Every letter needs a signature, right? While simply signing their name is common, sometimes a character feels that it's not enough (or they'd rather leave their name off the letter entirely). So they decide to sign off their letter by leaving a kiss mark at the end of it, with or without their name or a little "xoxo".
Though this is especially prevalent with Love Letters (or even Affair Letters) given the romantic nature of the content, a kiss could be left for several reasons by several different types of characters. There's usually a romantic connection between the sender and the recipient, so these exchanges are popular between partners or Love Interests. However, seductress characters may make kiss marks their preferred signature to further sell their image. Perhaps The Vamp or the Femme Fatale wants to lead detectives on a little chase, with the only clue to her identity being the lipstick stains left behind.
While letters are the most common target for kiss marks, they can also be found on other objects left for the recipient, such as presents from partners. The important part is that the kissed item, letter or otherwise, is being given to someone else and that the kiss serves as a signature — either in addition to or instead of a name. This trope is Truth in Television, as it's been common for sweethearts to leave kisses on letters to their loved ones. Even today, people might sign text messages with kiss mark emojis.
Compare Indirect Kiss. See Covered in Kisses for when a character leaves kiss marks on another character. Contrast Lipstick Mark, which is solely for kiss marks being used as a sign of infidelity (usually on a shirt collar). Not to be confused with Sealed with a Kiss (where a couple kisses at the end of the work), A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss (where a magical pact is sealed by one person kissing another) or Kissed Keepsake (where someone kisses another person, and the second person refuses to wash the kissed area).
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Case Closed has Yoko Okino reunite with her former Idol Singer group to celebrate one of them getting engaged. As the group write her a congratulatory note, one of them, Yuki Takeno, signs her message with a kiss. This ends up becoming crucial evidence when Conan finds blood traces on her kiss mark, which proves that she was the one who attempted to murder her friend Kaoru.
- At the start of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji has received a photo of Misato with her lipstick kiss on it. This is the start of their ambiguous, Mrs. Robinson-esque relationship.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: In "A Duel In Love", Syrus receives a letter with a kiss on the envelope. The letter is signed by Alexis; however, it's actually a ploy from Dr. Crowler, who intended to give it to Jaden but placed the letter in the wrong locker.
Film — Live-Action
- In Inglourious Basterds, German film actress (and secret spy for the Allies), Bridget von Hammersmark is approached by a soldier, who asks her for an autograph on behalf of his newborn son Max. After signing her name on a napkin, she adds a kiss that leaves a lipstick mark.
Literature
- Adrian J. Smith's short story Open when you miss my kisses... begins with her lamenting that she wished the letter wasn't in electronic form because then she would've kissed the paper for her wife.
- In the Qualityland novels by Marc-Uwe Kling, there is a feature named "TouchKiss" for all kinds of touchscreen devices to pay bills and confirm contracts by kissing them. The official reason for its existence is that lips are more secure than fingerprints; however, a character theorizes that the previously used fingerprint data has been hacked, thereby requiring other biometrics.
Live-Action TV
- CSI: NY: At a murder scene in a hotel room in "Sláinte", Danny & Lindsay find a lipstick kiss on the dresser's mirror. The victim had entertained a prostitute the night before he was killed and had asked her for one more kiss before she left. She kissed the mirror instead of him.
- The third episode of Five Days, "Day 28", happens to also be Matt's birthday. The police family liaison, Simone Farnes, opens and reads his birthday cards to him, with the card from everyone at the gym having a lot of kisses in it.
- The Kids in the Hall segment "Love and Sausages" shows a factory worker in a dystopian sausage factory falling in love with a woman whose job it is to kiss each cardboard box as it leaves the factory while wearing lipstick.
- NCIS: One of the second-season episodes, titled "SWAK", involved DiNozzo receiving a letter sealed with a kiss that turned out to be full of bio-engineered anthrax. The kiss on the envelope helped conceal a wad of aluminum foil that prevented the anthrax from being destroyed by the ultraviolet light hazmat prevention protocol standard to mail received by the armed forces. This forces the rest of the team to investigate the sender, who turned out to be a bio-engineering CEO and former anti-government activist, who, in a combination of derangement caused by a brain tumor and Mama Bear rage, was forcing them to investigate the cold case of her daughter's rape by a Naval officer.
Music
- The 1960 song "Sealed with a Kiss" by Peter Udell and Gary Geld (later to become a 1962 hit for Brian Hyland) has the lovers parting ways over the summer, and the man promising to send her letters every day that are "sealed with a kiss" before they pledge to meet in September.
