"Wicked!"
Thug #1: He... He's got seven scars on his chest!
Thug #2: I heard he uses some strange kung-fu called Hokuto Shinken!
Thug #3: He's the guy who destroyed the Kiba family and Jackal's gang!
Thug #2: I heard he uses some strange kung-fu called Hokuto Shinken!
Thug #3: He's the guy who destroyed the Kiba family and Jackal's gang!
The physical version of Something Only They Would Say, where a character is identified by an unusual body deformity or trait, like a mole or birthmark. Bonus points if the mark is in a place that would be embarrassing/forbidden to show in public.
The barcode (which may be a tattoo but probably isn't) is often used as a sci-fi variation on the birthmark.
See also Scars Are Forever. For a Distinguishing Mark that marks the Chosen One, see Birthmark of Destiny. If the Distinguishing Mark shows that the character is supernatural or magical, it's Mark of the Supernatural. If the Distinguishing Mark shows that the character is or was a slave, it's a Slave Brand. If it means the character is a reincarnation of someone with a similar mark or scar, it is a Reincarnation-Identifying Trait. If it is meant to show that a character is (or is assumed by other characters to be) evil, then it's the Red Right Hand. Overlaps with Facial Markings if it's located somewhere on the face.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Chrono Crusade, Chrono's missing horns are so prominent that he's known as "Chrono of the Broken Horn" to some of the other demons. And, of course, Satella is searching for a demon without horns...But later it's revealed that Aion is missing his horns, as well.
- Doraemon: Nobita and the Spiral City has its main villain, a human criminal named Onigoro, accidentally cloning himself in Doraemon's Egg Factory into multiple duplicates, all of them which retain Onigoro's antagonistic nature except one - a benevolent clone called Hokuro, who can be differentiated from the others via a gigantic mole on his upper lip. Some dubs even referred to Hokuro as "Big Mole". At the end of the adventure when Onigoro and all his clones, Hokuro included, are arrested and the cloning reversed, to everyone's surprise, Hokuro steps out of the cloning chamber, having all the clones merged into him. He then willingly turns himself in to the authorities once he gets back to Tokyo.
- Dragon Ball: Goku's is his hair. After a three-year Time Skip, his friends didn't recognize Goku until he took off the turban he happened to be wearing. Goku even lampshades it.
"Who else but me has hair like this?"
- Fist of the North Star: Kenshiro has seven scars on his chest in the shape of the Big Dipper, which were put on him by his former friend Shin when Shin tortured him and kidnapped his fiance. Kenshiro's evil brother Jagi gave himself the same scars in order to pass as Kenshiro and wreck his reputation.
- For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams: Senri's twin brother, Kazuto, and their parents were murdered by a man with a scar on his right arm. The scar roughly resembles the Japanese character for "fire", leading Senri to dub the killer "the 'fire' man.'"
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Maria Ross has a mole under her eye. While about to kill Lt. Colonel Hughes, Envy pretends to be Lt. Ross. Envy however fails to replicate this mark when imitating her but she quickly fixes it.
- Also, Scar got his nickname because of the X-shaped scar on his forehead, courtesy of Kimbley. We never actually learn his true name, but the other characters needed something to call him by.
- Inuyasha:
- The titular character has fuzzy, white dog ears on top of his head (not floppy ears like most dogs, more upright like the Shibi Inu
◊ breed.) This marks his heritage as an inu-hanyou - half human, half dog-demon. He also has golden eyes which sometimes have cat-like pupils, like his father.
- Most of the demons in the series show certain traits that tell them apart from humans, even when in humanoid form. These include pointed, elf-like ears, unusual coloration in their eyes and hair, and (sometimes) claws and fangs. If their true form has a tail, that will often be visible, since it apparently takes a lot of power to hide it. In Shippou’s case, hiding the tail is often a problem when he disguises himself using his fox-magic. (Shippou is a very young kitsune-youkai - fox demon. In Japanese folklore, foxes were said to be great tricksters and masters of disguise. Being so inexperienced, Shippou still isn’t very good at shapeshifting, but he’s getting better.)
