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Like a cute little ink drop.
Beauty marks are facial moles. They are called that because over the course of history, they have at times been considered an attractive feature. Generally, to be considered attractive, a mole has to be small, not protrude from the person's face, and definitely not have any hairs growing from it. They will usually be either above the lip or below the eye. Fake beauty marks have sometimes been fashionable, especially in the 18th century. Most fake moles were made of silk or velvet, and were sometimes cut into shapes like stars or hearts.
This trope is about how facial moles have been handled in fiction, whether they were true Beauty Marks or just plain disgusting moles. There have been dozens of stories resolved because of the discovery of "the family birthmark". A common gag in comedies featuring a character with a mole is having it explicitly revealed to be fake, or else have the mole spontaneously move around the character's face between close-ups. Occasionally, the Chosen One has this. And occasionally, just occasionally, the presence of a mole means a skin cancer plot is approaching.
In anime, a tragic character will sometimes have a mole near the outside corner of one eye, because in Japan such a mark symbolizes a hard, sad life—the placement calls to mind a tear of sorrow.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Konata Izumi (as well as her dad) in Lucky Star.
- The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya: Kyon has one on his neck, but it didn't seem to allude to anything.
- And Mikuru has one in the shape of a star on her left breast. It's a plot point because older Mikuru uses it to identify herself to Kyon.
- A mole on the back of the neck means the person is in danger, which being the love interest of a Tsundere who subconsciously can alter reality, he certainly is.
- Kagehoshi in Flame of Recca has two on her chin, and when she's described as having "two moles" Recca corrects the person who says it and calls them "beauty marks".
- Ritsuko in Neon Genesis Evangelion. In one darkly flirtatious scene, Kaji even reminds her of the connection to tragedy while touching her cheek.
- Chizuru in Mahou Sensei Negima!.
- From The Demon Ororon, Ororon and Othello are rare male examples. The former has three moles underneath the left eye, and the latter has only one.
- Rui Kisugi, resident heroic Femme Fatale from Cat's Eye has one on her cheek.
- Chiyoko Fujiwara in Millennium Actress has the classic anime tragic mole near the corner of her left eye.
- White in Tekkon Kinkreet also has the traditional 'tragic' mark underneath his right eye
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- Yukina from Senko No Night Raid has one mole on each cheek.
- Sasha in Seikon No Qwaser has one to go with his brusque Anti-Hero attitude.
- Albert from Gankutsuou has a tragic mole by the corner of his left eye.
- Mercédès, Albert's mother, has one under her mouth.
- Elliot Nightray of Pandora Hearts has a tragic mole by the corner of his left eye.
- Tyki Mikk of D. Gray-Man has one under his left eye.
- Ayumu Yamazaki of Peacemaker Kurogane has one near the corner of her mouth.
- In Full Metal Panic Creepy Twins Yu Lan Xia and Xia Yu Fan both have one at the corner of their eyes.
- Yukio Washimine of Black Lagoon has one under her mouth.
- Karin: There's one near the corner of Fumio Usui's right eye.
- Kohane of xxxHOLiC has one near the corner of her left eye.
- Maria Ross in Fullmetal Alchemist has one too. When Envy impersonates her he forgets to add it, so Hughes realizes something's up. It doesn't save him.
- Nuriko of Fushigi Yuugi.
- Vash from Trigun has the standard teardrop mole under his left eye. In the manga his twin brother Knives has one under his right eye.
- Austria from Axis Powers Hetalia has one on his jaw near the left corner of his mouth.
- Matsumoto of Bleach has one beneath her lower lip.
- Fried from Fairy Tail.
- Yukio from Blue Exorcist has three (two under the left eye and one on his chin).
- Neu from Weiss Kreuz is revealed to have the tragic variety when Youji breaks her visor. As does Asuka, Youji's dead love interest. Guess what: they're the same person, and it... fits.
- The eponymous Tomie can be identified by the beauty mark below her eye.
- Wapourif has a beauty mark under her mouth.
- Hisaya Miki of Beelzebub has two, one under the outside corner of each eye. Considering his rather traumatic middle school experiences, it's apt.
- THE iDOLM@STER - Kotori
- Lancer from Fate Zero has a small beauty mark under one of his eyes. This not only serves as the usual shorthand for a tragic life, but is also indicates that his true identity is Diarmuid ua Duibhne of the Love Spot.
- Akashi and Hanuki from The Tatami Galaxy.
- In Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, the twin sisters Noel and Karen both have beauty marks. Karen has one under her right eye and Noel has one under her left eye.
Comic Books
Film
- The Mole has a huge hairy one above his lip in Austin Powers, culminating in a memorable rant as Austin tries to get it out of his system.
- In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Prince John's mole moves around his face, seemingly at random.
Sheriff of Rottingham: Correct me if I'm wrong but, wasn't your mole on...the other side?
John: I have a mole?
- In Thoroughly Modern Milly, Julie Andrews has a false beauty mark that sticks to a guys face when she's making out with him.
