He just wants a hug.
"Watch your feet when you get in. There's acid on the floor."
There are some people no one wants to be around, either due to smarminess or poor hygiene (or both!) they seem to ooze from every pore and make the air around them noxious, and anyone they touch will feel like immediately disinfecting the area. For the Poisonous Person, that is exactly the case. They are lethal to touch because their body naturally produces universally lethal toxins, emits radiation or carries a host of dangerous diseases. Of course, they are immune to these hazards, but not so everyone else.
There are a lot of ways this can happen: falling into a vat of chemicals or biohazards, becoming Cursed as a Walking Wasteland or with an uncontrollable Touch of Death, or an autonomous deadly defense mechanism power that can't distinguish friend from foe. For extra angst (or yummies) the Poisonous Person kills those they touch because they must feed on their Life Energy.
This is one of those "powers" that are difficult to miss when they first manifest, sometimes resulting in a Dead Little Sister weighing on their conscience. Is it any wonder that they come to embrace Bad Powers, Bad People and become villains? Of course they probably weren't nice to begin with, since Poison Is Evil. This kind of villain isn't just difficult to fight, but also very versatile in applying their power. They'll use the sweat from their brow to salt a field, fill darts with their poisonous tears, turn a bloody wound into their enemy's demise by cutting themselves to poison their blade. Some of them may even have their poison be corrosive, if not throwing actual acidic stuff. Sometimes they may use radioactive poisoning. If their power is disease-based, they make an excellent Plaguemaster. Or they might end up as a hapless Typhoid Mary.
If they aren't evil, they'll usually get far, far away from anyone who they might hurt, like a modern-day Medusa or King Midas... sans gold. If they're really lucky they'll have enough control of their power/curse to turn it on and off, or at least be able to live in urban areas by wearing full body outfits or hazmat suits.
It's worth noting that there is no "typical" Poisonous Person in terms of appearance. Some are mundane looking, others are astonishingly obviously poisonous as Hazmat shows above, and a fair number are drop dead gorgeous. Why is it all the pretty things will kill you?
Differs from Master Poisoner in that the master poisoner knows his way around toxins, although the two can overlap if the Poisonous Person is sufficiently smart and well in control of their own toxins. See also Walking Wasteland, Enemy to All Living Things, Technicolor Toxin, Brown Note Being, Plaguemaster, and Typhoid Mary.
Unrelated to Toxic Friend Influence.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ryukou Yanagi from the "Most Evil Death Row Convicts" arc of Baki the Grappler is a downplayed yet still deadly example. Creating a poisonous drug from precisely weighted ingredients made up of natural poisons, he turns it into a liquid and pours it into a large vase filled with sand, then he repeatedly slams his fist into the vase day and night, only taking breaks to dip his poison-covered hand into a bowl filled with the antidote. Doing this enough times gives Yanagi an incredibly deadly natural weapon, that the mere touch of it can poison someone.
- Basilisk, based on the novel Kouga Ninja Scrolls, as was Ninja Scroll below, also has a Kagerou with the same poisonous body. In this version, she is a tragic figure who is desperately in love with a man she can never be with as he's the future clan chief and consummating that love would kill him, so she's forced to watch him fall in love with another woman from an enemy clan. Not only that, but poor Kagerou ends up subjected to a Break the Cutie process that's bad even by this very dark series' standards. She doesn't handle it well. Not well at all.
- Gordon Agrippa from Black Clover can use his Poison Magic to generate liquid or gaseous masses of poison that can melt off flesh. It's effective against Plant Magic. Because his magic is only good for killing and is just as dangerous to everyone as it is the opponent, he has no other applications for it, which leads to him being left behind a lot. His squadmate Grey's Transformation Magic bypasses this by converting others' magic to a different attribute, letting him use it for almost anything the two of them want to do.
- Bleach: Askin De La Vaar's powers include being able to calculate the perfect lethal dosage of any substance and alter it at will, even making things that shouldn't be toxic, like a person's blood, lethal above a certain dosage. In other words he isn't a poisonous person, but can transform you into one.
- Early on in Bofuri: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense., Maple manages to defeat a poisonous three-headed dragon by abusing her absurd Vitality stat and gratuitous healing potion use to tank its poison breath until she gained Acquired Poison Immunity and then eating it since she had no other attacks that could damage it. Defeating it this way gives her access to all its skills, including its poison breath, which she makes a staple in her repretoire since it doesn't rely on her abysmal other stats.
- Dokuhime: The titular Poison Princesses are women repeatedly exposed to poison from infancy in order to build up immunity. As a result, their whole bodies become saturated with deadly poisons; a kiss, a tear, or even a touch from them brings death. They are trained as assassins and eventually sent out to get rid of troublesome political opponents. However, they have to keep ingesting poison, or else their bodies begin to break down.
- The bodily fluids of Dokuga from Dorohedoro are toxic to others. As such, he bathes and eats separately, and never laughs or shows excessive emotion to avoid accidentally getting spit on his friends.
- Dragon Ball has Bacterian, a competitor in the first World Tournament arc who Krillin ends up fighting in the quarter finals. He's a Fat Slob who uses his horrible hygiene as an offensive weapon. He almost wins, until Goku points out that Krillin technically doesn't have a nose due to his character design, letting him beat Bacterian based on a visual joke.
- Fairy Tail:
- Cobra, the Poison Dragon Slayer. As the name suggests, he uses and eats poison to increase and restore his strength. His poisonous attacks, in addition to normal brute force, work both corrosively and toxically, slowing down movement before eventual death. As testament to the effectiveness of it, he damn near killed Natsu with it when they fought each other.
- Cobra's pet snake Cubellios has the ability to both use a venomous bite and release clouds of toxic gas. After she regains her humanity from the curse that turned her into a snake, Kinana would eventually go on to learn Poison Magic that lets her produce toxic clouds of gas as well.
- The big schtick of the Servant Assassin aka Hassan of Serenity in Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver. Her entire body is so toxic that merely touching her is an almost instant death to humans.
- Inuyasha has Naraku, whose body constantly oozes poisonous miasma. It's implied that all demonic power is inherently poisonous, and Naraku especially so due to being created from numerous fused demons.
- Pannacotta Fugo from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. His Stand, Purple Haze, has the ability to spread a virus that turns anything it infects to a puddle of bubbling goo in 30 seconds. While his teammates make liberal use of their own Stands, Fugo uses his once and only once in the Part, and for good reason, as he could accidentally kill them if he isn't careful.
- Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya: Zeke's ability as a demon is to create a nonlethal poison that can prevent other demons from using their abilities. It makes him very valuable to C.A.T.T., a human organization that fought demons during the war and became something of a demon specialized police force in peace, but has hampered his ability to connect with other demons since his mere presence can prevent them from using their powers. It's later revealed his poison was the basis for the Anti-Demonification gas that humans used to secure victory in the war.
- My Hero Academia has Mina Ashido, a heroine whose Quirk allows her to create and shoot acidic substances from her body. She has been shown to be quite creative using her power, from using it to skate thorough the terrain to climbing vertical walls by carving holes with her acid. Her strongest technique, "acidman", covers her in a huge acid-made humanoid armor.
- Hanzo the Salamander from Naruto implanted the gland of a poisonous salamander in himself, making his touch and even his breath toxic to others while giving himself some resistance to poison. He wears a mask partially to protect others from his breath and partially to protect himself in case, by freak chance, he gets hit in the side where the gland is, because rupturing unleashes a cloud of poison so strong that even he'd be paralyzed by it. He can also summon a much larger salamander with its own poison breath.
- Zen from Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan is from a poisonous bird youkai species. The poison is concentrated in the feathers of his wings.
