were we the last generation to use mercurochrome?
Posted by DirtRight9309@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 176 comments
Posted by DirtRight9309@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 176 comments
BrooklynRobot@reddit
My family would coat their sore throats with that stuff. A few years ago I had to argue with my aunt to stop.
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
š«£
OhioIT@reddit
Is this the reddish stuff they spread on your skin at the hospital before they make an incision?
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
i think thatās iodine
Ok-Payment5950@reddit
My dad was a pharmacist and he and his partner had a small drug manufacturing company- silver seal- that made this as well as paragoric - tincture of opium. I remember my brother and I on Saturdays filling those little plastic bottles..
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
ok now thatās fascinating
andrew_c_morton@reddit
As a baby Xennial (1984), I only know of this stuff because my mother always referred to the Shakespearean character Mercutio as Mercurochrome...
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
š¤£
ihavenoidea81@reddit
I never heard of it any my chemist brain got a little shook reading that label. I was āthrilledā to see it only has mercury and not chromium in it.
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
ok iām glad a professional was as alarmed as i was. i googled it not too long ago thinking āiām sure it didnāt really contain mercury right hahaā¦ā
tagehring@reddit
I vaguely remember my grandmother having a bottle of it that was probably bought during the Eisenhower administration.
Eclectic_Paradox@reddit
I've heard of it but don't recall if my parents ever used it on me.
What they did use was this...
buginmybeer24@reddit
I hate the smell of that shit.
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
i LOVED the smell of it 𤣠i used to open up that antiquey bottle just to get a little hit every now and then
FrameJump@reddit
Really? I have fond memories of the smell, but the bottle I remember looked newer than that.
schwarzeKatzen@reddit
You can still buy that.
Eclectic_Paradox@reddit
Yes! I didn't even know it was still around until I googled to find this photo. I haven't seen it in years but I'll look for it next time I grocery shop.
nochickflickmoments@reddit
Yep we use that exact bottle. I remember my mom putting it on my lips?
schwarzeKatzen@reddit
It can help dry up cold sores. I donāt know if thatās why she used it on your lips but maybe?
mander00@reddit
I grew up in the deep South and would get covered in chiggers and mosquito bites after running throughthe field and woods all day. My mom would pour this shit on me in the mid 80s.
FrameJump@reddit
It was this or nail polish for chiggers. I don't miss being covered in them.
mander00@reddit
Yep. The same bottle of clear nail polish that was used for runs in Mama's pantyhose for church.
Cptcodfish@reddit
Iām convinced we were the last generation to use it, but the generation before us was the last to buy it. I know I was little and all, but I swear every bottle I saw seemed like it was 20 years old.
Icy-Office155@reddit
for real, those bottles looked ancient, like, what even happened there
CarbonInTheWind@reddit
It's still sold in most non Western countries. It stopped being sold in most Western countries in the late 90s because of concerns about the fact that it contains mercury.
PiHKALica@reddit
I have lived in half a dozen
CarbonInTheWind@reddit
It is marketed under several different names. I'm in the US. It's not banned here but was listed as untested so drug stores stopped carrying it. But I can still order it online.
PiHKALica@reddit
Lol, right... such as??
They use iodine, hydrogen peroxide, and alcohol depending on the situation; just like the west.
jaybotch29@reddit
But they commented on the internet. It must be true.
CarbonInTheWind@reddit
From Wikipedia which is unfortunately one of the few mostly reputable sources left on the Internet:
"Merbromin (marketed as Mercurochrome, Merbromine, Mercurocol, Sodium mercurescein, Asceptichrome, Supercrome, Brocasept and Cinfacromin) is an organomercuric disodium salt compound used as a topical antiseptic for minor cuts and scrapes and as a biological dye. While readily available in most countries, it is no longer sold in much of the West, including Switzerland, Brazil, France, Iran, Germany, Denmark, or the United States, due to its mercury content."
jaybotch29@reddit
billyrubin7765@reddit
Iodine stung more than mercuchrome.
Pudenda726@reddit
I used to oddly like the smell of mercurochrome
IceColdDump@reddit
No bathroom fan/ century home with rads combo will age stuff into sepia tones etc. real quick.