- The titular character has fuzzy, white dog ears on top of his head (not floppy ears like most dogs, more upright like the Shibi Inu
- In Lucky Star, Konata looks almost identical to her deceased mother Kanata, except for a birthmark under her eye that she inherited from her father (and her ahoge).
- Subverted in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, when Tarou notices a mermaid with long hair and is sure it must be Sara. It's not. All mermaids have long hair, and they otherwise looked nothing alike.
- Meta example in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid where the maid at the end of chapter 28 can be identified by the audience as the bandit girl due to the small scar on her right cheek. Taken further in the anime, since it's covered by her hair until the last second for The Reveal.
- Moriarty the Patriot: Bond is recognized by John and Miss Hudson after their transition by a small mole under their eye.
- My-HiME: The easiest way to identify a HiME is a fireball-shaped Power Tattoo on their body. It's in a different spot for each girl - Mai's is on her right breast, Natsuki's is on her lower back, etc. Akira also has one, but she hides it to maintain her disguise, and thus the other HiME don't know that she's one of them until much later.
- In Rurouni Kenshin, the Hitokiri Battousai is known for having red hair and a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek. In some places where he is less famous that gets shortened to just a cross-shaped scar. During part of the Kyoto arc, he even covers it up with a bandage to avoid drawing attention.
- Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger from Tiger & Bunny has a rather distinctive-looking goatee. In fact, it's so distinctive that it's implied that many people don't bother to remember what the rest of him looks like.
Security Guard: "With that beard and mask, anyone could look like him!"
Comic Books
- Supergirl story Supergirl's Big Brother: Since Jan Danvers had a crescent-shaped birthmark on the back of his left wrist, Biff Rigger painted a fake mark on his forearm to impersonate him.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Princess Sally has a "royal birthmark". Espio knows where it is.
- Amazing Fantasy volume 2 #15 introduces Positron, who has a mole, or at least what looks like a mole, underneath her left eye. When she sheds her human shell to reveal her true form, gamma ray eating positronic energy form, the mole, or at least what looks like a mole, remains.
Fan Works
- In Blind Courage, Zelda has a mole under one eye, which she inherited from her mother Iriana. This mark is mentioned when a guard tells Ganondorf that he knows Zelda is dead because he saw her coffin (which actually used magic-made corpse). Zelda's daughter Baby also inherited her beauty mark.
- In Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, Empath is distinguished from his fellow Smurfs by having a yellow star birthmark on his forehead, which according to their legend indicates that he has telekinetic and telepathic powers. Hefty in the series has a red heart birthmark on his right upper arm but generally refers to it as a tattoo when he receives an identical mark on his left upper arm from Painter.
- In Heroes in the Shadows, Raphael has a lightning-shaped birthmark on his chest similar to the crack in his canon counterpart's shell.
- In My Hero Pokedamia, Izuku's Pikachu has eighteen points in the form of a circle in his tail.
Films — Animation
- In Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, Anneliese has a crown-shaped birthmark on her shoulder that is used to distinguish her from Erika and prove that she is the real princess.
- Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon has a tiny scar on his chin. In How to Train Your Dragon 2, it is revealed he got the scar when he was clawed by a dragon as a baby. When Valka first confronts Hiccup she stops short when she recognizes his scar.
Valka: Hiccup? Could-could it be? After all these years? How is this possible?
Hiccup: Uh, should I... should I know you?
Valka: No. You were only a babe. But a mother never forgets. - In The Princess and the Pea, the court historian, Sebastian, makes a note that the newborn princess, Daria, had a heart-shaped birthmark on her left foot. This acts as a Chekhov's Gun to help identify her as the real princess later on.
- Toy Story 2 uses this to distinguish the familiar Buzz Lightyear from an otherwise identical one fresh from the box. In addition to knowing that he's a toy, the familiar Buzz proves that he's the friend of Woody by lifting his foot, revealing "Andy" written on his sole that was put there by their owner.
- In Turning Red, Ming has a mole near her left eye that she retains even as a giant red panda.
Films — Live Action
- The Book of Revelation: Daniel tries to find the masked women who raped him, as they had some marks on their bodies he saw to distinguish them. One of the trio had a red birthmark on her backside. He's shown checking many different women's buttocks to see if they too have such a birthmark. Another had a small tattoo between her breasts too.