- One Piece:
- Magellan, the head warden of Impel Down, ate the Venom-Venom Fruit (Doku Doku no Mi) which makes him literally a Poison Man. He can produce everything from a toxin that can melt steel and stone to simple tear gas. The most infamous way was being able to create a three-headed hydra that was made of poison, literally. His most deadly way to harness this came later, when he created a different poison-monster called Venom Demon: Hell's Judgment, which looked like a gigantic, skeletal-looking demonic beast. It was not only poisonous, it was incredibly caustic, and according to him, was powerful enough to "destroy Impel Down itself".) He eats poisoned foods in order to fuel his powers, and his powers give him a liking for the taste, though it gives him terrible diarrhea. Given the fact that he's a Big Eater (being a big guy), he has to spend ten hours a day in the bathroom, which combined with the fact that he has to sleep, means he can only work about four hours a day. Still, that didn't seem to be much of a handicap. He's presented as a guardian who only wants to prevent all the worst criminals in the world from terrorizing the public.
- Hyozou in Fishman Island is a blue ring octopus merman. When pressed in combat he coats his blades in his poison and, were it not due to Luffy's Acquired Poison Immunity from fighting Magellan, would have likely killed Luffy early in the arc.
- In Punk Hazard, Master Caesar Clown is the owner of the Gas-Gas Fruit (Gasu Gasu no Mi). This allows him to become, produce, and control gasses. He's mainly used poisonous gas. Luffy directly compares him to Magellan, a comparison which he seems to take offense to. Of course, Clown demonstrates just why the comparison is a bad one when Luffy proves immune to his poisonous gases. Remember, he can control all gases, which makes him able to suffocate opponents simply by remotely removing all of the oxygen around them.
- "Poison Pink" Vinsmoke Reiju is a genetically altered Super-Soldier who can generate, control, and consume deadly poisons. Though she does have a as-of-yet unknown devil fruit, it is not what allows her to control poisons.
- Subverted with Muk in Pokémon: The Series. Despite being living poison, it smothers Ash every time they meet and is also seen smothering Professor Oak frequently, yet neither suffers after effects.
- In Pokémon Adventures, Eternatus being part Poison is played up in comparison to Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon Journeys: The Series as it's able to use its poison to brainwash Henry Sword and gives several people like Nessa and even Leon a hard time in trying to recover from its poison, to the point where Henry (who's no longer affected by Eternatus's poison) and Casey and their friends have to find a special medicine to cure them.
- Saint Seiya:
- Hydra Ichi has an attack named "Mellow Poison", which allows him to jam the claws of his Cloth into his enemies to inject them with poison. His very first opponent is Cygnus Hyoga, whose blood is too cold for poison to run through.
- Pisces Aphrodite of the original manga and anime had the stairs from his Temple to Athena's littered with thousands of his Royal Demon Roses, and their poisonous pollen was able to knock out Seiya, and would've likely killed him had it not been for Marin saving him.
- Pisces Albafica from The Lost Canvas has poisonous blood, which is both his deadliest weapon and the biggest reason he sees himself as a Walking Wasteland. Notably, this allows him to overpower one of Hades' own poison users, Deep Niobe, as well as one of the Three Judges, Gryphon Minos. His mentor, Rugonis, was similar.
- Some of Hades' Specters are also capable of this. Notably, Deep Niobe was able to kill Taurus Aldebaran with his poison in the original manga, and Basilic Sylphid gained a similar ability in The Lost Canvas, though he didn't fare nearly as well.
- There's a girl in Samurai Deeper Kyo who releases toxic spores or something around her, dissolving anyone she gets close to. Naturally, this makes her a very sad and quiet girl, leading to a positive moment when another character gives her a huge hug, despite being slowly eaten alive by the poison.
- Rossi in Superior survived an experiment intended to make her blood into a universal antidote. It sort of worked — one exposure to it can treat almost any poison. A second exposure, however, will seriously harm or kill the victim. (Having exposed Sheila to it once, she uses it as an insurance policy of sorts in the event that Sheila needs to be killed.)
- Toriko:
- Coco, one of the Four Kings, has such an Acquired Poison Immunity that he can generate poison to fight enemies. He can even create new poisons should the need arise, although this takes a bit out of him. He starts out with just creating globs to throw, but as the series goes on he learns to fashion weapons, armor, even duplicates made of poison!
- Then there's the Emperor Crow, which is probably the most poisonous animals on the entire planet. For example: its shadow is a deadly neurotoxin that instantly shuts down the brain of the victim, followed by disintegrating the body.
- In The Way to Protect the Female Lead's Older Brother Roxana Agriche becomes this as a result of her excessive poison intake, which she practices in order to keep her carnivorous butterflies addicted to her blood.
- Self-inflicted version in YuYu Hakusho: the unnamed Lady Doctor aka Yusuke's other ancestor. She was a "shaman cannibal" who willingly consumed the flesh of people who died of illness so her body would develop antibodies and eventual cures. This doubled as self-defense against human-devouring demons: if any demon had a piece of her, they'd die painfully and slowly since her flesh was ripe with disease.
Asian Animation
- Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Mushroom from The Intriguing Alien Guests has the ability to release poisonous gas.
Card Games
- In Magic: The Gathering many creatures with the Deathtouch ability are like this, as are several things with Wither. The first kills if any damage is dealt, the other makes damage essentially permanent instead of resetting at end of turn.
- Getting 10 Poison Counters will cause a player to automatically lose regardless of their life total. Many creatures in the Scars of Mirrodin set have the Infect ability, which is like Wither when battling other creatures, and inflicts damage in the form of Poison Counters to players.
- Phage, the Untouchable. One hit from her and a player loses the game outright. Not because of her attack power, that's only a four, and players typically start with twenty. No, she kills thanks to this trope. She also automatically destroys any creature she does combat to and prevents such a creature from regenerating. The downside is, if a player plays her card via any way other than from his hand, then he loses the game.
- Pharika, the snake-like goddess of affliction in the Theros block, is strongly associated with poisons. Conversely, her vast pharmaceutical knowledge also makes her The Medic and the local patron of healers.
Comic Books
- DiNA: Simmons, the Crimson Plague. She bleeds, you die — horribly and instantly. Menstruation is a pain for her, and a possible extinction event for everyone else.
- The DCU:
- Batman:
- Preston Payne, a.k.a. the third Clayface, has the ability to cause people to melt with just a touch. Other Clayfaces have also had this ability. Unfortunately for Payne, in his case it was because his flesh had become liquefied and he was in constant pain, melting other people being one of the few things that could give him relief.
- Depending on the Writer, Poison Ivy can sometimes poison people simply by touching them.
- Plasmus, a Doom Patrol villain, looks like radioactive sludge and can melt people with a touch.
- Green Lantern: A heroic example is Leezle Pon of the Green Lantern Corps, who is a super-evolved and sentient smallpox virus. Due to the deadly disease he can cause, he can't attend many GLC meetings or gatherings, but he played a pivotal role in defeating Despotellis, a similar, evil virus.
- Infinity, Inc.: Mister Bones, whose skin exudes cyanide. Most of his flesh is also invisible, so he looks like a walking skeleton. He was a very sympathetic villain in his teens, who ended up reforming and becoming the head of the DEO. While he's harsh, he is reasonable and not corrupted by ambitions like some other highly placed government officials dealing with meta-humans like Amanda Waller.
- The Legion of Super-Heroes has the recurring villain Mano, a member of the Fatal Five, who has an incredibly lethal Touch of Death as a result of being born as a mutant on his homeworld. How deadly is his touch? He destroyed his homeworld with it! As in, literally put his hand on the ground until the whole planet died.
- Metal Men: Chemo is a giant abomination that is made of poisonous chemicals, literally. It's the result of a Mad Scientist dumping all of his failed experiments in a giant, humanoid plastic container, which eventually came to life and gained a sort of quasi-sentience. Chemo is similar to Bizarro in that it's not really intelligent enough to be a villain on its own, but is often used as a puppet by smarter bad guys.
- The Red Robin villain the Wanderer's current abilities seem to stem from a horrifying combination of a latent healing ability with what was almost a horribly painful death from multiple Brazilian wandering spider bites. Skin contact with her is near instantaneously fatal, and she considers killing and finding challenging targets to be the only thing she enjoys.