- In The Artist, George draws one on Peppy, telling her she needs something to make her stand out if she wants to be famous. It works almost too well.
- In Willow, even the infant queen Elora Danaan had one.
- In the original film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy had "the mark of the Chosen One", a mole. Buffy was less than impressed.
Buffy: "All I want to do is graduate from high school, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater, and die. Now it may not sound too great to a sconehead like you, but I think it's swell. And you come along and tell me I'm a member of the hairy mole club so you can * throw* things at me?"
- In Batman Forever, Edward Nygma subconsciously idolizes Bruce Wayne, so when he pretends to be a rich industrialist, he copies everything Bruce does, including having a (fake) mole.
Edward Nygma: "How's my mole?"
Sugar: (exasperated) "Fine."
- In Hot Shots Part Deux, Michelle Huddleston gives Topper Harley a mole from her face after sleeping with him. It later becomes a plot point.
- There's a mole gag in the recent film remake of The Producers that serves mainly to showcase (again) how over-the-top the Camp Gay director and his assistant/lover are.
- And who could forget the principal from Uncle Buck?
- Of course there's the classic movie The Court Jester. The heir to the throne had a royal birthmark, on his royal backside. This frequently involved Danny Kaye flashing the baby's bottom at crowds of people, when they would instantly bow down in reverence.
- In The Princess and the Frog, Charlotte adds a fake one in one of her vainer and sillier moments.
Literature
- In Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Clarice Starling has gunpowder burned into her cheek. It's noted that it is placed in a way that the French call 'courage'.
Live Action TV
- An episode of The Nanny had Fran accidentally discover that a famous celebrity's famous beauty mark was fake and accidentally tell Cindy Adams.
- In Brazilian historical Soap Xica da Silva slutty dressmaker Elvira has a fake one, specially brought up from France. She places it in her cleavage.
- Audrey Horne in Twin Peaks has one next to her left eye.
- Since she's played by Angel Coulby, Gwen in Merlin has one of the "nice" kind.
Manhua
Professional Wrestling
- WWE wrestler Jillian Hall had a disgustingly mutated fake one when she debuted. To make matters worse, she ditched that gimmick when The Boogeyman ate it. And now she has horrible singing.
Video Games
- Mia Fey in Phoenix Wright has one on her chin, and when she possesses Maya and Pearl it shows up as well.
- Faridah Malik from Deus Ex Human Revolution has one, which is unusual for a character as tomboyish as she.
- Margaret Moonlight of No More Heroes has one on her lower left cheek. It makes sense when you see her picture...
- Hilde of Soulcalibur IV has a rather prominent one just to the left of her mouth.
- Tira (debuting in III) also sports one, under her right eye.
- From Final Fantasy: Lulu and Fang both have beauty marks to accentuate their statuses.
- Nouhime, wife of Oda Nobunaga from Samurai Warriors. Also, Zhen Ji of Dynasty Warriors. Both are stunningly beautiful.
- Hikari Hinomoto of Tokimeki Memorial 2 has a mole at the bottom outside corner of her left eye. It's a visual trademark of hers ; however, she averts the Japanese symbol mentioned, as she's a Genki Girl who's very likely to become the Main Protagonist's Victorious Childhood Friend.
- Dr Strangelove in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has one below her lower lip, although in her case it's possibly a symptom of her sun sensitivity caused by her leucism. The Boss has a Japanese teardrop mole.
- We finally see that Samus Aran has one in Metroid: Other M.
- I-no of Guilty Gear.
- Prier of La Pucelle has one too, under her left eye. Indeed, she also has a tragic backstory like in the anime examples.
- The Three Sisters in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals are perfectly identical in every way except for the color of their clothes, and the location of their respective beauty marks.
- Luise from KOF:Maximum Impact 2
Webcomics
Western Animation
Real Life
- Marilyn Monroe's beauty mark (now pictured above) generated a new vogue for the things.
- Elizabeth Taylor also had a mole on her cheek. She recalled that in her teens, the studio wanted her to remove it, but she resisted.
- Robia La Morte has a beauty mark on the left side of her neck - shown or not shown depending on the role (shown in Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
- The Chinese predict a person's personality and love life based on the position of facial moles, much like palm reading.
- Koji Seto, best known for starring on Kamen Rider Kiva, has a few; the most noticeable are the three under his left eye (shown here◊.)
- Koshi Inaba of B'z has one on his chin◊. Among B'z fans, it has reached memetic level with many joking it is his source of power.
- Angel Coulby has one on her cheek, near her nose.
- The late pornstar Britney Madison.
- Like Cindy Crawford and Niki Taylor, fellow model Kate Upton sports one (on the right side of her face just above her upper lip).
- Blake Lively has one near her nose on the right.
- Paula Abdul's left cheek has one.
- Ginger Rogers had a rather large one on her jaw just below the left corner of her mouth. It was usually covered up with makeup in most movies and publicity photos from early in her carrier.
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