- Carry On Screaming!:
- Doris has a birthmark on her butt which Albert tries to use to prove that Mr. Jones' mannequin is her. Unluckily for him, Valeria makes sure to remove all marks such as moles or birthmarks prior to sending her mannequins off to shops.
- This serves as a clue, when the method of removing the birthmark is to cover it with a label saying "made in England". Later, Sergeant Bung discovers a box of these labels on the study desk in Valeria's home, and remarks that this is a coincidence.
- In the Charlie Chaplin film The Vagabond, the woman who was kidnapped as a child is recognized by a distinctive birthmark, seen when her mother views her portrait.
- There's a royal birthmark (the Purple Pimpernel) on the royal posterior of the true heir to the throne in The Court Jester. Danny Kaye's character gets to show the infant's bottom to everyone to gain their reverence.
- In Death Rides a Horse, Burt Cavanaugh, one of Bill's targets, has a tattoo of four aces on his chest. Another one, Pedro, has a scar near his eye.
- Glückskinder: Discussed and then ultimately averted. Gil finally figures out that his new bride Ann is actually missing heiress Molly Jackson, when he sees that she has a square-shaped birthmark on her right shoulder that matches the description of Ms. Jackson. However, it's ultimately revealed that Ann faked the birthmark as part of her Zany Scheme.
- In Hong Kil Dong, Hong Kil Dong recognizes the bandit that tried to kill him when he was a child, by noticing the scar on the bandit's hand where young Kil Dong bit him.
- Incendies: Nawal's grandmother gives her love child a tattoo of three vertical dots on his heel so that Nawal will be able to identify him when she reunites with him someday.
- Influencer: CW has a large and highly noticeable dark birthmark on her right cheek. She hates anybody even mentioning it, and this makes her want them dead. It's not actually mentioned much by other people though.
- In The Inspector General the only thing that distinguishes identical twins Izzick and Gizzick is a strawberry mark on Izzick's right leg which he tries to exhibit as proof of identity several times, only to be stopped by the mayor. When he finally gets to show it off without interruption, it turns out to be on his brother's leg.
- It's a Wonderful Knife (2023): Gale's wife Karen has a massive dark birthmark on her left cheek, which definitely makes her stand out from other people.
- L.A. Confidential: A mother cannot initially ID her daughter in the morgue. The Coroner prompts her with Detective Lieutenant Exley and Officer Bud White hanging on her every word:
Coroner: Mrs. Lefferts, does your daughter have any distinguishing marks?Mrs. Lefferts: She has a birthmark on her hip. It's her. My baby!
- The scene won the 1998 Skinny Award for "Best birthmark used to further the plot".
- The scene won the 1998 Skinny Award
- In The Princess Bride, Count Rugen is identified by his sixth finger on his right hand.
- The Rawhide Terror: The two boys orphaned in the renegade attack have identical birthmarks, which will allow them to recognize each other should they ever be separated.
Literature
- Jacuzzi Splot from Baccano! is often immediately identified by the blue, oddly-shaped sword tattoo on his face - which is unfortunate for him, considering that he's got a large bounty on his head and more than a few enemies with an axe to grind.
- The Dragonlords of Joanne Bertrin's novels all have a distinguishing physical mark (birthmark, odd eyes, dwarfism, albinism) which indicates their Dragon natures. One of the clues that a young woman is not really a Dragon is that her mark can easily be hidden.
- The heirs to the throne of Riva in The Belgariad have a white mark on their palms, burned into their bloodline when Riva Iron-Grip carried the Orb of Aldur.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark": Georgiana has had a tiny red handprint on her cheek since birth. Familiarity has bred contempt, and the characters attempt to remove it.
- Isaac Asimov's "Breeds There a Man...?": Dr Ralston has a distinctive chemical scar on his cheek.
- In A Brother's Price, part of the Porter family is polydactyl, with an extra toe on one foot. This tips off Eldest Whistler to the paternity of Kij's daughter, Eldie, who was sired by Kij's brother Keifer. While Keifer was married to the princesses.
- Conan the Barbarian:
- In The Servants of Bit Yakin, Conan identifies a slave girl imposter by a birthmark.