- Swamp Thing: Nukeface from volume 2, issues #35-36 is a homeless man who ingests radioactive waste, apparently regarding it as akin to alcohol. He's comparatively unaffected in that he's still able to move about and is largely intact, compared to a man whom he shares his 'drink' with who turns into a mess of sludge within only a day. Ironically, a man working for the company responsible for dumping the radioactive waste follows approximately the same route as Nukeface does. His pregnant wife, out alone in the woods, finds Nukeface; she feels sorry for him and lays down beside him to keep him warm for the night. The moment when she tells her story and her husband and the others who have been searching for her all back away simultaneously is one of the series' big Tear Jerker moments.
- Batman:
- In Hack/Slash, Acid Alice is a slasher whose body secretes an extremely potent acid when she is sexually aroused. The acid can strip human flesh to the bone in a matter of seconds, or have a potent psychedelic effect.
- Marvel Universe:
- Hazmat from Avengers Academy (not to be confused with the one from Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects), who can project and excrete hazardous, toxic, and radioactive materials. Unfortunately, she manifests this power while making out with her boyfriend.
- Dark Avengers: June Covington, a.k.a. "Toxie Doxie", can exhale Deadly Gas and has a toxin in her blood which is fatal within seconds, all thanks to a bit of genetic self-experimentation.
- Spider-Man:
- David Kalen was transformed into DK, a mutant tar/slime monster who can dissolve people with a touch.
- This is a plot point (though with some narm) in Spider-Man: Reign, a four-issue miniseries set 30 years in one possible future. Peter Parker recalls how he accidentally caused the death of his wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, by giving her cancer due to prolonged exposure to the radioactivity in his semen. (This may have been based on a story in the mainstream Marvel Universe during The Clone Saga in which she almost died that way, her pregnancy worsening the radioactivity passed to her. It was more or less an updated version of The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko) arc If This Be My Destiny...!.)
- Issue #7 of Araña: The Heart of the Spider has Lady Chi of Clan Fei, a Triad crime lord with poisonous skin. Her father doesn't share the power, but he is immune, making him the only person who can safely touch her.
- An extremely dark issue of Ultimate X-Men is centered around a boy who wakes up with a mutation that causes him to emit a chemical that incinerates anyone around him, causing him to wonder where his parents, then his neighbors, then everyone has gone as he unwittingly and accidentally wipes out his entire hometown. Wolverine, as the only one who can survive his presence due to his Healing Factor, is sent by S.H.I.E.L.D. to track him down and kill him (both because of the danger that he poses and because the exposure of a mutant that dangerous would basically ensure that mutants would be hunted to extinction). When the boy is made to understand, he quietly tells Wolverine: "...just do it."
- A storyline in West Coast Avengers #98-100 (September-November, 1993) features a Historical Domain Crossover scenario. Lucrezia Borgia serves as an agent of the Hell Lord Satannish. She is granted Absurdly Sharp Claws coated with poison.
- In a What If? issue, Captain Marvel is cured of cancer. Unfortunately, everyone around him starts getting sick with cancer, and it's contagious. He causes plagues on Earth, and among the Skrull and the Kree, before he realizes what's going on.
- Wolverine: Omega Red emits "deathspores" that leech the health from anyone and everyone around him. (They even affect Wolverine to some degree.)
- X-Men: The team's recurring foe Mojo can wither plants and age humans with his touch. His presence on Earth also causes natural disasters.
- Rick and Morty (Oni): Rick's old drinking buddy has been dethroned and imprisoned by the new queen that Rick told him not to marry. Rick takes Morty on a mission to restore his buddy's throne, supposedly because Morty's such a great travel companion. Of course, Rick doesn't tell Morty that the aliens on this planet are very germ-phobic and he's inoculated Morty with dozens of infectious diseases to sneak by them. It's not like Morty's going to DIE or anything... probably.
- Toxyn from Strikeforce: Morituri was able to generate a variety of biochemicals after touching someone, including deadly poisons.
- The DC Comics Tales Of The Unexpected story "The Bride Was All Aglow" has as its protagonist a man so heavily contaminated in a nuclear plant industrial accident that even the air he exhales needs to be bottled and buried. Unusually for this trope, he's cancer-riddled and in constant pain, and has no more than two years to live.
- Subverted in Watchmen, where Ozymandias sets up Dr. Manhattan to acquire a reputation as a Poisonous (well, Radioactive) Person. He's not, but so many people he'd associated with are revealed to have come down with cancer that the big blue guy gets crucified by the press, and soon leaves Earth, in part to dodge these allegations.
Fan Works
- In The Games We Play, later in the story Jaune has to fight his father, who has been infected by Conquest, basically a Grimm virus who infects everything he touches. Conquest gets all the memories of the people he infects, as well as their body, which means their fighting style as well. Jaune's father uses bombs. Before fighting Conquest, Jaune's mother was holding him off. The readers lose sight of them for a few chapters but when we get back, Jaune's mother is nearly dead and missing limbs, not from Conquest's attacks, but from incinerating any part of her body touched by Conquest's attacks, keeping her from being infected.
- The Flash Sentry Chronicles: Toxic the bat pony developed his poison at age 10, but unlike the rest of his kind it affects anyone he so much as touches. This made him feared and an outcast to his own kind.
- Naruto/Menma in The Forgotten Doctor
becomes a powerful poison-user through discovering one of Orochimaru's abandoned labs after being abandoned by his family
- Naruto in Devil's Advocate uses plant-derived poisons thanks to his mentorship under Zetsu.
- Fate/Harem Antics: When Zouken tries to summon an Assassin for himself, Iri (who he doesn't realize is in control of the Grail) gives him Hassan of Serenity, who is covered in so many poisons that her mere touch is lethal. Less than a minute later, Zouken slaps her for perceived disobedience and melts. While Iri is congratulating herself on killing one of the worst people in the world and freeing up Assassin to find a contract with someone better, Kiritsugu points out that her original plan was for Assassin to have sex with their son Shirou, which is going to be difficult if he can't even touch her. Iri admits she hadn't thought of that, and quickly has Shielder summoned since she's immune to poisons and can pass that ability to her allies.
- The War of the Masters: Pentaxians and Fek'Ihri both have highly corrosive blood (a hallmark of many species modified by the "Good Masters"), which in the Penties serves as part of their immune system by killing most foreign microorganisms. The Moabites developed a countermeasure to the Fek in the form of bullets filled with lye (Moabites love Trick Bullets), which when used on Pentaxians causes battle wounds to easily become infected.
- Sect: In her efforts to free Xifeng from the incredibly venomous Zhen Sect, Taylor Hebert arranges for them to consume the Sect Leader together, taking much of his power for their own. As the man is a capable poison cultivator himself, this their Qi poisonous enough to corrode material objects with a touch, though the effect is largely under their own control.
- Their status as a Walking Wasteland is further cemented when they master the Annihilating Heaven and Earth Technique, a Qi technique that gives them a significant boost in power at the cost of tossing out immense amounts of deadly radiation.
- When they complete Body Reformation shortly afterwards their blood is replaced by Gu, an endless parade of incredibly poisonous insects that consume everything they touch.
- In The Season's My Reason, the main antagonist Chef Forgifta creates poison dishes which kicks off the plot when he tricks Yui into taking one and when Rosemary eats it, he falls ill from a gastric infection, causing Yui and Seraphina to hop universes searching for a lost Papaya Yogurt Recipepe to cure Rosemary. In addition, during the final battle, Forgifta creates a shield around himself called Poison Deflect, and uses Poison Rain and Poison Spikes. Ami's water spells aid in getting rid of the shield and Isabela Madrigal's plants get rid of the Poison Spikes.
Films — Animated
- Barbie: The Pearl Princess has Spike the stonefish. Lumina helps him by using pearls to cover his spikes.
