"Blood is your life. Without it, you will die. If you are wounded, seek out blood to restore your vitality. You must know, too, that by drinking the blood of others, you will gradually become stronger, and harder to kill. We call this a vampire’s 'Lore'. The more creatures you drink from, the more Lore you will gain, and the greater your health will become. Leave no enemy alive, Kain. You will need their blood and their Lore to survive."
— Umah, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
We all know that blood keeps us alive since it delivers vital nutrients to our bodies, but what if you take that a step even further? Through The Power of Blood, you can heal yourself with blood alone. Whether by transfusing it, soaking yourself in it (with a bathtub), or consuming it in some way, blood is nifty in keeping you alive, whether it's supernatural or not. If you're a vampire, blood is more than just a meal, it's also a med-kit.
Sure, there are lots of ways to heal ourselves and others, whether by cauterizing the wounds, washing away the dirt and germs, breathing in the wind, and even pouring some booze, but blood can be more effective than those options by curing poisons and diseases or granting a Healing Factor.
Blood transfusions aside, this trope is obviously not recommended in Real Life due to bloodborne diseases, blood-type incompatibility, hemochromatosis (basically iron overload), and vomiting.
Compare The Power of Blood, Blood Magic, Life Drain, Vampiric Draining, Heal Thyself, and Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Devils and Fiends in Chainsaw Man can heal from basically any injury if they drink blood from humans or other Devils. Power and the Weapon Humans like Denji also drink blood to replace the blood they expend by using their abilities.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, after Vanilla Ice quite literally beheads himself as a show of loyalty to his master, DIO rewards him by reattaching his head and reviving him with his own vampiric blood. Unbeknownst to even Vanilla Ice himself, this also turns him into a vampire, giving him an extreme boost in strength and durability, but also becomes his undoing when he accidentally walks into sunlight.
- In Magical Girl Site, Kosame's Stick takes the form of a utility knife, and requires the user to cut themselves and drip their blood onto the wounds they intend to heal.
- In Saint Young Men, Jesus' blood has healing properties, in reference to one of his Biblical miracles.
- In Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun the title character is the only human. Just a drop of his blood has been shown to heal massive injuries on netherworld creatures, and also cause some plants to grow dramatically.
Comic Books
- Morbius: Shown several times. Morbius will be on death's doorstep due to something like starvation (trying to commit suicide) or physical injury (tortured by a monster hunter) — get some blood in him and he's good as new. Spider-Man's blood can (temporarily) cure him of his pseudo-vampirism, or bring him back to "base living vampire level" when he's become more bat-like.
- Preacher: Cassidy can become horribly mutilated and dismembered, but due to being a vampire, once he gets some blood, he's right as rain.
- X-Men: After the concept of "Secondary Mutation" was introduced in New X-Men, said mutation granted the character Angel a Healing Factor that was in many ways even stronger than Wolverine's. One of the many, many useful properties of said Healing Factor is that Angel's blood alone is powerful enough to cure poisons and diseases, heal near-fatal injuries, and much more. The main limitation is that it seems to work mostly based on blood type (Jubilee and Skin were both near death when Angel gave them his blood; Jubilee survived, Skin didn't).
Fan Works
- Infinity Train: Boiling Point: Any witch that has a sufficiently strong connection with Healing magic has their blood gain healing properties. Skara's blood is so strongly connected that it can actually revive small critters.
- Return to the Labyrinth: Fairy blood has healing properties, and not only can it be used to counteract Chimera venom, it is also deadly to Chimeras.
- Vow of the King: Unohana's bankai summons a pool of blood (taken from all the people she's ever killed) and grants her a potent Healing Factor that can regrow an entire limb in seconds.
Film — Animation
- Teen Titans: The Judas Contract: Brother Blood has been alive for centuries, which he believes was made possible thanks to his ability to rejuvenate himself by bathing in his enemies' blood. However, due to the character's mental instability, it's ambiguous whether his longevity is indeed a result of said practice, or if he has some other mutation and is simply deluded.