- In A Witch Shall Be Born, the witch can be identified by her birthmark.
- The Cold Moons: Bamber's brother Oatear is named for the white, corn-ear shaped mark on one of his facial stripes. It's so noticeable that a newspaper notes it when describing his corpse.
- Edward Rutherfurd uses this trope a lot to distinguish between the families in his Generational Saga novels, variously giving them characteristics such as long toes, waddling gaits, or oversized noses. Played with a bit in London, in which the Ducket/Dogget line has three such traits: natural white streaked hair (both sexes), partially-webbed fingers (several of the males), or obesity that's probably linked to hypothyroidism (a few of the females).
- In E. Nesbit's Five Children and It, after the children foolishly wish that everyone would want their little brother and then have to chase after everyone who kidnaps him, one character claims him as his long-lost son because he doesn't have a birthmark.
- In The Fowl Twins, Myles and Beckett Fowl look alike, except that Beckett possesses a highly distinctive birthmark... which is, in fact, a complete ruse designed to aid in the pulling of a Twin Switch. The birthmark is in fact, completely fabricated, created by food coloring and the story of the birthmark put for public consumption should such a switch become necessary as part of a double-bluff.
- In The Girl Who Drank the Moon both Luna and her birth mother have a distinctive crescent-moon birthmark on their foreheads.
- The Goosebumps book My Hairiest Adventure has a character with one blue eye and one green eye — which turns out to be important after she's transformed into a dog.
- In Half Bad, Nathan was tattooed so that he could be distinguished from other witches.
- Harry Potter:
- The page image is Harry's famous lightning bolt scar, which is a relic of the Avada Kedavra curse Lord Voldemort tried and failed to use to kill him. People seeing it throughout the series immediately recognize him as being Harry Potter, even if they don't really know otherwise what he looks like. It also hurts whenever he is near Voldemort and later when Voldemort is feeling surges of strong emotion.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban uses the missing toe on Scabbers's front paw thusly.
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Lucius Malfoy uses the scar on Harry's forehead to identify him, since Harry's face has been disfigured by Hermione's jinx.
- All of the Death Eaters have a Dark Mark branded on their arms.
- In Haruhi Suzumiya, Mikuru's star-shaped mole on her left breast is the usual thing Kyon looks for when he wants to see if it's the "real" Mikuru. Kyon once asked her to show it to him (to which she replied with a punch) and another time realized it was not her because of it.
- Her Spell: Ariadne has pure red eyes, and they're a family trait that sets her line apart from other people.
- The Isle in the Silver Sea: The stranger has a circle tattooed on his forehead which remains no matter what appearance he takes.
- In the Judge Dee mystery The Chinese Maze Murders a father identifies his daughter's headless body by a burn on the arm that she got when she was just a toddler.
- The Mortal Instruments:
- Jace Wayland has a star-shaped mark on his shoulder which is a birthmark of the Herondale family.
- Simon gains the ability to walk in sunlight, nicknaming him "Daylighter" and the Mark of Cain, though he later loses the latter.
- In The Orphan's Tales, the Girl who narrates the tales has dark markings covering and surrounding both eyes. They look solid black from a distance but seen close, they're actually tiny, tiny words that she has read and memorized.
- The Silence of the Lambs Hannibal used to have six fingers on one hand, more specifically a second middle finger. He has it surgically removed after Silence, but of course he retains his maroon eyes.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: When Cersei has put a price on Tyrion's head, the fact that he's a dwarf without a nose makes it very hard for headhunters to falsify their claims. Not that they don't try. They show up with the half-rotten heads of other dwarfs, with their noses cut off postmortem. Cersei is not impressed.
- Survivor Dogs:
- Blade stands out from the other Fierce Dogs by having a white mark in the shape of a fang near her neck. This same mark also appeared on a dead pup's neck, giving Lucky the hint that the puppy was Blade's child. In fact, Blade murdered him herself.
- Wiggle is differentiated from his brother by his unusually tufty neck.
- In Veniss Underground, Nicola has a birthmark in the shape of a rose between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand. When Shadrach sees it on Lady Ellington's transplanted hand, he realizes that Quin has taken Nicola to his organ farm to be used for spare parts.