- A unique variant in the "Stink Bomb" story of the movie Memories: a hapless employee at a pharmaceutical company accidentally ingests some funny red-and-blue capsules (instead of the blue-and-red ones that would have cured his flu.) As a result, he constantly emits from his sweat glands a highly toxic gas that can kill any animal instantly and short out electronics. Worse, its range, toxicity and density increase as he gets more stressed out, which is kind of a problem when the Japanese Self Defense Force and the American military send whole fleets to catch him. He doesn't catch on that there's anything wrong with him until literally the final second of the story.
- Kagero the kunoichi in Ninja Scroll, whose body absorbs toxins instead of processing them, which has effectively turned her entire body into an assassination weapon. Even a kiss from her could be lethal and doing anything beyond that is enough to break down even the Nigh Invulnerable. Early in the movie she's knocked out and captured by Tessai, one of the villains, whose body is apparently made entirely from rock. He kisses her and is implied to orally violate her, but gets into a fight with the hero Kibegami Jubei before things can go further. A few minutes in, he basically just starts falling apart as Kagero's poison catches up with him, which helps Jubei kill him.
Films — Live-Action
- The Man Who Could Cheat Death: When Dr. Bonnet's life-extending elixir starts to wear off, his touch becomes acidic.
- Twice-Told Tales: In "Rappaccini's Daughter", Rappaccini has treated Beatrice with an exotic plant extract that makes her touch deadly; he does this to keep her safe from unwanted suitors, but it makes her a prisoner in her own home.
- The Wolverine: Viper’s mutant power renders her immune to all viruses and toxins, but she's able to secrete them with her fingernails and tongue.
Literature
- Ophelia Landlufen in The Asterisk War is an artificially created Genestella who generates a poisonous miasma around her, which she can use to fight. It's indicated that her powers are also slowly killing her due to Power Incontinence.
- Benny Rose, the Cannibal King: Benny Rose's hand has corrosive abilities and can literally melt flesh off the bones of his victims.
- Chrysalis (RinoZ): One of Anthony's tier seven evolution options, the "Putrid Major", would change his body into toxic fifth-strata materials. He'd be almost entirely immune to poison himself, but everyone around him — including his family — would suffer the effects, so he firmly rejects it.
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld has Foul Ole Ron.... a homeless beggar so nasty that his smell alone can incapacitate werewolves. His stink has, over time, developed into a semi-independent life form, probably more intelligent and certainly far more cultured than Ron himself. The stink has been known to leave Ron entirely to spend an evening in its reserved box at the opera.
- The Vish Kanya from Ayize Jama-Everett's Entropy of Bones are female martial artists whose bodies radiate poison, one way or the other.
- In Everworld, witches are a variant on this trope: their blood is poisonous, at least to plants. Apparently this is why they're normally killed through burning, drowning, etc. — spilling too much of their blood can make the land infertile for a long time. Jalil and David are willing to take advantage of this when the African gods threaten them.
- Pollution in Good Omens seems to fit this. He's one of the Four Horsemen, taking over for Pestilence, who retired in disgust after the invention of penicillin left him feeling useless.
- Harkeness in Hard Magic is a Pale Horse, and can inflict people with disease. He has complete control over his power, but that doesn't stop Stuyvesant from being completely paranoid about him.
- It's discovered that sirens from Into the Drowning Deep, are poisonous by nature. Consuming their flesh or having their blood introduced to the bloodstream quickly causes death in a human. Luckily, they cannot pass this on with their claws or bite.
- In Théophile Gautier's 1856 Jettatura, the protagonist is born with the power of "evil eye" that can kill with a glance, without him wishing it or being aware of it: he takes a long time to find out the cause of all the deaths around him. When he realizes that he's slowly killing the woman he loves, he puts out his own eyes, too late to save her however.
- In Stephen King's short story "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands", Brower has been cursed with a Touch of Death by an Indian holy man, whose boy had died while messing around in Brower's improperly-secured motor car. After months of self-imposed isolation from other people, he joins a poker game for a brief respite from his loneliness, only to kill a participant who grabs his hand to congratulate him for winning the pot.
- In The Poster Children, Bice started displaying this while still in the womb. Her mother died as a result, and Bice, abandoned by her father, was raised by the Foundation. All her caretakers had to wear hazmat suits, and she didn't manage to rein in her abilities until she was nearly seven.
- Also in A Prayer For The Dying, by Steward O'Nan, the sheriff (as well as the pastor and undertaker) of the town discovers that he is the one carrying the deadly plague to everyone. Disturbing for him, but maybe even more so for the reader who slowly learns that he has an uncomfortable obsession with death, and is a necrophile and cannibal.
- The Trope Codifier is "Rappaccini's Daughter". The title girl has been given a poisonous touch and breath by her father in a misguided effort to protect her from the evils of the world:
Rappaccini: What mean you, foolish girl? Dost thou deem it misery to be endowed with marvellous gifts, against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy? Misery, to be able to quell the mightiest with a breath? Misery, to be as terrible as thou art beautiful? Wouldst thou, then, have preferred the condition of a weak woman, exposed to all evil, and capable of none?
- Raptor by Gary Jennings set in the declining Roman empire has a venefica. Veneficas are defined as "girl slaves who are fed certain poisons in increasing doses throughout their upbringing. By the time they are grown to maidenhood their own bodies are accustomed to these substances and are unharmed by them. However, so virulent is the accumulated poison that a man who beds with a venefica — or anyone who partakes of any of her juices — dies on the instant."
- Leroy from Renegades, known better as the villain Cyanide, can secrete poisons through his skin. He's also a talented chemist, and sells his concoctions both legally and on black market.
- When under stress, the Chelons from the Star Trek Novel Verse secrete a poison through their skin. Ambassador Jetanien of Star Trek: Vanguard explains this to his Klingon diplomatic counterpart in order to warn him off; another Chelon posthumously kills a Hirogen hunter with his poison in Star Trek: Destiny.
- In Tasakeru, the skunk Death God Aconite was cursed with this for the heinous crime of not being sexually dominant. By her own sisters, no less. Ironically, this makes her the least toxic person in their mythology-including their nameless paramour, who went along with it.
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Purple Primordial Ultima eventually develops the Ultimate Skill "Poison King Samael", which gives her the ability to create any type of poison of her choosing. What makes it terrifying is that the poisons are tailored to her target's specific weaknesses, so in theory not even Acquired Poison Immunity will save someone from her. That's not even mentioning how one of its sub-skills is "World of Annihilation", which just straight up lets her kill anything that doesn't at least possess an Ultimate Skill as well, though her leader Rimuru forbids her from using that specific power due to how dangerous it is.
- Sylvester from Twig began receiving regular doses of the Wyvern formula, which contained a number of poisonous compounds, from a young age. Several years of this later, his body has become so adept at dealing with poisons that most toxins don't affect him anymore, he's close to immune to diseases and parasites because they can't tolerate the Wyvern in his body, and his blood is toxic enough to be used as an improvised poison.
- There's a Wild Cards character who has this. He is a zombie oozing with toxic waste.
- Wings of Fire: SandWing dragons have tails similar to a scorpion's that they can use to poison their enemies.
Live-Action TV
- The 4400:
- One episode has a woman who grows toxic spores on her body that explode and kill anyone within a specific radius to her. She becomes convinced that it's God's will that she kill everyone (for some reason) and eventually the characters have to kill her. Why, when people were risking their lives taking drugs that would give them superpowers, the government didn't just publicize her story instead of restricting it, is never mentioned.
- For that matter, Danny is a borderline example. His power was to essentially infect anyone around him with Promicin, which had a 50/50 chance of either giving them new abilities or killing them. Eventually, Shawn has to kill him.
- In Chernobyl, the first responders and some of the surviving power plant workers become this due to the massive dosis of radiation they took after the reactor exploded and caught fire. In the Moscow hospital, firefighter Vasily Iganatenko is kept inside a plastic capsule so that his necrotic body won't contaminate the rest of the wing, when his wife goes inside the capsule so that he can caress her belly, which has their unborn child, one of the scientists investigating the disaster angrily berates her for exposing herself to such massive radiation. At the burial of the first responders, workers wearing heavy protective gear place the wooden caskets inside lead-lined steel canisters that are then welded shut, and they are then entombed beneath tons of concrete.