No_Today_4903@reddit
Our children should be thanking us to the heavens for not letting anyone manufacture this hells fire in a bottle anymore. Abuse in a bottle š¤£š¤£ idk what was in it but I swear to you it was actual fire when it hit that open wound. I criedddd when I saw that label. Cried tearssss of pain. It was worse than the actual cut. My arm couldāve been hanging off from my literal elbow, meat showing, veins, cartilage lol Iām rubbing dirt on it, walking it off. But I see that bottle and now Iām crying š¤£š¤£š¤£
Epicardiectomist@reddit
excellent way to put it. I have the same memory. The one my mother used looked like it was pilfered from a hospital in an HP Lovecraft story.
Octavya360@reddit
Ours was in a little brown plastic bottle. It was fairly new but looked old. I think it was their gimmick - old looking bottle had the good stuff
No_Attention_2227@reddit
I'm 45 and never heard of this stuff
sarabridge78@reddit
I'm 47 and thought so too. I clicked on theWikipedia link someone else posted and realized I did know, I just never heard it called that and the bottle looked much different. It was that orange/rust colored liquid the nurse would put on your cuts at school. I think our nurse just called it antiseptic.
Honest_Tutor1451@reddit
Are you sure youāre not thinking of iodine? It looks the same
sarabridge78@reddit
Maybe, but the blue and white bottle that Wikipedia shows sparked a memory. Who knows, lol.
clutzycook@reddit
I've heard of it, but we never used it in our house. My mom would usually use antibiotic ointment if necessary, but usually she just washed our scrapes and cuts with soap and water.
falconjayhawk@reddit
Same. And my dad was a pharmacist.
funkympc@reddit
Same. And my mom was a hypocondriac.
graveybrains@reddit
It was the only chemical in the house that lasted as long as the chemicals dad kept in the garage.
durandall09@reddit
This is more GenX than us.
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
i knew a bunch of Xennials who had it in their homes. we werenāt buying it, our Boomer parents were. and it wasnāt banned in the states until 1998.
Beelzebozo26@reddit
I'll be 48 next month and we didn't use this. I'm aware of it only from other people. We mainly just got all of our cuts and scrapes washed out with soap and water and bandaged. Both of my parents were nurses when I was a kid (my dad went on to change careers).
No_Today_4903@reddit
Just seeing the picture of this ish gave me the vapahs and was enough to make me wanna toss my phone and runnnnn Jesus. Run down the hall away from my pappaw lmao. They had this crap at their house and if I got even a paper cut over there mammaw was telling him to get this crap and it was worse than finding a hidden cut on your hand with sanitizer now. Iād rather cut my appendages off than have this crap put on. Holy lord.
nochickflickmoments@reddit
We called this red medicine in our house
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
idk why but that somehow seems even more ominous
Epicardiectomist@reddit
I've always wondered if there were going to be long-term as-of-yet-unknown effects from using this. I remember being a kid and even thinking then that it seemed like a sketchy thing to use.
GrumpyOldHistoricist@reddit
I think you mistook āOregon Trail generationā for āgeneration that trekked the Oregon Trailā because Iām a ā79 baby and I donāt know what the fuck that is
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
welp iām ā81 and i am very familiar with the sting.
lemmylemonlemming@reddit
Damn she. I was a kid and got a cut it was either this stuff or iodine and I prayed for this stuff because it didn't sting. Eventually my parents moved on to Bactine and it was like a different world.
chaoshaze2@reddit
Burn it! Burn it with hell fire before it makes a comeback. Save the children
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
youāre safe, itās not allowed to be sold in the us due to the risk of mercury poisoning, which is such a relief to know we were all having mercury injected into our open wounds
RosemaryRoseville@reddit
I read this as adrenochrome
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
that stuff makes pure mescaline seem like ginger beer
Roland-Of-Eld-19@reddit
They actually only stopped widespread usage in late 98
be_more_constructive@reddit
I have never heard of this.
For others interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merbromin
Seven22am@reddit
We used hydrogen peroxide in our house.
ninetysevencents@reddit
We used amputation of gangrenous appendages in our house.