- The Sylver family line in Welkin Weasels all have a facial birthmark shaped like a lightning bolt.
- In The Odyssey, when Odysseus comes back to the island of Ithaka, he is recognized by a servant due to a distinctive scar on his thigh he got from a boar hunt when he was younger.
Live-Action TV
- The Bay: At first, and for most of the season, the only lead on Marshbrook's killer is a tattoo that his son (who witnessed the murder) spotted on the killer's wrist.
- On Baywatch episode "Mirror Image," Mitch is met by plain gal Gwen and later meets her more outgoing identical twin sister Mattie (both played by Carrie-Ann Moss). He ends up drugged by Gwen and put in a flooding chamber, realizing it's the jealous Mattie trying to kill him. Mitch is confused at the switch as Mattie has the exact same scars and bruises on her leg as Gwen does...then realizes they're not twins at all but one very troubled woman with a Split Personality.
- On Call the Midwife, Sister Evangelina realizes she’s made a heartbreaking mistake of the Switched at Birth variety when a distinctive birthmark appears to have migrated from one baby to another.
- In an episode of Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa, the victim of the case has a comically distinct moustache that's mysteriously shaved off when his body is found. It turns out that he shaved it off himself so that he wouldn't be recognised while buying the murder weapon. His moustache was so distinguishable that people didn't recognise him without it.
- On Desperate Housewives, Bree sees a woman stalking neighbors Katherine and Adam, claiming she'd had an affair with Adam in Chicago. Adam had already told Katherine the woman had been a patient but was making up the story. When they're all trapped in a tornado, Katherine mentions how she knows the woman is lying because she talked of a snake tattoo on Adam's shoulder but Bree, having seen Adam at a pool party, knows he doesn't have one. Katherine coldly glares at her husband as she finally realizes why he was so insistent on having that snake tattoo removed as she and Katherine realize the affair was real.
- Earth Abides: Kori realizes the man who'd attacked Raif and Heather is Silas from his colorful tattoos, which she describes.
- Father Brown: In "The Star of Jacob", Hannah knows that David is really Jacob because she clearly remembers the birthmark he was born with.
- On an episode of Highlander, the widow of a Watcher wants to expose Immortals to the media. A newspaper publisher naturally doesn't believe her story of people who can live forever and engage in sword duels to the death. She shows him a database featuring a man the publisher knows as a powerful millionaire, noting the man's facial scar. She then begins showing photos of a variety of men over the decades, from World War II to the 1890s to the Civil War and the early 19th century. The publisher's jaw drops when he sees that, while the name, hairstyles, and clothing are different, each of these men has the exact same scar and realizes they're all the same man.
- In an episode of Hot in Cleveland, a mother and son are reunited in part by the son bearing a birthmark on his wrist in the shape of a handbag.
- The King Loves: Moo Seok's snake tattoo is how San recognises him.
- Played for Laughs in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk Takes On Manhattan", Monk recognizes a tiny mole on the perp's ear. He then spends an absurd amount of time describing the ear to a sketch artist. Later, when interviewing a suspect, Monk tries to get a peek at his ear.
- The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg:
- The Hero Rohan has a birthmark called the Mark of Destiny that his druid mentor and foster father takes as a sign proclaiming him to be The Chosen One. He's right... but the mark isn't unique to Rohan. His half-brother Lugad and the Big Bad Queen Maeve, their mother, also bear the Mark of Destiny.
- Ivar is in Kells hunting a thief who stole a sacred chalice from his people. He knows him only by a scar on his forehead. During a battle with Torc, Ivar knocks off the man's helmet to see the scar and realizes Torc is the thief. Torc openly boasts he drinks from that cup every night to anger Ivar who is dedicated to getting the chalice back.
- Nirvana in Fire: Lin Shu had a mole on his collarbone and a mark on his arm. Nihuang searches for both when she confronts Mei Changsu about his real identity, but the fact that they're both missing just proves to her that something horrific happened to Lin Shu. Much later, Consort Jing and the Emperor make the same search. The Emperor is mostly satisfied that they're different people, but Consort Jing's medical knowledge brings her to the same conclusion as Nihuang—that it's Lin Shu, but so physically altered that even small marks have been erased.