- Britney Spears' Christmas song "My Only Wish (This Year)" mentions a wish list being sent to Santa signed and sealed with a kiss. In the wish list, the singer only asks for someone to love her.
- Each verse of Jason Derulo's "Talk Dirty" has a line about his passport being "stamped" with lipstick; essentially saying each kiss mark is a partner he had while traveling the world.
I got lipstick stamps on my passport
I think I need a new one - "Short Notes" by The Van Jets has the singer mention to his love, Sarah, that he left her either songs or poems under her pillow signed with kisses.
Podcast
- The Adventure Zone: Balance: Just before she vanished without a trace for over ten years, Lup left a note for her partner Barry that simply read, "Back soon", with a lipstick kiss at the bottom of the paper. The turns out to be very lucky in the epilogue; Barry never got rid of the note, and there were enough trace amounts of Lup's DNA on the paper for her to be magically resurrected after it was discovered she'd been dead and trapped in her lich form for that entire decade.
Theatre
- In Six: The Musical, Anne Boleyn signs a message to Henry VIII as "XO, Baby!" which scandalizes the other queens who accuse "You sent him kisses!"
Video Games
- Borderlands: In the The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, one of the sidequests has the Vault Hunters taking down four of the Crimson Lance's best assassins across several levels (the first at "T-Bone Junction", then "The Ridgeway" and twice in "Road's End"). When returning to the Crimson Tollway level in the namesake area, the Vault Hunters redeem the quest with a message signed by all that includes a kiss from Lilith, one of the game's Vault Hunters.
- In Family Mysteries 2: Echoes of Tomorrow, there's an envelope on a helicopter with a keycard in it that the protagonist can use to escape. The envelope has a kiss mark on it, letting him know it's from his wife, Tina.
- Resident Evil 4: The letters Ada leaves for Leon (a warning letter and a paper airplane) are both signed with kisses.
- Resident Evil 6: Ada leaves a rocket launcher for Leon on the roof alongside a helicopter to escape. The RPG has a kiss on the warhead so that he knows it's from her.
- Skylar from The Saboteur sends her letters to Sean on pink paper signed with a lipstick mark.
- Serious Sam 4: After Ugh-Zan VI is killed, the cast still needs to close the Tunguska portal to stop Mental's Horde from swarming through. They send a nuke with a naked General Brand duct taped to it through the portal, but also decide to paint "From Earth With Love" complete with a kiss from Hellfire onto the nuke for good measure.
Web Animation
- Happy Tree Friends: In Giggles' Valentine Smoochie, if you click on "Note", Giggles will kiss a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. When she licks it to seal it, she gets a paper cut so deep it cuts the end of her tongue off. She tries to reattach it but apparently dies of blood loss in the process. When she passes out, the paper she kissed flies from her hand and lands on the screen, reading "Happy Valentines Day!" with Giggles' kiss mark next to it.
Webcomic
- Cursed Princess Club: When Abbi concocts a magic potion that will allegedly undo the Cursed Princess Club members' curses for one day, one of the potion's instructions is to write a wish on a piece of paper and then kiss the paper before drinking the potion. Naturally, most if not all the princesses write wishes concerning their romantic dreams on the papers. The potion itself ends up a dud because of a mix-up with the ingredients, but the notes become a Chekhov's Gun: Gwendolyn figures out that the one sending her messages goading her into entering the barn against the Club's rules was Aurelia because Aurelia's curse gave her acidic saliva, and Aurelia's otherwise unsigned wish note with handwriting identical to the mysterious messages has a corroded kiss mark from that acid.
Western Animation
- In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Laughing Fish", Harley tosses a joker card with a black lipstick print into the harbor where The Joker (apparently) met his demise.
- In the Donald Duck cartoon "The Autograph Hound", Donald meets Shirley Temple and asks for her autograph. After she does, she dots the I by kissing it.
- When the two main characters of Paperman (named George and Meg, although it is not mentioned in the film) meet, one of George's papers flies into Meg's face, leaving an imprint of her lipstick on it. Later, George spots Meg in the building across the street and tries to get her attention with paper airplanes, including one made from the paper with her lipstick. The paper planes fail to reach her, but later, when George is leaving, the planes start moving on their own and push George and Meg together; Meg specifically gets the lipstick plane, clueing her in on what's happening.
- Rocko's Modern Life: Rocko's mailwoman crush sends him a letter that had a lipstick kiss sealing the envelope; the name of the episode was "S.W.A.K.", as in, Sealed With A Kiss.
Real Life
- In the 1940s
, women would send letters to servicemen stationed abroad. These letters were put in envelopes that the women would kiss as a secondary signature, as each women's kiss mark was unique in color and lip shape.