Seven22am@reddit
"Just put some 'tussin on it!" --Chris Rock
jaybotch29@reddit
I heard you can get high off tussin. I drank three vintage vials of mercurochrome when I was 15 years old, and It didn't do shit. I haven't gotten sick in 30 years, though.
funnylikeaclown420@reddit
Lucky!! Paw wouldnāt touch my gangrenous leg, I had to wait for it to just fall off by itself.
ailish@reddit
Yeah I never heard of it either. We also used peroxide.
sleepyj910@reddit
Same, maybe cause Dad went to medical school but we always used povidone-iodine,
bitsy88@reddit
My mom was a CNA and we were an iodine household.
6thBornSOB@reddit
Me either.
We used the fuck out of some Mentholatum though. I get funny looks for that sometimes.
hbi2k@reddit
FudgyMcTubbs@reddit
Don't make fun.
Negative-Wrap95@reddit
My parents used that shit like they owned stock in the company.
impliedapathy@reddit
I was gonna ask if maybe it was regional but I lived somewhat close to Chicago. Iāve also never heard of this.
Forsythia77@reddit
We had a bottle of this in my house as a kid in the early 80s. Originally from Michigan City. š¤·āāļø
Confident-Cellist-25@reddit
Is this what we called monkey blood? Did anyone else call it that?
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
Yup! We called it monkey blood and once the bottle ran out I never saw it again.
RealisticAd2293@reddit
We did and I have zero clue where it came from. Just floated around until it found us, like the cool S and the rumor about Marilyn Mansonās rib removal š¤·š»āāļø
I grew up in rural Arkansas, the monkey blood reach was far and wide
Robo_Rameses@reddit
Monkey blood was Merthiolate.
ObligationJumpy6415@reddit
Yep, we called it that! Then as a young teen I saw it sold at the pharmacy as a clear liquid, and thought that was ridiculous š I havenāt seen it at all for years now.
NombreCurioso1337@reddit
Came here to ask if this was monkey blood. Literally all I ever knew it was. Also don't know its purpose.
Fall down, skin knee, hold back tears in front of friends, go to nurse, nurse puts monkey blood on it. A week later pick the scab. Childhood.
Bullitt_TX@reddit
I believe so.
sapperbloggs@reddit
Holy shit, this stuff is still available to buy in Australia.
It's not widely available, but there are a handful of places selling it.
schwarzeKatzen@reddit
Check the label. Itās likely the mercury free version.
Inevitable_Pride1925@reddit
I always wondered what happened to this. Never knew it contained mercury. Not a lot but enough it lost its āgenerally safeā FDA Approval and instead became āuntested.ā But that was enough for it to stop being sold.
schwarzeKatzen@reddit
The original formula was banned in 1998. You can still purchase it without the mercury.
hokie47@reddit
Today that would boost sales.
Addamall@reddit
I only remember it as a joke about old people products.
Temporary-Warning883@reddit
Bit before my time I think, Iām 1983 so maybe thatās why I donāt recall this stuff
FartWalker@reddit
I am 1985 and I remember my grandmother having a bottle. My mom never had it at home but it was the go to at my grandmotherās.
heyskeksislady@reddit
83 and my mother and grandmother covered me in it for scrapes and cuts.
TheRealLimitlessHate@reddit
85, mom and dad kept a bottle of mercurochrome in the medicine cabinet.
misplacedbass@reddit
83 here too, I never personally used it, but I know for sure my dad used it on more than one occasion. So Iām definitely familiar with it.
jaywinner@reddit
Also 1983. I recall it being used when I was very young and fading away.
Legitimate-Produce-1@reddit
Not me. I don't know what that is
sweetbirthdaybaby333@reddit
Xennial theater kid response -- I only know of this medication because it was mentioned in a lyric from Rent. I don't think my family ever used it.
Street_Narwhal_3361@reddit
Today for you, tomorrow for me!
CorgiMonsoon@reddit
Do you know what kind of horror show the aftermath of a freaking Akita landing on the sidewalk after jumping from the 23rd story would be?
emotyofform2020@reddit
When I was a kid I assumed this was a little yappy dog, only to then learn itās a fucking husky
Traditional_Cat_60@reddit
TIL
Street_Narwhal_3361@reddit
RIP Evita
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
Came to say the same thing!
