Broken blood vessels happen when small capillaries near the surface of the skin or eyes rupture or dilate permanently, creating visible red, purple, or blue marks. The causes range from completely harmless triggers like sneezing or sun exposure to underlying conditions that need medical attention. Where the broken vessels appear, how many there are, and how quickly they develop all help distinguish a cosmetic annoyance from something more serious.
How Broken Blood Vessels Look on the Skin
Not all broken blood vessels look the same, and the size of the marks tells you something about what’s going on. The smallest are petechiae: pinpoint red or purple dots, usually no larger than a pinhead, caused by bleeding from the tiniest capillaries just below the skin’s surface. Slightly larger spots that resemble small bruises are called purpura, and bigger areas of discoloration are essentially bruises (ecchymoses). On the face, broken vessels often appear as fine, branching red or blue lines across the nose and cheeks, sometimes called spider veins.
In the eye, a broken blood vessel shows up as a bright red patch on the white part of the eye. This is a subconjunctival hemorrhage, and while it looks alarming, it’s usually painless and resolves on its own within two weeks.
Sun Damage and Aging
Ultraviolet radiation is one of the most common causes of broken facial blood vessels. UV exposure triggers the skin to produce a growth factor that stimulates the creation of new, fragile blood vessels near the surface. Research from Boston University found that in fair-skinned people, UV rays penetrate deeply enough into the skin to trigger this process in lower layers, which is one reason lighter skin tones are more prone to visible facial vessels. Over time, repeated sun exposure compounds the damage, weakening capillary walls until they dilate permanently.
Aging works alongside sun damage. As you get older, collagen and elastin in the skin break down, and the tissue supporting tiny blood vessels thins out. Capillary walls lose their resilience and are more likely to stretch and stay dilated. This is why broken blood vessels on the face become increasingly common after your 30s and 40s, especially around the nose, cheeks, and chin where skin is thinnest.
Rosacea and Skin Conditions
Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin condition affecting roughly 2% of the global population, and visible broken blood vessels are one of its hallmarks. The condition causes repeated flushing and inflammation that gradually damages capillary walls. Over months and years, blood vessels that once dilated temporarily in response to heat, alcohol, or spicy food become permanently enlarged and visible.
The relationship between rosacea and broken vessels goes both ways. UV-B radiation, a known rosacea trigger, also directly stimulates new blood vessel growth in the skin. So the same environmental exposure that worsens rosacea flares also creates more fragile vessels prone to breaking. Other skin conditions like eczema and chronic dermatitis can also weaken capillaries in affected areas through persistent inflammation.
Physical Pressure and Strain
A sudden spike in pressure inside your blood vessels can rupture the smallest, most fragile ones. This is the most common explanation for broken blood vessels in the eye. Triggers include coughing, sneezing, straining during a bowel movement, vomiting, and even rubbing your eyes too hard. Heavy lifting and intense exercise can do it too. A minor bump or poke to the eye is another frequent cause.
On the skin, similar pressure-related forces are at play. Prolonged vomiting or violent coughing fits can cause petechiae to appear on the face, neck, and chest, where capillaries are under the most strain during these episodes. Childbirth commonly causes petechiae on the face and around the eyes from sustained pushing. These pressure-related broken vessels typically heal on their own once the triggering event stops.
Medical Conditions That Weaken Blood Vessels
When broken blood vessels appear without an obvious physical cause, or when they show up in clusters across multiple areas of the body, an underlying condition may be responsible. Low platelet counts (thrombocytopenia) are one of the most common medical causes. Platelets are the blood cells that help form clots, and when their numbers drop, small vessels bleed more easily and petechiae appear. Immune thrombocytopenia, where the body’s immune system mistakenly destroys its own platelets, is one specific form of this.
Vasculitis, a group of conditions where the immune system attacks blood vessel walls, causes vessels to weaken, narrow, and rupture. Leukemia can also produce widespread petechiae because it disrupts normal platelet production in the bone marrow. Even vitamin C deficiency (scurvy), though rare in developed countries, weakens the connective tissue that supports blood vessel walls and leads to easy bruising and bleeding under the skin.
Several infections can trigger broken blood vessels as well. Bacterial infections like strep throat, meningococcemia, and endocarditis can cause petechiae. Viral infections including mononucleosis, cytomegalovirus, and COVID-19 have also been linked to petechiae, either through direct damage to blood vessels or by lowering platelet counts during the body’s immune response.
Other Common Contributors
Hormonal changes during pregnancy, menopause, or while taking hormonal birth control can make blood vessels more fragile and prone to dilation. Increased blood volume during pregnancy puts extra pressure on capillary walls, which is why spider veins on the legs and face are common during the second and third trimesters.
Alcohol dilates blood vessels, and chronic heavy drinking causes repeated flushing that can permanently stretch facial capillaries. Certain medications, particularly blood thinners and corticosteroids, increase the likelihood of broken vessels by reducing the blood’s ability to clot or thinning the skin over time. Genetics play a role too. If your parents had visible spider veins or easy bruising, you’re more likely to develop them yourself.
When Broken Blood Vessels Need Attention
Most broken blood vessels are harmless. A single subconjunctival hemorrhage that stays on the white of the eye and doesn’t affect your vision will clear up without treatment. Spider veins on the face from sun damage or aging are a cosmetic concern, not a medical one.
The picture changes when broken blood vessels appear suddenly across multiple parts of your body, keep recurring without a clear cause, or come with other symptoms like fatigue, fever, or unexplained weight loss. Widespread petechiae without an obvious trigger (like coughing or straining) can signal a platelet disorder or infection that needs evaluation through blood work. For eye hemorrhages, any blood that appears in the colored part of the eye (the iris) or the pupil, or any vision changes accompanying the red spot, warrants prompt evaluation.
Treatment Options
Broken blood vessels that stem from an underlying condition improve when the root cause is treated. For the cosmetic variety, particularly spider veins on the face, several effective options exist.
Laser treatments are the most reliable approach for removing visible facial vessels. Pulsed dye lasers deliver targeted bursts of energy that collapse the dilated blood vessel, which the body then reabsorbs over the following weeks. Intense pulsed light (IPL) treatments work similarly, targeting both pigmentation and vascular marks with broad-spectrum light. These treatments are effective even for broken vessels that haven’t responded to other approaches, and most people need one to three sessions depending on the extent of the damage. Mild redness and swelling in the treated area typically last a few days.
Prevention is straightforward for the most common causes. Daily broad-spectrum sunscreen protects against UV-driven vessel damage. Avoiding extreme temperature changes, limiting alcohol, and treating rosacea early can slow the progression of facial spider veins. For pressure-related broken vessels in the eye, there’s not much to do beyond letting them heal, which they reliably do within one to two weeks.