- The Princess Wei Young: Xin Er has a birthmark on her wrist. This makes Seventh Concubine realise she isn't Wei Young.
- In The Refugees, the time-traveling refugees carry a chip on their chests that shines a red light. It is also used to monitor them and make sure they don't break the rules.
- Savage Kingdom:
- Saba is identifiable by the small nick on one of her ears.
- Torn Ear is defined by her curled tail and very torn ears.
- The Pale Pack is led by Tamara, who has diamond-shaped white spots on her pelt, and her golden-necked mate.
- In See, set in a world where humanity has been blind for centuries, everyone has a unique pattern of scars that are cut into their faces as children. It is likely this is done so they can be identified if they are dead or unable to speak.
- In Star Trek: Voyager, during a very emotionally charged confrontation with Seska and Maje Culluh, Chakotay lends credence to his attempt to convince Culluh that Seska makes a habit of manipulating men with sex by bringing up a mole on her stomach.
- The Twilight Zone (1985):
- In "The Storyteller", Micah Frost falls from a tree and cuts his right cheek on a rock in 1933, leaving him with a prominent scar. In 1986, his former teacher Dorothy Livingston is able to recognize him as an adult because of this scar.
- In "The Convict's Piano", the gangster Mickey Shaughnessy has a large scar on the right side of his face which makes his mouth look bigger when he smiles. He seemingly obtained it in a knife fight.
- The Wheel of Time (2021): The Car'a'carn (the prophesied leader who will unite the Aiel) has two dragon tattoos on each arm. Rand gets them after going into Rhuidean, but Lanfear causes an imposter to have them as well, for opposing his claim.
- Willow: Scorpia recognizes Jade as her long-lost sister by a tattoo on the back of her neck which they share. Their father was Kael and all his children got this as infants, though Scorpia and Jade are the only surviving ones.
- The Wire: Omar Little has a long scar running across his face that he is often identified with. Notably, the scar is not fake. Actor Michael K. Williams got it in a bar fight when he was attacked with a razor blade. It ended up becoming his signature feature.
Manhua
- Sinbell from My Beloved Mother has two square, pockmarked scars on his cheeks, one at either side, for reasons unexplained for the entire story until the final chapter, a flashback to what happened in the past - as it turns out, as a child Sinbell barely survived a gas explosion if not for his mother, Aya, using herself to shield him from the fire (and dying in the process - before she got revived as a robotic caretaker). The scars on Sinbell's cheeks are a remnant of the incident.
Music
- In this video for Avicii's "Wake Me Up", two girls (implied to be either mother and daughter or older and younger sisters) living on a farm each bear a birthmark or tattoo of two triangles (the Avicii logo), the older on her right arm, the younger on her left shoulder, and are clearly shunned by others in a nearby town. At one point, the older girl rides her horse to a neighboring town, where she meets other people with the Avicii logo mark on their bodies. They welcome her and take her dancing. The next day, the older girl tells the younger to pack her things, because they're going to a place where they belong.
Theatre
- Animal Crackers identifies Roscoe W. Chandler as Abie the fish peddler with a large birthmark on his arm. Ravelli and the Professor later steal a wide array of his possessions - the Professor gets the birthmark.
- Parodied in the one-act opera Cox and Box by F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan, in which Box declares that Cox must be his long-lost brother because he doesn't have a birthmark on his arm.
- Uarda eller Sfinxens spådom: Head Priest Chil has a large wart on his neck that is a hereditary trait of his ancient and esteemed lineage.
Toys
- Cutie Marks from the various My Little Pony franchises: a unique symbol on the flank of almost every ponynote . Friendship Is Magic actually uses them as plot points: Ponies are born without them and receive one when they discover their special talent.
Video Games
- With the exception of Mark Meltzer or the multiplayer characters, all of the playable characters in the BioShock games have a mark or deformity on their hands or wrists.
- While it's never pointed out, in BioShock 1, Jack has tattoos of three chain links across both wrists, symbolizing the fact that he is a slave to Atlas/Fontaine.
- Subjects Delta and Sigma BioShock 2 have a Δ and Σ mark on their left gloves, respectively. These were probably used to distinguish each model of the Alpha series.
