The smell of blood

[JT Woody]

Trying to describe what blood smells like.
Like, i know from cooki g chicket cutlets and ground beef/turkey that there IS a smell.... but i cant really think of the words to put together for it.
And..... would that smell different from, say, human blood?

My character gets nauseous around blood. Im writing a scene where someone has a mortal wound and there is blood everywhere. She says the smell is the worst [insert smell description]

 

[X Equestris]

And..... would that smell different from, say, human blood?

Pretty sure all vertebrates have blood based on hemoglobin, so the smell should be the same or very similar.

I often use “metallic”. While it’s an even better fit for taste, there’s a definite metallic smell to blood (because of the iron in hemoglobin). Of course, it’s also a fairly matter-of-fact description, so if you’re trying to get at the awfulness, it’s probably not enough on its own.

You could try to focus more on what the stench of all that blood does to the scene rather than the scent itself. I was in the delivery room when one of my brothers was born, and the blood was suffocating by the end . From the sound of it, there’s a lot more blood in this scene than there was in that room, so it would probably feel even more oppressive to someone who’s nauseous around blood. The air’s so thick with the metallic stench of blood that she can’t even breathe, so she can’t help looking for the exits, but it doesn’t matter where she looks, because there’s blood everywhere, etc.

What genre is this? With fantasy and certain kinds of horror, you have the freedom to crack open the thesaurus and use some obscure or archaic words that wouldn’t fit a modern thriller or far-future sci-fi.

 

[DoctoreX]

What kind of wound?
Fresh blood has sharp, iron-like, and slightly sweet. It’s the smell of hemoglobin and the iron within it, similar to the tang you get from touching a handful of copper coins. Warm blood in particular carries a dense mineral-like, sometimes with a faint organic note, like wet metal mixed with raw meat.
If the wound goes through the intestines, the smell changes drastically — it becomes overwhelming, foul, and nauseating. The metallic edge of the blood is still there, but now it’s mixed with the sour, decaying odor of digestive fluids, the stench of partially digested food and fecal matter, and the putrid, sulfurous reek of bacterial activity and gas.

 

[DLC]

I'm not sure you need to describe anything beyond the smell of blood etc.

 

[JT Woody]

What genre is this? With fantasy and certain kinds of horror, you have the freedom to crack open the thesaurus and use some obscure or archaic words that wouldn’t fit a modern thriller or far-future sci-fi.

Fantasty
Was trying to find a way around "metalic" because, this is a world with primitive tech and tools.

What kind of wound?

The wounded character was mauled by a predatory animal. Throat and belly (the soft spots)


Thanks for you help! Ive got stuff to work with now!

 

[X Equestris]

Was trying to find a way around "metalic" because, this is a world with primitive tech and tools.

So a Stone Age world? In that case, with the stomach wound you mentioned, it might be easier to focus on the rankness of punctured/ruptured intestines than the exact smell of blood.

 

[defaux]

Maybe words like "sharp", "tangy" or "ripe".

Use metaphors from their known environment, smells like a dear carcass, like prey, like [insert apex predator]'s lunch.

But, yes, also as said above, other scents combined to make a pungent bouquet.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

The rich scent of adreniline-heated blood? The stench of fear-chilled blood?