal preference.

Similarly to Sunglasses At Night, wearing a glove or gloves at all times is both cool and conspicuous.

Examples:

Anime

• In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gendo always wears gloves, and they cover burns he receives in an early episode rescuing Rei. He later has an embryo Eldritch Abomination implanted in one of his hands, which make the gloves even more necessary.
• In Darker Than Black, Kirihara's superior always wears gloves. Turns out he has prosthetic hands.

Comic Books

• DC Comics' Heroic Fantasy hero Claw the Unconquered had a literal demonic hand, hidden under a red glove to reduce its evil influence on him.

Film

• Characters engaging in a stealthy activity (such as a burglary or a covert operation) or as part of a special commando unit are very frequently pictured with gloves, either for protection or to avoid leaving any traces. Military personnel in war movies may also be equipped with the fingerless version as part of their uniform.
• The protagonist in V For Vendetta wears gloves and a mask at all times because he was tortured and disfigured as a prisoner.

Literature

• In A Song Of Ice And Fire, while it would make sense to wear gloves often anyway, since he's in the cold North, Jon Snow wears gloves at all times anyway, because in the first novel, he got a burn on one of his hands.
  • The smuggler turned knight Davos also wears gloves at all times, because in the interest of "justice", Stannis rewarded him by knighting him, but also felt it necessary to chop off all of his fingertips on one hand as punishment for his earlier crimes.
• Serpine from the first Skulduggery Pleasant book wears one glove, which does in fact cover his Red Right Hand.

Theatre

• I'm not certain if this is a detail mentioned in the original play, but in performances of Richard III, it's not uncommon for Richard to wear a glove over his withered hand.

Western Animation

• In Aladin The Animated Series, the Evil Sorceror Mozenrath wears a magical gauntlet that stripped the skin and flesh from his hand as a price. Under the gauntlet, his hand is just bone.

Real Life

• Michael Jackson is famous for wearing a single white glove.
• Some martial artists wear gloves during matches. Typically, boxers usually wear puffy red gloves during competitions, and muay thai practitioners traditionally pad their hands with strips of cloth.