Film — Live-Action
- Daybreakers: The blood of people who have been cured of vampirism transmits the cure to other vampires who drink it.
Folklore
- In Europe, blood from executed criminals was rumored
to cure ailments, like epilepsy or leprosy.
Literature
- In Creature Court, damage from physical trauma (claws, blades etc.) can be healed by drinking the blood of another Court member, with a more powerful donor granting better healing. Damage from skysilver can only be healed by drinking blood from a sentinel, with the side effect of removing the drinker's powers and making them essentially human until it wears off.
- Devils & Thieves: Despite Blood Magic being considered evil and dangerous, when used correctly it can be life-saving. Jemmie once mixes her blood with Crowe's to give him enough power to fight off a fatal curse, allowing him to use his own healing magic to save himself.
- Guild Hunter: Blood — especially one from angels — has the ability to revive injured or emaciated vampires.
- Harry Potter: Unicorn blood can keep a person alive even if they are on the verge of dying. However, since obtaining it usually requires the slaughter of a being that personifies purity, it's believed that the blood also curses the drinker, though the specificities of the curse are not elaborated upon.
- Immortal Guardians: The virus that gives Immortals their preternatural powers is dependent on blood to continue regenerating their bodies and abilities. When an Immortal is grievously wounded, the virus that heals them is fueled by their blood. If they begin to run low on blood, the ability to heal diminishes and may stall until they are able to receive a fresh transfusion.
- InCryptid: Johrlac have clear blood that acts as a natural antibiotic for other species, including humans.
- October Daye: The eponymous heroine and her fae species the Dochas Sidhe have blood which they can they use to heal themselves from any injury through regeneration. Dochas Sidhe blood can also be used in the creation of potions to heal or regenerate lost limbs.
- The Otherworld: Bathing in large quantities of blood allows vampires to gain immortality and become resistant to any injury. Similar experiments using the blood of children was used by Gilles de Rais to turn himself into an immortal.
- A Piece in the Game of Gods: As said in Part 44:
"My patron is the goddess of blood and bone," Randal said, "so growing a new arm for me isn't that hard for her."
- The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: After Scathach rescued her from being burned at the stake, Joan of Arc was suffering from blood loss, so Scathach gave her a transfusion from her own blood. This had the side effect of making Joan immortal.
Live-Action TV
- In The 100, the Grounders can survive on the surface because their blood repairs radiation damage. A transfusion of it will even heal those who lack the adaptation. The Mountain Men figured this out and keep a stable of "donors" ready for those who suffer exposure. Then they find that Skaikru blood is even more potent and skip straight to harvesting bone marrow. Then comes an even bigger radiation disaster which can only be treated with genetically-modified "nightblood".
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Slayer blood has the power to increase the strength of vampires. Draining the blood of a slayer is the only way to cure the vampiric poison "Killer of the Dead" (or Interfector Mortis in Latin).
- Charmed (1998): Blood or tissue from an upper-level demon are required to create a Vanquishing potion to destroy them. That said a skilled demonic alchemist can use a spell and some of said demon's blood to make the demon immune to the potion. Not exactly healing, but it improves their survivability nonetheless.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022): Vampires can instantly heal wounds by applying their own blood on them.
- The Vampire Diaries: Vampire blood has very powerful healing properties, capable of healing any injury and many diseases. However, if you die with vampire blood in your system, it will turn you into a vampire.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Bloodbag imps are a variant of imp created by the baatezu to get around their lack of cure spells, and are essentially sloshing bloodbags that other devils can drink from to heal themselves slightly faster.
- In 4th and 5th Editions, vampires regain Hit Points whenever they drain blood from a living victim.
- Pathfinder: The "Infernal Healing" spells grant the target a limited, short-lived Healing Factor and require a material component of devil blood or unholy water. Unlike normal Healing Hands, the spells are explicitly Evil.