Aggravating_Yam2501@reddit
Can literally hear Angel in my head šš
closethird@reddit
I wouldn't have heard of it either, but one of my favorite bands has a song titled Mercurochrome
nomadicexpat@reddit
Haha yupppp that's exactly what I thought of!
fifteengetsyoutwenty@reddit
Same!!!!!
georgeamberson1963@reddit
I dressed his wounds, and got him back on his feet!
rolL_uP_one_more@reddit
Bubbly_Wealth8165@reddit
Omg this was my grandpaās answer for every skin issue, cuts and scratch. Ā All of us grandkids would hide from him or pray he wasnāt home if we had a cut. Ā The memories of my cousins and I crying make me life now, but the trauma is real! The sting was so bad!
SensitiveArtist@reddit
We were a Bactine household
FleasInDisguise@reddit
My mom had a bottle when I was a kid. But she only would use it if you got a cut or canker sore inside your mouth, because she wanted to ration it since they didnāt make it anymore. We used peroxide on regular skin.
evolutionxtinct@reddit
Thatās the red stuff that burns right? I agree everything my parents had reminded me of the 70ās lol
MushLampMaker@reddit
I used to love that medicine. It made my scabs all sorts of iridescent colors. Turns out it was mercury. lol.
accordse1997@reddit
Whoa!!!!! Deep-as-hell core memory unlocked.
BetaThetaZeta@reddit
š¶ MercuroChro-o-ome, they make us those nice bright colors šµ
col_akir_nakesh@reddit
My great grandmother used to pull out the merthiolate. Stung like a bitch.
ahabneck@reddit
Yes! Dad used to paint an orange smiley face next to my wound.Ā Ā š
succubus6984@reddit
Everything i came home from my grandparents. "OH my god you are bleeding and they didnt put a bandage on it?...... Oh wait they juat put the red stuff on it and it stopped bleeding". ššš
FemaleMishap@reddit
My family was hydrogen peroxide for everything.
Pharmere@reddit
My grandparents used it on me back in the 1980ās. They called it āMonkeyās bloodā. I remember that it burned like hell
irelandm77@reddit
We had a slightly different product in our house called Merthiolate which contained Thimerosal which is an organomercury compound. Nowadays, the product of the same name uses Benzalkonium Chloride.
LazyBengal2point0@reddit
old Xennial here... I remember this
jarjarbinx@reddit
i also remember merthiolate. that thing stings
jmurphy42@reddit
I know about it, but I thought the earlier Xers were the last to use it. I never laid eyes on any in real life, our medicine cabinet had hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol.
AjCaron@reddit
My grandma put this ish on EVERYTHING! I spent alot of time at my grams house, once got whacked in the neck during a pine cone fight, went back to her house and she slathered this on my neck and sent me back out to play. It was sooooo embarassing!
M_Me_Meteo@reddit
My parents were boomers and my dad still has a bit of this stuff. He believes that the color red is critical for healing. This is why we can't have nice things. I'd explain further, but your parents are all boomers too, so...you know.
Badfish1060@reddit
We called it monkey blood. idk why
BearCat1478@reddit
Lol. My Mom still has a bottle. Uses it for toe sores. She's nuts. They also painted my tonsils with iodine when I had strep throat...
grrrbruno@reddit
I had this put on my cuts n' bruises until my early teenage years
WolvesandTigers45@reddit
I never used it but I know of it
tacitjane@reddit
Miss a drop and whatever it lands on is stained for life.
SnooDrawings7662@reddit
Never heard of it or used it. We used betadine.. it seems it is somewhat similarĀ
notsosecretshipper@reddit
Loved putting that stuff on and staining my skin red. Pretty sure the bottle of it was older than I was and it seemed like it never ran out.
OohBeesIhateEm@reddit
Iām 1984, never heard of this in my life
Haus4593@reddit
Never heard a grown ass man scream louder.
TheAskewOne@reddit
I hated it. For some reason I can't stand having stains on my skin so having to go around that red indelible red color for days was disgusting. Decades later I'm still disgusted by that color.