- In BioShock Infinite, both leads have one of these. Booker DeWitt's right hand bears the mark of AD, (the initials of his daughter, Anna DeWitt, which he branded himself with after giving her up to wipe away his gambling debts) while Elizabeth has a missing phalanx bone on her right little finger, which she covers with a thimble. The reason for this is that said phalanx bone was cut off by a tear when she was an infant, the direct exposure of her bloodstream to the space between dimensions (or having two body parts in different dimensions at the same time, or something) gave her the power to open tears.
- Death Stranding: The handprints covering main protagonist Sam Porters Bridges' body, representing how many times he has come back from the Beach, which is that game's afterlife. He also has a cross on his stomach where his belly button should be, which is where his eventually-adopted mother Bridget Strand had shot him when he was a baby. His sister Amelie then healed it and sent him back to the living world.
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach: BB-28/Lou is pointed out to have a birthmark on the outside of her left elbow. Its heart shape is what distinguishes her from the original BB-28, whom she suspiciously shared the same serial number with, and confirms that Tomorrow is a grown-up Lou.
- Evergrace: in this game, people who bear the Crest—a series of markings that appear on one's hand—are often subject to misfortune. The fact that there's a magician, with an entire empire in his control, searching for Crest bearers as test subjects probably doesn't help matters.
- Genshin Impact:
- Albedo has a gold, four-pointed star on his throat. He explains to the Traveler that this mark identifies his origins as an Artificial Human, comparing it to a pontil mark on glasswear. This proves to be important, when his identical "brother", Subject 2, attempts to Kill and Replace him. This "Albedo" lacks the mark, though it seems that both are capable of removing it at will.
- The Electro Archon marked her creations with a distinctive mark on the nape of their necks, each having one half of the traditional tomoe symbol. Scaramouche/Wanderer, the prototype, has a reversed mitsudomoe that is used as the symbol for Electro while the final product, the Raiden Shogun, has a more traditional mitsudomoe marking.
- God of War:
- Kratos' red-and-white getup isn't war paint. The red streak is a tattoo used to cover up the giant scar he got on his face when he tried fighting back against his brother's kidnappers, who were Ares and Athena. The white powder spread across the rest of his body? That's the ashes of his dead family, magically grafted to his skin no matter how much is peeled off.
- It was no coincidence that Kratos' tattoo was made in the image of his brother's distinctive birthmark. That birthmark was the reason why he was kidnapped. According to the oracle, a mortal "marked warrior" would bring the destruction of Olympus. Zeus, Ares and Athena thought it was Deimos, but it turns out it wasn't him who was the marked warrior, but Kratos.
- In King's Quest III, the way Gwydion proves he's the long lost Prince Alexander is by showing Princess Rosella a birthmark he has in a rather embarrassing place.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Paya is named after the papaya seed shaped birthmark "...smack in the middle of her left butt cheek!"
- Professor Layton and the Curious Village: Flora Reinhold's disappearing-reappearing birthmark is the final clue Layton needs to solve the mystery of St. Mystere.
- Super Mario Bros.: Morton Koopa Jr. has a large star-shaped birthmark on the left side of his face. Larry Koopa also has a less noticeable star marking on the back of his head.
Visual Novels
- In The Curse of Kudan, it is eventually revealed that Touko keeps her hands covered to hide a butterfly-shaped birthmark on her right hand. This mark also causes Touko to be targeted by Niina since the latter is fascinated by the mark and wants to cut off Touko's hand.
- A meta-example in Higurashi: When They Cry: the identity of the corpse discovered at the beginning of Curse Killing Chapter is never revealed, but an astute-eyed viewer can figure it out for themselves if they spot the Distinguishing Mark — the red star-shaped tattoo on the left thigh identifies it as Rina Mamiya.
- In Juuzaengi, when Kakouton loses his eye and gets a fever from his injury, his only memory of his savior (Kan'u) is the mole on her arm.
Webcomics
- Blonde Sunrise: Lycan packs tend to share similar traits while in human form, mainly hair and eye color:
- The lycans in Daine's pack are mostly blondes, redheads, or strawberry blondes with light green eyes.