- When vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem feed on living creatures, they gain blood points/vitae, which they can spend in various ways. One of those is healing their wounds; one point heals one level of Lethal damage (stab or bullet wounds) or two levels of Bashing (punches), while Aggravated damage (from fire/sunlight/certain supernatural powers) take two days and five points. Because they're undead, they have no natural healing anymore; they must use blood to heal.
Theatre
- Othello: Desdemona cures Othello's pain with a handkerchief stained with the blood of virgin women.
Video Games
- Baldur's Gate III: Because the game's rules largely come from DnD 5e, Astarion will regain Hit Points if he uses his Vampire Bite ability on a living enemy.
- Bloodborne: Hunters heal themselves with blood vials, which contain special blood that heal the player by 40% of their max health. Considering how brutally difficult this game is, you better stock up on these vials (after all, this game is made by the same minds behind Dark Souls).
- BloodRayne: The eponymous Rayne is a Dhampyr, so the game's Healing mechanic involves jumping an enemy and draining their blood to restore health. But special mention goes to the Final Boss fight in the second game, which features a fountain filled with blood. Rayne and the boss can both restore health by standing in the blood pool for a time.
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Bloodless, a boss based on Elizabeth Báthory, is a vampire who has the ability to heal herself during the fight by absorbing the blood in the room. Defeating her allows Miriam to do the same.
- Boktai: Black Django can restore his health by sneaking behind his enemies and using the Change Wolf enchantment, which causes him to viciously bite the victim's neck in order to drink their blood.
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: "Dark Metamorphosis," a secret spell in the game, allows the player character (the half-vampire Alucard) to heal 8 HP whenever splashed with blood from enemies. His father, Dracula, is capable of the same. Certain weapons also have the same ability.
- In Death Stranding, Sam's blood levels take the place of a more traditional health bar and can be depleted in various ways, ranging from taking fall damage to walking too long while barefoot or with worn out boots. Blood bags, which can be equipped to steadily restore his blood levels, serve as the game's primary healing item.
- Divine Divinity series:
- Divinity: Original Sin: The cult of Immaculates soaks Starstones in human blood to turn them into "blood stones", which they then use to give their adepts perfect health and youth, as well as to heal any diseases. In gameplay, using a blood stone is the only way to cure the Rot.
- Divinity: Original Sin II:
- Characters with the "Leech" Talent gain Regenerating Health while standing on blood surfaces.
- The Necromancy spell "Blood Sucker" causes the target to absorb a blood surface beneath them and restores Hit Points proportional to the size of the surface.
- Blood Geo Effects can be Blessed with Source to grant Regenerating Health to people within them.
- Fallout: Blood packs first appeared Fallout 3, but they only heal a measly 1 point unless the player gets the Hematophage perk, which increases the healing to a decent 20 points. They return in Fallout: New Vegas, but there aren't perks that improve their healing, making them poor healing items. Thankfully, Blood packs become more effective in Fallout 4 and Fallout 76, now that they heal the player by 50 points per second at the cost of drawbacks (for the former, the player gets a 7% chance of getting infected with diseases in Survival Mode; for the latter, the player gets 10 points of radiation).
- The Legacy of Kain's title vampire can snack on a nearby healthy mortal to boost himself back up when he gets low on health; he can even do so telekinetically from a distance. His lieutentant Raziel, being an undead wraith, instead recovers via Soul Eating.
- Noita: The Vampirism perk allows you to restore health by consuming blood.
- In Spelunky, you can get a kapala from Kali by bringing her enough sacrifices; holding it allows you to catch blood particles which will turn into one hit point once you collect enough.
- ULTRAKILL: The Killer Robot protagonist, V1, heals themself by soaking in the fresh blood of their foes, and since there are no pick-ups other than the occasional hidden power-ups (including one that doubles their health), this is the only effective way to heal. According to V2's terminal data, V1's thin metal plating allows them to refuel by absorbing blood on contact rather than using a separate refueling process, allowing them to repair damage while shedding blood on the battlefield. V1 aside, the other robots also run on blood, and because mankind is dead and Hell is full of demons and the damned, the robots invade Hell itself to find more. Blood is fuel indeed.