- Doctor Who: In "The Tsuranga Conundrum", the Monster of the Week, the Pting, secretes a toxin from its skin that's lethal to all other species.
- The Invisible Man series' third episode, "The Catevari", has an escaped government experiment whose skin and scratches are poisonous to the touch.
- The New Avengers: Midas in "The Midas Touch". Midas is the perfect carrier for diseases, and Plaguemaster Professor Turner turns him into a living weapon whose slightest touch kills.
- In Odd Squad, Logan the Ogre can be found nearby the Loganberry tree as well as in Sector 21, a dangerous forest filled with dangerous odd creatures. He has skin that it poisonous to the touch, which makes his habit of taking selfies with people very hazardous.
- Yamiror from Power Rangers Samurai poisons anyone who inhales the gas he breathes out. He can concentrate it enough that it even gets through the Rangers' helmet filters.
- In Supernatural, the djinn are able to poison their victims with a touch. The poison can produce hallucinations, a stuporous state, or in a large enough dose, death.
- Tev from Tracker. In his natural form, he could kill with a single touch, though it took longer with humans and required sex.
- Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger has Stinger, Humanoid Alien from Scorpius System. He can poison people by stinging them with his scorpion tail. While his poison has not killed anyone yet, it incapacitates the person with pain and fever. Scorpio, Stinger's brother commonly uses a poison that makes anyone affected into a zombie, which then turns into Poisonous People themselves as they can spread the poison.
- The X-Files: The episode "El Mundo Gira" features two illegal-immigrant brothers whose touch causes other peoples' bodies to be rapidly and fatally overgrown by whichever fungal spores they happen to have on their skin.
Multiple Media
- MonsterVerse:
- The Mother Longlegs who featured in the movie Kong: Skull Island and in the sequel graphic novel The Birth of Kong, according to their profile in the latter. Their Monarch profile states that their sharp legs have a poisonous spur which immobilizes impaled prey while the Mother Longlegs feeds.
- According to the official Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) website, the Titan Scylla unleashes toxic, prehistoric bacteria when she feeds, capable of poisoning water sources.
- Tiamat in the Godzilla vs. Kong prequel graphic novel Godzilla Dominion. She can spray toxic vapor from her mouth that can temporarily blind Godzilla.
- In the Skull Island (2023) TV series, Mike is struck by one of the Kraken's bio-electric tentacles. Later, it's revealed that he has a large, black gash on his chest where it hit him, and as the season goes on he gets visibly paler and more feverish, and eventually he collapses and becomes delirious with black veins spreading outward from his chest.
Myth and Legend
- Older Than Feudalism: The Vish Kanya. According to Kautilya's Arthashastra these mythical Indian women are similar to Kagero from the anime Ninja Scroll, with poisonous bodily fluids gained through Acquired Poison Immunity, who killed people through intercourse.
- Norse Mythology: Jörmungandr and Níðhöggr are both giant venomous serpents. The strength of their poison? Jörmungandr fights Thor during Ragnarök, and it kills the God of Thunder (but not before Thor kills it first, making this a Mutual Kill).
- A European legend dating back at least to the early 17th century tells of Sultan Cambay (possibly related to the actual place name Cambay, in India) who every day ate nothing but extremely poisonous and venomous animals to obtain Acquired Poison Immunity. It worked, but it also made his breath toxic. Thus, like King Sharyar, every night he took a new harem girl to bed, and she would be poisoned to death by morning.
Professional Wrestling
- The move The Great Kabuki introduced to professional wrestling, which English speaking fans know as the "green mist" is called the "poison fog" in Japan. Though rather than a paralyzing or tissue destroying toxin, it is instead based on the practice of storing a spicy substance you can handle in your mouth and spitting it where someone else can't; in their eyes. In this case, the English name is actually more appropriate but many Japanese wrestlers do stroke their throats before spitting, as if to extract the fog from some kind of venom gland.
- Gomi-man, who vandalizes Kaiju Big Battel by spewing it and those involved with toxic sludge. His body is toxic too, as it is made of trash from Jersey city.
- In Ring of Honor, Hang Men 3 ripped Delirious's mask, stapled it to his head and then hung him with a chain, leaving him to bleed or suffocate to death. In retaliation, Delirious got a new red mask and developed a new version of the mist which would be dubbed "the red poison", designed to restrict the air ways of those it effected, so Hang Men 3 would feel what Delirious felt.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- While they can't manipulate poison directly, mercury dragons have toxic flesh.
- Ravenloft: Ermordenung, a type of Poisonous Person are a covert, lethal presence in the setting. Same with their mistress, Ivana Boritsi, Darklord of Borca, but she did it to herself on purpose. The others she "recruits" aren't given any choice.
- Exalted: The anima power of Wood-Aspected Dragon-Blooded allows them to deliver a lethal magical poison via simple skin contact. Many Wood elemental Charms in the Dragon-Blooded arsenal likewise manifest as poisoning effects.
- Pathfinder:
- Vishkanya, which come from the setting's India-analogue, are based upon the mythological Vish Kanya, only with mild reflavoring — they come in both sexes, and they are a very subtle form of Snake People (snake-like eyes, serpentine forked tongues, and subtly scaled skin). Their exact origins are unknown even to them, but what is known is that their blood and saliva are both deadly toxins.
- Xulgath bilebearers produce a viscous, sticky toxin from their throat folds, which they inject through their bites, spit at prey from a distance and use to coat their blades.
- Plague bringer alchemists can turn themselves into this by downing their own artificially brewed plagues.
- Sentinels of the Multiverse has the Gene-Bound Bionaut, a freaky forcibly mutated slave race that serves professional Galactic Conqueror Grand Warlord Voss. Naturally comes with a toxic immunity. The last "true" survivor of the race that became the Bionauts, the marvelously named Venox, the Last Mubbloxian, is even worse - Bionaut only hits one target, Venox hits everyone.
- The Unofficial Hollow Knight RPG: Any bug with the Poisonous trait inflicts a damaging status effect on any enemy that attacks them with a bite attack, as well as making their corpse poisonous to any who try to eat it.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Rogue Trader: Dark Eldar characters have an alternative career rank (fleshcrafter disciple) with a talent that lets them become this; their melee attacks gain the "toxic" trait, poisoning enemies they wound, and they become completely immune to effect of poisons and diseases
- While fleshcrafters are essentially neophytes to Haemonculus covens (Haemonculi being torturer-scientists and surgeon-artists), the real stars of this trope among the Dark Eldar are the Lhamaeans. Essentially an order of courtesans, and exemplars of Dark Eldar society, they are known for being incredibly cruel, imaginative lovers, and supreme mistresses of poisons. A common saying about them is that they can blow a kiss, and it can carry enough toxicity on the air to kill a person in seconds.
- In the same vein, while a wide variety of creative and disturbing poisons and venoms are perfectly acceptable for use, the human and daemonic forces that worship Papa Nurgle fill in this trope for very different reasons.
- The Barking Toads of Catachan are known for having the most deadly toxin in the galaxy, which they release in a gas cloud when startled or threatened. It reduces all living things (including the toad itself) in its effect into lifeless goop and no vegetation will grow there again. No armor, not even Powered Armor provides protection against it. Lesser Barking Toads merely gooify everything in a several-meter vicinity, while Greater Barking Toads will gooify everything organic within a kilometer radius. Notably, an article that gave rules and stats for the Lesser Toad stated that the Greater Toad wasn't appearing because Toad Explodes, Everyone Dies would occur as soon as the first shot was fired.
- The World Of Darknes:
- Beast: The Primordial: The Basilisk's Touch Atavism of a Namtaru Beast grants them the ability to poison people.
- Changeling: The Lost: The Blightbent are elementals of pollution, and can deliberately poison people with a touch. Likewise, the Venombites.