- Vince and his father Flint are marked as not originally being from Daine's pack by being brunettes with dark green eyes.
- Nathan Hale in The Dreamer has a powder burn on his forehead and a mole on his neck.
- Scarlet from I'm the Grim Reaper has an X-shaped scar on her mouth. It's distinct enough for Chase to see her and immediately connect her to the near unsolvable Case X, where she, in her previous life, was a person of interest. It originates from a man who doubles as a pathologist and one of the world's shadow rulers, Judah. He gave her the injury to mark her as his, feeling it made him Entitled to Have You.
- Oliver of Lightning Made of Owls has an L-shaped scar as his distinguishing feature.
- Mari from Moxie has a tattoo mark on the inside of her right wrist, distinguishing her as a noble.
- Suzanne Incirrina of Surprising Octeal has a big obvious birthmark on her nose. This is NOT a part of the transformation that occurred to her in the comic.
- In Shinka: The Last Eevee Luna the Umbreon has diamond-shaped rings for some reason, her brother Shadow has orange instead of yellow rings and their clan banished him because of them.
- Trudy from Yours Trudy has a small scar on her left cheek. She got it when she was 11, after she walked in on her parents arguing, and her mother threw a book at the door, not seeing her in the dark, and ended up hitting her with it. It's one of several reasons she remains distant from her mother as an adult.
Web Original
- Sailor Nothing: Himei sports a black eye in Chapter 2; as she turns out, she can't Clark Kent her way around it.
- This webpage on basic Time Travel points out that even identical twins or clones won't have the same moles or skin tags, so this is a good way to convince people you really are them-self from a parallel universe.
- In Through the Motions, magic users can easily be spotted by strange markings on their hands and/or fingers, which are obtained by making direct contact with a source of magic power. The main character discovers hers after visiting her doctor following an accident with a Magic Wand and her front door.
Western Animation
- In All Hail King Julien, an Identical Stranger tries to take Julien's place, and Clover is able to identify the real Julien by identifying the supposedly bad scar on his butt he got in the first episode.
- Prince Zuko of Avatar: The Last Airbender has a facial scar that is roughly flame-shaped.
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: The difference between the mirror image Tomax and Xamot? Xamot has a scar on his left cheek. For twins that share a link, it was no doubt agonizing for Tomax.
- Gravity Falls:
- Dipper has a birthmark on his forehead that looks like a certain constellation that answers certain questions. He mentions that kids made fun of it before he started covering it up. The nickname, on the other hand, has stuck so strongly that he feels uncomfortable using his real name Mason, which goes unspoken throughout the entire series.
Wendy: The Big Dipper! That's how you got your nickname! I thought your parents just hated you or something.
- The author, as described by the shapeshifter as "a six-fingered nerd", is in fact polydactyl, with his hand being used as his emblem on his journals. Notably this is the most obvious physical difference between himself and his twin brother Stanley Pines.
- Dipper has a birthmark on his forehead that looks like a certain constellation that answers certain questions. He mentions that kids made fun of it before he started covering it up. The nickname, on the other hand, has stuck so strongly that he feels uncomfortable using his real name Mason, which goes unspoken throughout the entire series.
- The Penguins of Madagascar: Rico has a scar on the right side of his face.
- Krusty the Clown in The Simpsons has a pacemaker scar, a cattle-skull birthmark, and a superfluous third nipple on his chest.
Real Life
- During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the "distinguishing characteristic" of President Clinton's private parts used to back up her claim that he did have sex with that woman.
- Seal's cheek marks, the aftereffects of a condition known as discoid lupus erythematosus, are so identified with him that for several years he was the page image for that condition on The Other Wiki.
- Mikhail Gorbachev was known for the large "port wine" birthmark on his head. Gorbachev decided not to have it removed as it would have seemed vain once he became a public figure. Some of his official portraits did edit out the mark anyway.
- Similarly, Mariano Barbacid, a Spanish scientist who cured pancreatic cancer in rats with his team, has a very similar "port wine" birthmark on his face. While this has got some people remark on it instead of on his accomplishment, others like it and say that it adds to the extraordinariness of said accomplishment.
- French TV presenter Jean-Luc Reichmann also has a port-wine birthmark on his nose.