# If Vulcans have green blood shouldn't they have green skin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408 "2009-06-20T17:53:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/1 "2009-06-20T17:53:31Z")
Well, shouldn’t they? Do they ever explain why they don’t? Spock smash puny Kirk! ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/2 "2009-06-20T17:57:46Z")
Human blood is blue, but that doesn’t make us have blue skin. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/3 "2009-06-20T17:58:41Z")
But we humans don’t have red skin! From what I’ve seen, Vulcans have a very pale, almost yellowish or greenish cast to their skin, and no pink hues at all; I assume this is the way to show their different physiology. If they have the ability to blush, they should go kind of greenish when they do. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/4 "2009-06-20T18:20:35Z")
And their pimples are…? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/5 "2009-06-20T18:27:54Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Human blood is blue, but that doesn’t make us have blue skin. Wait, what? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/6 "2009-06-20T18:27:59Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Human blood is blue, but that doesn’t make us have blue skin. Assuming you aren’t whooshing me - no it’s not. It darkens when deoxygenated, but it never become blue. “Blue veins” are largely an artifact of how light wavelengths differentially penetrates skin vs. blood, combined with the relative depth of blood vessels. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/7 "2009-06-20T19:32:08Z")
They do. Spock was supposed to be greenish, and in some early shots it’s very noticeable. The Network heads didn’t like it, and had Roddenberry tone it down. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/8 "2009-06-20T19:40:14Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Human blood is blue, but that doesn’t make us have blue skin. > **[If blood is red why do your veins look blue?](https://www.straightdope.com/21342562/if-blood-is-red-why-do-your-veins-look-blue)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD ---
**Author:** ![Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weaver_of_Nightmares)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/9 "2009-06-20T19:53:39Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > They do. > > Spock was supposed to be greenish, and in some early shots it’s very noticeable. Look at him in _Where No Man Has Gone Before_: he’s about as green as grass. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/10 "2009-06-20T19:59:22Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > But we humans don’t have red skin! Actually, yes we do, sort of. So much so, caucasian women put “blush” on their cheeks to simulate what it looks like when they blush. But I think your point is that skin pigments don’t have to allow you to see the color of the fluid in the capillaries (as is obviously the case in sub-Saharan Africans, for example). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/11 "2009-06-20T20:26:03Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Human blood is blue, but that doesn’t make us have blue skin. Maybe yours is, but everyone’s I’ve ever seen has been in the range from cherry red (CO poisoning) to dark maroon (most venous blood). And I’ve seen a lot of blood. But perhaps not that of actual royalty, I admit. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/12 "2009-06-20T20:33:14Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > But I think your point is that skin pigments don’t have to allow you to see the color of the fluid in the capillaries (as is obviously the case in sub-Saharan Africans, for example). Yup. That’s why I noted that a blushing Vulcan would probably appear more greenish. But we’re not red most of the time! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/13 "2009-06-20T20:55:58Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > That’s why I noted that a blushing Vulcan would probably appear more greenish. Vulcans never blush. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/14 "2009-06-20T21:07:08Z")
Yes humans do have red skin… That is one of the reasons why we cannot have red screens. We can have blue screens and green screens but not red because its to close to skin tone. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/15 "2009-06-20T22:53:49Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Human blood is blue, but that doesn’t make us have blue skin. Newsflash! Straight Dope poster outs himself as an alien! Posting history explained! ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/16 "2009-06-20T22:55:56Z")
In the book Coneheads, it notes that due to the color of their blood (dark blue IIRC) the Cono Sapien penis becomes bluish when erect. I imagine the erect Vulcan penis would be greenish for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/17 "2009-06-21T00:23:04Z")
I can see how their skin isn’t green, but how come their tongues and the insides of their mouths aren’t green? ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/18 "2009-06-21T13:51:47Z")
This bothered me (uh, and it’s always something small and dumb like this, not major issues of plot or physics) in the latest Star Trek movie, when young Spock got himself beat up, and has green blood on his _very red_ split lip. I decided not to worry about it. No doubt a matter of alien physiology that I just don’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weaver_of_Nightmares)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/19 "2009-06-21T14:41:29Z")
Or it’s some physiology he got from his human mother. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408/20 "2009-06-21T15:08:55Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > I can see how their skin isn’t green, but how come their tongues and the insides of their mouths aren’t green? Well, they might have hemocyanin in their blood (copper-based oxygen carrying molecule in the blood,) but yet somehow still use myoglobin (iron-based oxygen carrying molecule in muscles) in their muscle tissue. Though I don’t know if that would even be possible…but it could help to explain, at least a little bit, why the inside of their mouths and lips are red, not blueish green. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-vulcans-have-green-blood-shouldnt-they-have-green-skin/500408.md?page=2)