PhysicsAndFinance85@reddit
I remember that bottle well. I'm pretty sure they came off the store shelf looking 20 years old.
hoopstick@reddit
My parents just used iodine š¤·āāļø
nipplecancer@reddit
Never heard of this. We were a Bactine family.
dabeeman@reddit
i have no idea what this and have never used it
ShirazGypsy@reddit
I hope so, that shit sucked
Kryptin206@reddit
I've heard of it from old tv shows, but never seen it before.
ModBabboo@reddit
Definitely had it applied as a kid. It seemed to disappear after the '80s.
Krissy_ok@reddit
I have some in the medicine box on top of my fridge. Bit newer than that fossil though
Fast-Damage2298@reddit
We had a bottle of mecurochrome and a bottle of merthiolate in the cabinet all throughout the 1980s. Both bottles were at least 10-15 years old, but mom still used them on us.
Iirc, the merthiolate stung and the other didn't. Mom sort of randomly grabbed them when we had cuts. It was a 50/50 chance you would get the stingy one.
I wonder if those old bottles are still in the cabinet of her old house?
Redneck-ginger@reddit
I used some 2 weeks ago. It was the only thing i could find at the hunting camp.
myfrigginagates@reddit
Instead of using that my mom could have just cauterized my cuts with a hot poker from the fireplace. Same result for the cut, same insane burning sensation for me.
marco3055@reddit
Yep, every scuffed knee after a fall, grandma to the rescue
tgerz@reddit
Just learning what this right now (1982). Makes me think of getting a nasty cut when I was kid and my parents just pouring iodine all over it.
1upjohn@reddit
I remember this being the default when getting any cuts or scrapes as a kid. It was banned in 1998.
freshleysqueezd@reddit
Its featured in probably every Stephen King book.
GreenZebra23@reddit
I have definitely heard that term before. That's the extent of my experience with it
DisconcerteDinOC@reddit
I hated that stuff. Although, I DID survive childhood. Lol
Suitable-Cat-4762@reddit
I still remember the smell of this stuff, and the sting on my cuts. Wow brought back some memories.
Timlmmansdead@reddit
I remember this stuff vividly. Burns like fire. I was born in 91 haha
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
I knew iodine was still a thing but never saw this!
ruby_jewels@reddit
Yes!
207Menace@reddit
My mimi had some and yes. Stung bad.
laziestmarxist@reddit
Maybe because I grew up in a small town or maybe it was because of the military healthcare but I have vague and dim memories of this being used on my cuts when I was really little and absolutely hating it
midnight-dour@reddit
The āChangoā. My parents never used that stuff on us. They still shudder at just the mention of it from their own childhood experiences.
InfiniteOxfordComma@reddit
Yes, because adrenachrome is all the rage now.
Hard /s before anyone accuses me of being in QAnon or any other batshit crazy conspiracy theory groups.
One_Market_9335@reddit
Oddly enough it was country-specific for me. I used it when my family lived in Brazil, but when we lived in the U.S. and Canada we never used it.
ChristyLovesGuitars@reddit
Have never heard of mercurochrome.
muhredditone@reddit
Ever heard of 'monkey's blood'?
ChristyLovesGuitars@reddit
Nope! I donāt know what that is!
Consistent_Stick_463@reddit
Most monkeys are chock full of it!
Ok_Researcher_9796@reddit
I've never taken that stuff. What the heck even is it?
jessek@reddit
topical disinfectant you put on cuts, similar to Iodine
smith_716@reddit
It's topical. For cuts.
I was born in 1986 but my family was full of doctors and we had this stuff. I'm 99% sure we still have some.
TuesDazeGone@reddit
We called it Monkey Blood. My mom always used it.
Norwegianfarmdog@reddit
Yes some parents still used that. The kids of those parents had funny knee scabs.
DDrewit@reddit
We used Neo, nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh. Sporin.
Ok_Criticism7172@reddit
Oh wow, that brings back memories! Ā My mom was a nurse⦠any time we got a cut or a scrape, we put that on it. (I donāt remember having strong feelings about it one way or the other.)
muhredditone@reddit
"Monkey's Blood". My grandfather used it, and yes, we (the kids) all believed it was really monkey's blood.
DirtRight9309@reddit (OP)
haha silly kids, itās not monkeyās blood, itās merely a harmless mixture of mercury and bromine āŗļø
muhredditone@reddit
I know! He had us all worried over nothing āŗļø