# Do you know the smell of fresh blood? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 10, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155 "2011-03-10T11:27:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/1 "2011-03-10T11:27:04Z")
I’m not going to go TMI on this, I’m just going to say that I have had reason in my life to come to know the smell of fresh blood. (not menstrual). It’s very distinctive, and it definitely has an iron component. Can you recognize it? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/2 "2011-03-10T12:03:37Z")
Yes, absolutely. And menstrual fluid is only about half blood, so it doesn’t smell like real blood. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/3 "2011-03-10T12:05:41Z")
I don’t. I’ve been exposed to blood, but not enough to identify a specific smell. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/4 "2011-03-10T12:12:47Z")
Oh yes, when I left school at 16 I worked in a local butchers and bakers. They has their own abattoir and I helped with all sorts of jobs, including collecting the pigs blood to make black pudding. No, it hasn’t put me off. ---
**Author:** ![horsetech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dec6dc/32.png) [@horsetech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horsetech)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/5 "2011-03-10T12:36:34Z")
Yup. I’ve smelled blood from surgery as well as blood from injuries. Hemorrhagic diarrhea from fulminant colitis is the worst - it is the smell of gut dying and sloughing, a mix of diarrhea + death + blood. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/6 "2011-03-10T12:55:16Z")
Yes, I’ve cut my hands enough times. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/7 "2011-03-10T14:21:06Z")
Very familiar. To me, it smells like copper or pennies. I also smell a lot of amniotic fluid. To me, it often smells of straw or hay or ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/8 "2011-03-10T14:24:58Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > Very familiar. To me, it smells like copper or pennies. Beat me to it. Smells like old pennies. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/9 "2011-03-10T15:17:51Z")
Yup. Smells like… Victory. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/10 "2011-03-10T15:31:10Z")
Another vote for pennies - my mother was very easily squicked out, so with two little brothers, a father who hunted regularly, and myself as a tomboy, I got very used to blood, feel, sight, and smell. I can’t exactly say that I LIKE it, but it’s a comfortable familiar thing to me. It also smells like hot pennies to me. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/11 "2011-03-10T15:33:28Z")
Yes. It smells like work to me. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/12 "2011-03-10T15:50:31Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > Yes. It smells like work to me. +1 ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/13 "2011-03-11T02:34:27Z")
Yes. Very tinny. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/14 "2011-03-11T02:41:42Z")
I’m rather curious about someone who’s never smelled blood before. Everybody poops and bleeds. I taste my own blood like 5+ times a year. The last time was like a week ago when I flossed my teeth too hard. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/15 "2011-03-11T04:29:28Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I’m rather curious about someone who’s never smelled blood before. Everybody poops and bleeds. I taste my own blood like 5+ times a year. The last time was like a week ago when I flossed my teeth too hard. Unless you get in real close to the wound, or it’s bleeding a lot, you probably won’t smell much. Heck, even a nosebleed doesn’t smell like blood as much as a large, gushing wound does. It’s probably the difference between arterial and venous blood. To answer the OP, yes…I volunteered with a fire department a few years ago that also handled EMT calls, Although I wasn’t an EMT, I went along to help, and there were a few large traumas. I’m actually more familiar with the smell of not-so-fresh/rotting blood. In my line of work, I sometimes have to repair a machine in the operating room that cleans out suction canisters. It empties out all the clotted, rotted, nasty blood and other fluids from the canisters, and then clean and sanitizers them. It frequently breaks down, including getting clogged, and I have to fix it (and unclog it.) It’s nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/16 "2011-03-11T04:36:06Z")
Yes, I work in a veterinary hospital. Hit by cars, dog bites, lacerations and the like tend to bleed a lot. I also know the smell of a maggoty wound when it walks in the building. I usually hope someone else will get stuck with it but, alas, that is not always the case. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/17 "2011-03-11T04:57:16Z")
> [@horsetech](#): > > Yup. I’ve smelled blood from surgery as well as blood from injuries. Hemorrhagic diarrhea from fulminant colitis is the worst - it is the smell of gut dying and sloughing, a mix of diarrhea + death + blood. I took a second job in a chronic care hosptial/interm care unit after I had been an RN for about six months. My first night by myself after orientation I did room checks and looked at one patient… something didn’t look right… one step further…something sure as heck didn’t SMELL right. He had bled out and died, had a not yet identified blood dyscrasia (the intenist/hematology team was coming to see him the very next morning). The smell, and the colour.. (charred beet puree is the best discription I have) have never been forgotten. Any kind of melena really reeks. But I agree with regular blood smelling like warm pennies with a meaty undertone. ---
**Author:** ![Soliloquy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Soliloquy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soliloquy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/18 "2011-03-11T05:11:54Z")
I’ve done CPR on a person with a crushed skull. Had several other instances in which I smelled blood. ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/19 "2011-03-11T05:30:18Z")
Yes, I know the smell and the oddly slippery, greasy sort of feel of it. blech. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/20 "2011-03-11T07:23:32Z")
Yep. I can’t smell it from a simple cut thought. Many eons ago, I broke a glass while washing dishes. The sharp edge sliced my wrist open. There was a lot of blood. Luckily we lived about a 5 minute walk from the hospital (I think my mother did that on purpose, what with me being such a klutz and all). I like the smell of blood. Smells coppery. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155.md?page=2)