- Promethean: The Created: Zeka Prometheans, who are created with radiation. Their Wasteland is even nastier than most, since it irradiates the area as well, and naturally, getting too close to them results in death by radiation poisoning.
- Vampire: The Requiem:
- The Brothers of Ypres. The bloodline's originator, Pvt Owen Thomas Jones, was a soldier embraced in the trenches of World War One and took advantage of gas attacks to feed on the dying. The bloodline internalized the toxins allowing them to create poisons from their bodies at the cost of only feeding on the poisoned.
- The Anvari's bloodline Discipline allows them to poison others with various drugs and narcotics at will, culminating in the ability to instantly cause a fatal overdose — like the Brothers of Ypres, they can only satisfactorily feed on drug-polluted blood.
Video Games
- In Ancient Domains of Mystery, one possible effect of The Corruption is making poison drip from your hands, contaminating any food or potions they touch.
- Castle Crashers: The Green Knight has the elemental power of poison, as well as various bright-green poison attacks.
- Cenozoic Survival: Downplayed with the Carolina parakeet. Eating yellow berries as a Carolina parakeet raises a meter that decreases over time. If the meter decreases to zero, or you simply have not eaten any yellow berries yet, you are just as edible as any other animal.
- Dark Souls:
- Gravelord Nito, First of the Dead. During the war against the ancient dragons, Nito unleashed a wave of miasma and death powerful enough to poison the immortal dragons. During the boss fight against Nito, the attacks from his sword can inflict the deadly "Toxic" status effect (which is basically "Poison" on steroids) on the player.
- Eingyi is the creator of two very rare Pyromancies that can poison others. He was banished from his home for this, and it is implied he might be the reason Blighttown got its name and its swamp is poisoned. If indeed he was, it backfired: he got poisoned too, and only survived thanks to the sacrifice of Quelaag's Sister.
- Then there's the Bleed version: Priscilla the Crossbreed was banished to what amounts to a holding cell for her Lifehunt ability. She's huge, fluffy and quite probably a sweetie, but what it boils down to is having a skill that makes you bleed out of every pore as if you've been pumped with decolagulents. You can kind of see why locking her up came to mind...
- Dark Souls II:
- Mytha, the Baneful Queen, discovered that a type of poison mined from the Harvest Valley made her beautiful and healthy, so she bathed in the stuff near-constantly. By the time the player reaches her, she's become a snake-woman whose head has fallen off, which she carries around by the hair.
- Sinh, one of the few surviving Everlasting Dragons, produced immense amounts of poison within his body. This was all released at once when Sir Yorgh pierced him with a spear, resulting in the death and Hollowfication of the Sunken City of Shulva. Though it is claimed that this "purified" Sinh's body, he still breathes toxic flames during the battle with him.
- In Defense of the Ancients, the hero Lesale Deathbringer, the Venomancer. According to his Back Story, he experimented with toxins on himself.
- Dragon Age: The Darkspawn's very blood is poisonous and those who survive infection by its taint become thralls of the Darkspawn and the Old Gods that call to them. The Grey Wardens' Joining inoculates the survivors against the more immediate and nasty effects of the Taint; however, their version of the Taint still allows other Darkspawn to sense their presence, and in thirty or so years the Taint will overwhelm them anyway. The disease they spread affects wildlife and the environment as well leaving wastelands populated by blighted horrors in their wake. In Awakening, should you choose to spare a Darkspawn Messenger and give him a chance to prove his good intentions, he will end up accidentally infecting people with the blight while acting as a Good Samaritan.
- Dungeon Fighter Online: Brawlers become this after they awaken as a Hellcat and obtain a passive skill which poisons enemies who hit her, the chance being greater if the Hellcat is bleeding. This is a result of building up immunity to poison, yet letting it build up in her system at the same time.
"This poison does not exist to strengthen you. It uses you to become stronger. It is at your expense that its embrace becomes more formidable." — Luise, the first Hellcat
- Eastern Exorcist have it's share of poison-based bosses.
- Lady Poison, for instance, is a Gorgeous Gorgon whose lower body is a centipede instead of a snake. Who specializes in all kinds of venom-based attacks, from toxic smoke to stingers and bites that drains your health (who would've guessed with a name like that?).
- For players choosing Xiahou-xue's campaign, her first boss in the prologue is the Snake Yaksha, a snake-demon who, after being defeated as a boss, tries using a poisoned attack on Xiahou-xue. Her brother, Xiahou-qing, performs a Heroic Sacrifice to get himself poisoned in his sister's place, and the rest of Xiahou-xue's story is her seeking an antidote to restore her brother's body.
- Elden Ring: Malenia, due to a dubious blessing from an Outer God, was born afflicted with the Scarlet Rot. Even when she dedicates her every waking moment to containing it, the Rot eventually infects anyone who spends a prolonged period of time in her presence, and when she gives in, the rot infests entire fiefdoms. Caelid used to be a nice place before her duel with Radahn...
- The Elder Scrolls
- The Destruction school of magic most famously has the Fire, Ice, Lightning trio as its main damaging types of elemental magic. In some games, it also includes various Poison spells which typically deal little damage up front but continue to drain the health of the target for a duration afterward.
- Atronachs are a type of unaligned lesser Daedra which are essentially the Elemental Embodiments of the elements they represent. The most common are the Flame (also known as "Fire"), Frost, and Storm varieties. Flesh Atronachs are another variety. Depending on the game, they can emit a constant aura of poison-like damage, are immune to poison, and/or are actually healed by poison-based spells.
- Spider Daedra, as their name might imply, are a Spider People form of lesser Daedra. They are Magic Knights equally formidable in melee combat as well as when casting spells. They are known to favor various poison spells, in addition to shock spells.
- In Morrowind, Daedroths, a crocodilian form of lesser Daedra, like to initiate combat by casting a ranged, large Area of Effect "Poisonbloom" spell.
- The Ebony Mail in Skyrim is an armor piece that you get for completing Boethiah's Daedric quest that has this effect, generating an aura that damages nearby enemies.
- Fate/Grand Order: Hassan of the Serenity is an Assassin who killed by seducing her targets and poisoning them with her own body. Such a tremendous amount of poison had built up within her that every part of her body is toxic to the touch. While undoubtedly a powerful weapon, this has also left her as very lonely and starved for physical affection. When she discovers that the player is immune to her poisons, she gets... clingy.
- Kirby: Planet Robobot features the Poison ability, which allows Kirby create clouds of toxic gas and puddles of ooze, both of which will continually damage anything that remains in contact with them while they persist. The ability is meant to take more of a Death of a Thousand Cuts approach to boss battles, as hit for hit, its attacks are rather weak compared to other abilities, but the sheer number of hits you can pile on is what makes it effective.
- Janga, a villainous cat from Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal, bears long, venomous claws that can inject someone with so much as a scratch.
- Knight Bewitched: Uno is a master at using poisons. At the start of the Underbog in the game, he'll talk about this and gather mushrooms to make a poison. He can equip these poisons to add effects to his normal attacks, usually the chance to cause status ailments in enemies.
- In League of Legends, Singed is a chemist of the Mad Scientist variety with a number of dangerous chemicals at his disposal, including a stream of poison that he can trail behind him. His body is so heavily scarred and hardened from his tests that he serves as a tank champion.
- The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: One of Cynder's dark-influenced elements is Poison, taking the form of either bright green globs of slime or of a physical attack in which Cynder coats herself in venom and delivers a vertical Spin Attack with her tail. One of her three armor sets imbues all her attacks with venom.
- Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects: Hazmat can make people sick from touching them.
- Monster Hunter:
- Monster Hunter (2004):
- Iodrome is a red-colored Bird Wyvern of the theropod family. It is the King Mook of the Ioprey, and its primary means of attack besides performing leaps onto the hunter to hit it, is shooting luminiscent purple globules that inflict poison onto the hunter or prey that touches it (or is hit by it).