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines:
- The player character, a fledgling vampire, replenishes their Life Meter and Blood Pool (which acts as a Mana Meter) simultaneously by consuming blood.
- Vampire blood can heal even mortal wounds in humans. The fledgling can feed Heather Poe some of their blood to save her from death... in which case they learn that it's also hideously addictive.
- Discussed when a Muggle archaeologist claims that some vampire legends can be attributed to aristocrats afflicted with porphyria, who would consume human blood to relieve their symptoms.note The fledgling can claim to have the same condition, in which case the archaeologist dryly states that there are proper medications nowadays.
- Garuda from Warframe is "the gore queen" whose skillset includes an ability to impale enemies on large talons, bleeding them out to create a healing area of effect for her and her allies.
- World of Warcraft: Death Knights have the Blood specialization, a tanking specialization that uses Blood Magic. Compared to other tanks, they have low damage mitigation, but make up for it with the most powerful self-healing of any non-healer specialization in the game. Many of their abilities are also themed around draining blood (and by extension, health) from enemies, such as Blood Plague, Blooddrinker, and Bloodworms.
Webcomics
- Uru of Archipelago can heal people with his blood. Like most healers, he's immune to his own power, though, except (unlike most healers) for life threatening injuries. The villain calls this "a remarkable talent for not dying".
- The Order of the Stick: Troll blood retains its Healing Factor outside the body. Other species can apply it to heal even serious wounds, so long as they don't mind growing patches of troll flesh where it touches.
Web Original
- Void Domain: Blood Magic, unlike regular Healing Hands, can heal the Viral Transformation of a zombie bite. However, it requires a fair amount of the spellcaster's blood to draw the ritual circle and leaves the patient with both an Impaled Palm and a messy exit wound from expelling the infection.
Western Animation
- Adventure Time: The Citadel Guardians' blood has limited healing properties, as shown when it is used to restore the flesh that has been burned off Martin's leg, and when it regenerates the Lich's entire body. However, it cannot replace Finn's missing arm, implying that it does not affect bone growth.
- The Simpsons: In "Blood Feud", Mr. Burns falls deathly ill with "hypohemia", a fictional malady that can only be cured by a blood transfusion. A unit of Bart's rare blood type transforms the frail old man into a top-notch athlete.
Mr. Burns: You know, it's funny, Smithers: I tried every tincture and poultice and tonic and patent medicine there is, and all I really needed... was the blood of a young boy.
- X-Men: The Animated Series: The episode "Have Yourself a Morlock Christmas" sees the outcast Morlocks attracting the attention of the X-Men by raiding hospitals and ambulances. They're doing so because one of their number, Leech, has contracted a serious ailment and the Morlocks lack the ability to heal him. Upon discovering this, Wolverine reveals that a blood transfusion from him has the potential to temporarily bestow his own Healing Factor on the recipient, but is reluctant to try it on Leech because said healing factor could go out of control and kill him, as it has to others Wolverine has tried this with. He's ultimately persuaded to give it a shot because all other options have been exhausted and Jubilee can't bear the thought of the little Morlock boy dying on Christmas. The transfusion is a success and Leech makes a full recovery.
Real Life
- Blood transfusion is the process of transferring healthy and compatible blood to save people's lives, and some diseases can be cured by the process alone. If that's not the case, the process is used to replenish blood loss caused by traumatic injuries.
- "Blood doping" is a form of performance enhancement in sports where athletes inject themselves with extra red blood cells to improve their body's ability to carry oxygen. It doesn't heal per se, but it does improve the body's endurance and recovery.
- The ancient Romans believed that drinking the blood of a gladiator would make you stronger.
- In Europe, drinking human blood (from recent corpses or willing donors) was considered a valid medicinal practice all the way into the 16th and 17th century. There was even a recipe for how to make marmalade from the blood if you wanted to spread it on your toast rather than drinking it straight down.