Can have Unfortunate Implications, so sometimes instead of being "black" or "brown", they're colored with other spectrums of darker colors, with red being particularly common.
Do not confuse with someone who is merely sporty or blue-collar, such as someone with dark skin and red hair; that is just the effect of natural sunshine and outdoor work. The dark skinned blond tends to be an exotic racial characteristic.
Contrast Undeathly Pallor.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Sailor Pluto from Sailor Moon; while she's the soldier of time, not necessarily a bad power in itself, she is a Well-Intentioned Extremist in one arc, she gives off a mysterious and wise aura and is suspected to be thousands of years old, and her powers have a lot of forbidden aspects that could tear the timeline apart. Thank goodness for Stable Time Loops. It's also notable that a common theory based upon one line in the manga suggests that she's a demigoddess.
- Buso Renkin: Those becoming a Victor are able to take on a heavily tanned or bronzed form that becomes permanent once they reach Stage 2 of their transformation. Once a they reaches Stage 3, as Victor himself did towards the end of the series, their skin-tone darkens even more, becoming blackened as if burned or in permanent shadow.
- In every adaptation of Devil Man, Akira Fudo ends up having a tan after being possessed by Amon.The DEVILMAN crybaby adaptation has something similar with Miko.
- Archer from Fate/stay night. Especially noticeable in that his past self, Shirou, did not have this tan; it's a side effect of pushing his powers past their limits so much.
- Relatedly, Chloe von Einzbern from Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, a magical clone of the titular Illya. Something about being spawned from Archer's Class Card caused Chloe to inherit most of Archer's color scheme.
- Also in Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, Miyu's brother has a patchy and incomplete version of this covering part of the face and arms.
- And now in Fate/Grand Order we have Assassin EMIYA. No, not Shirou, but Kiritsugu.
- As of 2018, Okita Souji Alter has likewise joined the ranks of the Counter-Guardians.
- Akio (and Anthy) from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
- Urd from Ah! My Goddess, and her mother Hild, the Queen of Nifleheim.
- Angol Moa from Sgt. Frog.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Rudger Godwin, following his death and rebirth as a Dark Signer.
Literature
- Depictions of the Devil in the 19th century often described him as a figure all in black; including swarthy skin, as if blackened by soot; Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a good example.
- In the short story "The Wild Asses of the Devil" by H. G. Wells, a demon turns up in the form of a charcoal burner, complete with soot-darkened skin.
- H. P. Lovecraft described Nyarlathotep as having jet-black skin.
Mythology
- Hades, aka Pluto, God of the Underworld, was often described as dark-skinned, when he wasn't described as pale.
- It should be noted that since black-figure pottery typically depicted all males with black skin (females were often white) and there were very few depictions of Hades in Classical art, it would be tough to argue Hades was intentionally depicted differently from other male figures.
- Satan, in typical Fire and Brimstone Hell Big Red Devil depictions, has red skin from the fire below.
- Surt from Norse Mythology is frequently depicted with black skin.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: Humanoids from the Underdark, such as Duergar and Drow, are dark-skinned. Sometimes they are blue to avoid the Unfortunate Implications.
Video Games
- Street Fighter: Characters who use the Satsui no Hado, such as Akuma, tend to have tanned skin. This is notable in the contrast between Ryu and Evil Ryu, where the Superpowered Evil Side has a darker complexion.
- Dark Sakura from the Marvel vs. Capcom games is an Inverted version of this trope and how it normally goes in Street Fighter: the cause and effect is flipped around, and instead of the Satsui no Hado darkening her complexion, getting sunburnt causes her to become a Satsui no Hado master, and since her skin is already darkened, she's immune to its corrupting influence... at least until the sunburn goes away and she loses these powers.
- Carona aka "Another Marona" from Phantom Brave.
- Rozalin from Disgaea 2 takes on this characteristic when she reverts back to Overlord Zenon.
- Princess Sapphire in Disgaea 3.
- And now Fenrich from Disgaea 4.
- Cia, Big Bad of Hyrule Warriors, is heavily tanned with white hair. This seems to be a direct result of Ganondorf's influence, as Lana, her good side made manifest, has pale skin, as does Cia herself in the DLC costume that depicts her pre-possession.
- The Elder Scrolls series has the Dunmer (Dark Elves), with ashen gray skin and blood red eyes. They were once the Chimer, close relatives of the Altmer (High Elves), with pale golden skin. However, the Battle of Red Mountain ended with the Dwemer disappearing and the Chimer in possession of the Heart of Lorkhan. The Daedric patron of the Chimer, Azura, commanded the Chimer to never attempt to use the Heart. Though the exact details of what happened next are recounted differently by all of the surviving parties, her champion (and the leader of the Chimer), Lord Nerevar, was killed (likely murdered) and his top advisors (as well as a former advisor turned enemy) tapped into the Heart to become Physical Gods, collectively known as the Tribunal. According to legend, Azura then punished the Tribunal and the Chimer people by cursing them into their current appearance, turning them into the modern Dunmer.
- Kingdom Hearts: Dark skin and orange eyes are symptoms of characters that have been tainted by darkness.
- The King of Fighters: In The King of Fighters 2002 only, the Orochi Team obtain darker skin tones when they tap into the power of their malevolent god in their Awakened forms.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage For The Future: Black Polnareff, who represents Polnareff after being possessed by Anubis' sword, has noticeably darker skin than usual. Interestingly, this doesn't happen in the manga or other adaptations.
- Warriors Orochi: Taira no Kiyomori is brought back from the dead as a towering demon sorcerer in the second game: his alternate costume turns his entire skin dark gray and his clothing and beard ash gray to match.
Web Comics
- Zimmy from Gunnerkrigg Court has a strange ashy grey skin color in addition to her eyes covered in black gunk and More Teeth than the Osmond Family. It's unclear whether this is supposed to be an unnatural feature in-universe, as it's not that far from a few other characters' skin tones.
- Rose from Homestuck turns grey when she makes the mistake of asking the magic cueball whether the Horrorterrors are evil and develops a case of Touched by Vorlons. She gets better.
- Jagganoth from Kill Six Billion Demons has a deep purple/blackish shade to his entire body. He is seen in at least one flashback with a much more normal skin colour, implying whatever turned him thirty foot tall also changed his skin colour.
- Mottom also has a purplish cast to her skin. However, her skin turns a more natural bronze when she eats her age-regressing peaches, suggesting that it's related to her ageing into a withered crone.
Western Animation
- Raven's demonic parentage from Teen Titans makes her blue-ish gray.
- Dr. Drakken from Kim Possible is blue. We're not entirely sure why; but it's related to his being evil; apparently, as Ron Stoppable turned evil one episode and also turned blue. Okay, he's not nearly as badass as the rest of these examples; but that's what evil is in the Kim Possible universe.
- Oleander, Villainous Glutton on Sushi Pack, has lavender-shaded skin for no explained reason.
- Hades in Disney's Hercules has pale ashen skin (though it changes to a tan shade whenever he gets angry), but in the episode where he steals the sun, he develops a tan worthy of George Hamilton.
- Miraculous Ladybug: When Hawk Moth is powered up into Scarlet Moth, not only do his clothes turn red, he gets a tan.
- Hades from Class of the Titans is dark purple, but it's subverted since he's a pretty nice character.