- Gypceros is a cunning, dangerous Bird Wyvern that can vomit large purple fluids that are poisonous upon contact; though that's far from the only attack that makes it a threat. The game's Updated Re-release Monster Hunter G introduces a purple-colored subspecies whose poison is deadlier (it depletes the hunter Life Meter much faster).
- Rathian and Rathalos are draconian Flying Wyverns capable of inflicting poison to hunters and other monsters alike, though they're predominantly Playing with Fire monsters. The difference is that Rathian's poison is located in her tail (so she inflicts it when performing a backflip), while Rathalos inflicts it with his claws (which he uses during a rapid aerial attack). Their corresponding subspecies and rare species, all of which are introduced in the game's Updated Re-release Monster Hunter G, retain these poisonous attacks.
- Monster Hunter 2 (dos): Chameleos is an Elder Dragon that exhales breaths imbued with powerful poison. It can also use the breath to muddle the surroundings and, in conjunction with its light-refracting skin, turn invisible.
- Monster Hunter 3 (Tri):
- Gigginox is a strange-looking Flying Wyvern that inhabits the Tundra, and is the King Mook of the Giggi. During combat, it can either shoot projectiles imbued with poison, or emit a toxic mist around its body. Also, from the same organ where it deposits its Giggi eggs, it can excrete a sac made of poison that explodes after a while.
- The Updated Re-release 3 Ultimate introduces Lucent Nargacuga, a rare species of Nargacuga unlockable in the G Rank's postgame. It is capable of unleashing poisonous spikes from its tail upon performing a slam with it. And in Sunbreak, it borrows an attack from the base monster from Frontier that consists of unleashing the spikes skyward to they fall down like a rain.
- Monster Hunter Portable 3rd:
- Great Wroggi is a theropod-based Bird Wyvern that serves as the King Mook of the Wroggi mooks. It exhales a poisonous breath that can affect hunters as well as small monsters. It prepares the breath by inflating the organic sac located in its throat.
- Purple Ludroth is a subspecies of Ludroth that inhabits the Misty Peaks and, more rarely, Deserted Island. Whereas its standard yellow cousin shoots water globules at hunters and natural preys, it opts instead for shooting balls of concentrated toxins. It's unable to swim underwater, unlike the parent species (it cannot swim in 3 Ultimate either).
- Monster Hunter 4: Nerscylla is a Temnoceran (a Giant Spider) that can poison its prey, as well as a hunter fighting it, with its expandable fangs. It will use them if it manages to cover a hunter or prey with its spider webs. According to the series' lore, Nercylla's poison is strengthened thanks to the Gypceros it preys on (that's also why its upper body is covered with their dead skin). The Updated Re-release 4 Ultimate introduces the Shrouded Nerscylla, a desert-dwelling subspecies whose poison is far deadlier, though it doesn't prey on Gypceros but instead on Khezu.
- Monster Hunter: World:
- Pukei-Pukei is a Bird Wyvern reminiscent of a chameleon (though with a behavior more similar to that of Gypceros, including having an elongated tongue). It is capable of inflicting poison with its mouth as well as with its tail, and said poison may have additional effects or properties depending on the monster's diet.
- The Iceborne expansion introduces Viper Tobi-Kadachi, a subspecies that replaces the electrical powers of its standard cousin in favor of inflicting poison from its fangs and the spikes in its back (which can also be used as projectiles) onto its prey and hunters. When used in conjunction with paralizying bits to incapacitate its enemies, the poison can become a lethal element in its favor.
- Monster Hunter: Rise: Bishaten is a Tengu-based primate (part of the Fanged Beast family) that attacks by throwing fruits that either poison, stun or paralyze its prey or hunters during battle.
- Monster Hunter (2004):
- In Mortal Kombat, Reptile is infamous for his acidic prowess, to the point that in Mortal Kombat X, he gains a Walking Wasteland-like effect for one of his Character Variations!
- Pikmin 2: White Pikmin are able to absorb poison and can poison animals who eat them. Unfortunately for them, this poison is not transferable by touch, so the toxin can't poison those that squish these little guys.
- Pokémon:
- Grimer and Muk are the best embodiment of the Poison type, as they are composed entirely of toxic sludge that can apparently kill plants on contact and keep anything from growing in that spot ever again. It can also cause a fever if someone so much as accidentally touches one, though their stench is so strong your nose would have to be broken to even consider that.
- Koffing's essentially a giant floating bag of extremely poisonous (and extremely flammable!) gases. Its evolved form, Weezing, is two of them fused together, as if one wasn't bad enough on its own, and some Pokedex entries state that some Weezing exist that are three Koffings fused together.
- As for Poison specialists, there are Fuchsia Gym Leader/Kanto Elite Four Koga and his daughter Janine, who are both ninjas, which may or may not be related to the implied difficulty of training these things. Also punk-rock musician and Virbank Gym Leader Roxie, Team Skull Admin Plumeria, and many Bikers and Grunts throughout the series itself.
- The expansion pass for Sword introduces Klara, a girl who values being cute and popular, but hides a calculating mind behind her frilly exterior.
- Any Pokémon with the Poison Point or Poison Touch Abilities can inflict the Poison status on opponents by mere contact, making this list of Pokémon much larger than the above, covering the likes of Qwilfish (based on a porcupine fish) and Toxicroak (based on a poison dart frog).
- Many Pokémon qualify due to being able to learn Toxic via TM, which is the only move besides Poison Fang to inflict the badly poisoned status. Not to forget, the first-listed Pokémon in the National PokéDex is the Bulbasaur line, who are Grass/Poison-type dinosaurs!
- Also noteworthy are Salandit and its female-exclusive evolution Salazzle, both introduced in Gen VII. Fire and Poison-type, their exclusive Ability is Corrosion, which gives the user the power to poison the otherwise-immune Steel type, as well as other Poison types.
- It's worth noting that this trope is averted in the case of legendaries. As of Gen VII, Poison is the only type to not have a corresponding legendary (outside of Arceus holding the Toxic Plate, and Ultra Beasts Nihilego and Poipole-line). The first true legendary pokemon to be poison type (not counting type changers Arceus and Silvally) finally appeared in Generation VIII, in the form of Eternatus.
- The Reconstruction: Moke is a comparatively mild example — the fluid that leaks from his skin doesn't do much more than smell horrible. However, it indicates a natural affinity for poison, as reflected in his style of magic, which contrasts quite much with his personality.
- Super Lesbian Animal RPG has Clintson, one of the villain Javis's four 'sons', a being created from a fragment of Javis's life force and who possesses poison-related abilities. At one point he taunts the party that he's created new poison variants of Javis' minions to fight them. When the party finally confronts Clintson himself, he can cast powerful poison-based powers and uses a special form of poison on the whole party when the fight begins which will kill them in 15 turns. The only way to get the antidote is to defeat him, making his fight a Time-Limit Boss.
- Street Fighter V has newcomer F.A.N.G., a Mad Scientist that works for Shadaloo whose moveset is the first to incorporate poison. His V-Skill has him firing a slow-moving, unblockable poison projectile that will chip away at the opponent's health for a few moments or until the opponent lands a hit on F.A.N.G. His V-Trigger has him surrounding himself in a cloud of poisonous gas that will continuously damage opponents as long as they stand close to him.
- The Toxic type from Temtem covers anything that can make you ill — venom, spores, plague, acid, toxic fumes, radiation, et cetera. A lot of its techniques can inflict the poisoned status condition, as can the Toxic Farewell trait.
- The Tenth Line: The element of Nox represents poison and is opposite the element of Sky. Nox magic tends to manifest as poisonous and foul-smelling gasses and liquids and in battle, it inflicts the Sick status. Its strongest practitioners are the green Dracomages. One of them, Syx, has become a walking chemical spill thanks to Power Incontinence. Late in the game, it turns out that black Dracomages' dark magic can also leave behind a kind of horribly toxic magical pollution if a lot of it is used at once.
