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Is blood blue or red?
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First thing: Blood is *never* blue. Blood is described as dark red (venous) or bright red (arterial). Our veins look blue because we are looking at them *through* our skin. The blood inside them is dark red and it doesn't reflect light very well. The blood you see when you get hurt is usually venous blood. Arterial blood comes out in spurts. It spurts every time the heart beats. I hope you never see that.

Blood in the arteries is bright red from the oxygen content, blood in the veins is dark red from the lack of oxygen. Blood in veins can look "blue" when viewed through the skin because of light refraction and other factors.
When a person donates blood, it comes from a vein, not an artery. It is also not exposed to air, or it would be contaminated and need to be disposed of. It also happens to be dark red, NOT blue.

The common misconception of "blue" blood is continued due to textbook illustrators use of blue and red to differentiate arteries and veins.

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First answer by Natural Val. Last edit by Zidancy. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 27 [recommend question]

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