- A Total War Saga: TROY: Both the blood and breath of the Lernaean Hydra are extremely poisonous, giving it access to a variety of poison-based attacks. It infects targets with poison with every attack, exhales clouds of poison at close range, and can spit toxic projectiles at range.
- Touhou: Medicine Melancholy can manipulate poison in any form, and it's implied that she herself is poisonous.
- Warframe has Saryn, a Waframe focused on spreading toxins and disease. Her initial ability lets her infect enemies with giant pus-filled spores that explode with popped, turning them into a living bomb while her final power is to spread a deadly gas all around her that disintegrates enemies.
- In A Witch's Tale, Gretel's doll ability is to cast a powerful Vile spell.
Visual Novels
- Cardia, the Player Character of Code:Realize, is highly corrosive to anything she touches that hasn't been specially treated with a serum developed from her own blood. When a dog bites her in the beginning of the game and succeeds in breaking the skin, her blood causes the animal's head to melt off.
Web Original
- DSBT InsaniT: Ashley can shoot acid, and Michael can shoot poisonous snakes.
- SCP Foundation:
- The Foundation has found one such individual, living in a building tainted by radiation. It's not clear if the building (SCP-1951) or the person (SCP-1951-a) is the source of the radiation, but 1951-a is unable to even interact with guards on-site without the radiation he emits killing people. As a result, he's been forced to stay in the building forever, deprived of any human interaction.
- SCP-049 is a Plague Doctor that is hellbent on finding the cure for an unknown "Great Pestilence." While he is not described as poisonous, his very touch is invariably lethal to humans and he uses it to procure test subjects for his experiements.
- There's also SCP-811, a swamp-dwelling woman whose containment procedures require anyone entering her enclosure to wear a full hazmat suit and for good reason: she is a walking biohazard. She secretes mucus from the palms of her hands and soles of her feet that corrode organic tissue into black goo (which she then absorbs into her skin for nourishment), she vomits black tar that contains various infectious bacteria, she gives off large amounts of methane, and surgery cannot be safely performed on her because it's impossible to maintain a sterile operating environment. Even her sweat is a "mild skin irritant".
- The Foundation has found one such individual, living in a building tainted by radiation
- Puppet of the Whateley Universe. Her blood and lymph are so poisonous she isn't allowed out of her room and visitors have to wear biohazard gear. She looks like a normal pretty teen except that her green blood gives her skin a green tint.
- There are a few of these people in Worm, mostly among the Slaughterhouse Nine: Nyx has the ability to create illusions out of poisonous mist, and Miasma can emit a gas that causes brain damage.
Western Animation
- Action Man (2000): Professor Gangrene can poison people by touching them. Grinder discovers this the hard way in Gangrene's debut episode (fortunately, he gets better thanks to Action Man stealing the antidote), and in a later episode Gangrene taunts Action Man to hit him with his bare hand, but Action Man is smart enough not to do so.
- Batman Beyond has Blight, AKA Derek Powers, CEO of Wayne-Powers Enterprises. He's a Walking Wasteland who emits radiation wherever he goes, held in check only by a thin veneer of artificial skin. When he loses his temper, it only makes the radiation worse.
Blight: You want to talk about poison? I AM POISON!
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers:
- Meet his Evil Counterpart, Captain Pollution! The guy can contaminate or kill anything in his vicinity.
- Also, one of their Rogues Gallery, Duke Nukem (no, not that one) is a Walking Wasteland of radiation damage. His trusty sidekick, appropriately named LeadSuit, has to wear a radiation suit just to be around him.
- Dragons: Riders of Berk: Slitherwings are dragons that could be mistaken for giant, venomous snakes at first glance. Unlike venomous snakes, Slitherwings secrete poison from under their scales, so their main method of attack isn't to bite, but to fly above, or flick their tail at their target to drench them in poison. Said poison can be absorbed through the skin and acts very quickly.
- In the Sealab 2021 episode "Green Fever", some Technically Living Zombies left Dr. Virjay alone, and he claims (suddenly and without explanation) "I secrete a poison."
- Skysurfer Strike Force has Noxious, who can spray an array of poisonous gasses from his wrist mounted gas guns.
- Teen Titans (2003):
- The monster from the episode "Snowblind" generates such deadly amounts of radiation that none of the Titans but Starfire (whose species isn't affected much by radiation) can touch it.
- From the same episode, Red Star has this a major problem: he gives off dangerous amounts of radiation thanks to powers that he can't control. For this reason he isolates himself from the rest of society, refusing to get too close to other people out of fear of hurting them. Unfortunately for everyone, he's responsible for the creation of said monster because some of the containment tubes he has to siphon his powers off into started leaking and the radiation eventually gained sentience or mutated some poor creature.
- A lab experiment turns Transformers: Animated villain Prometheus Black into Meltdown, a walking acid creature that can melt Transformers with a touch.
- Season 3 of Wakfu gives us the Dark Action Girl Toxine.
- In Young Justice: Outsiders, both the first and second Plasmus were metahuman teens turned into monsters that were so dangerous that touching them would cause your skin to melt.
Real Life
- Back in 1994 very specific circumstances led to what appeared to be a woman's body essentially becoming toxic, causing illness in several people in the emergency room she was at before she died. The real cause is unknown but this is discussed in this article.
- Some anti-flea medicines can effectively make a dog who takes these regularly be a walking flea poison trap. The evidence of this is finding dead fleas on the dog — presumably, they tried to bite and then died upon contact.
- Similarly, roach bait turns cockroaches that eat it into this trope by exploiting the bugs' habit of eating each other's feces. The poison doesn't kill a cockroach right away, giving the critter time to return to its nest and poison the other roaches through its contaminated droppings.
- Number 2 on this list describes a professor who, after undergoing experimental radioactive treatments for a thyroid condition, wound up with dangerously radioactive bodily fluids. Oh, and he was wanted by the police for escaping arrest when accused of pedophilia. Which means, at some point, a police radio somewhere was heard saying "The subject is considered radioactive and dangerous." It's even better than that, at the time some newspaper headlines warned people that a "radioactive pedophile" was on the loose.
- According to the show the Romans used to create "catevaris" by feeding small amounts of poison to a child over time until they developed an immunity to poison and deadly body fluids. Probably fictional. (Though at least one individual from Roman times seems to have pulled it off.)
- During the Manhattan Project; American chemist Donald Mastick was studying the properties of plutonium, then available in only very small quantities. A vial exploded in his face, causing him to swallow a large portion of the sample and his breath set off radiation detectors. The medical directors for the project quickly treated him with counteragents to isolate the plutonium and pumped his stomach. Mastick was then handed the jar of stomach contents and told "go retrieve the plutonium".
- Harold McCluskey was a chemical technician at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant in the US state of Washington, who on August 30, 1976, was exposed to americium-241 at "500 times the occupational standard" due to an exploding glove box. His body registered on Geiger counters for the rest of his lifenote (he died almost eleven years later) — and presumably long after.
- Many amphibians such as Fire Salamanders and Poison Dart Frogs have toxic skin secretions, and are poisonous to the touch. The frogs, at least, acquire this by eating certain insects whose poison doesn't harm them.
- Asymptomatic disease carriers, such as the (in)famous Typhoid Mary, can at the very least be said to invoke this trope in the minds of others.
- The Other Wiki has lists for venomous and poisonous organisms (no, they're not the same thing).
- Believe it or not, human saliva can actually be quite toxic. At least, it is if you're a bird: they have little to no resistance to strains of bacteria found in mammals' mouths. Make no mistake, if a human bites you, seek a doctor. Human saliva is full of (often violent) bacteria due to our peculiar eating habits feeding them, and thus very dangerous if it enters your system in any way but kissing.
- Some chemotherapy drugs can release dangerous compounds into the patient's bodily fluids and excretions, including saliva. This isn't too much of a problem for human patients that can take care of their own personal hygiene, but in the case of animal patients, the animal's caretakers often need additional protective equipment and cleaning protocols when handling their waste.
