Bruises cycle through a predictable sequence of colors as they heal: red, blue-purple, green, yellow, and then back to your normal skin tone. The whole process typically takes about two weeks. Each color reflects a specific stage in how your body breaks down trapped blood beneath the skin.
Why Bruises Change Color
When you get hit hard enough to damage small blood vessels under the skin, red blood cells leak into the surrounding tissue. Your body can’t just reabsorb whole blood cells, so it has to dismantle them piece by piece. The color changes you see on the surface are a visible record of that cleanup process.
The key molecule driving the color show is hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein inside red blood cells. As immune cells called macrophages arrive to clear the damage, they break hemoglobin down in stages. First, hemoglobin splits into its component parts. The iron-containing portion, called heme, gets converted into a green pigment, which then converts into a yellow pigment. The leftover iron gets stored as a brownish compound. Each of these breakdown products has its own distinct color, and they overlap as the bruise heals, which is why you sometimes see multiple colors in the same bruise at once.
The Color Timeline
Bruises don’t follow a rigid calendar, but the general progression is consistent.
Red or pink (minutes to hours): Fresh blood leaking from damaged vessels appears red or pinkish because the hemoglobin still carries oxygen. This stage is often brief.
Blue, purple, or dark red (hours to a few days): As the trapped hemoglobin loses oxygen, the bruise darkens to deep blue or purple. This is usually when a bruise looks its worst.
Green (around 5 to 10 days): The green tint signals that hemoglobin is being actively broken down into its green pigment byproduct. You may notice green at the edges of the bruise while the center is still purple.
Yellow or brown (roughly 7 to 14 days): The green pigment converts into a yellow one, giving the bruise that faded, yellowish look. Research in forensic science has found that yellow does not appear in a bruise until at least 18 to 24 hours after injury, which makes it a reliable indicator that a bruise is no longer brand new. Brown tones come from iron deposits left behind.
Pale yellow to normal (around 2 weeks): The last traces of yellow fade as your body finishes clearing the debris. Most bruises resolve completely within two weeks, though larger or deeper ones can linger longer.
How Bruises Look on Darker Skin Tones
On darker skin, bruises can be harder to spot visually, especially in the first day or two. Instead of an obvious red or purple mark, you may notice only a slight bump, tenderness, or pain with no visible color change at all. After a few days, the bruise typically becomes more apparent as a dark brown, deep purple, or black discoloration. The underlying biology is the same, but the melanin in darker skin masks the subtler early color shifts. Pressing gently on the area and checking for tenderness is often more reliable than looking for color changes alone.
What Affects How Dark a Bruise Gets
Not every bruise follows the same script. Several factors influence how vivid the colors are and how long they stick around.
- Force of impact: A harder hit damages more blood vessels and pushes blood deeper into tissue, creating a larger, darker bruise that takes longer to heal.
- Age: Children and older adults bruise more easily than younger adults. Aging skin is thinner and has less cushioning fat, so less force is needed to cause visible bruising. Older people also show a slower progression through the color stages, particularly the shift to yellow.
- Medications: Blood thinners and steroids can both change how bruises form and fade. Blood thinners allow more blood to pool before clotting kicks in, producing larger bruises. Steroids can thin the skin and alter how quickly the bruise disperses.
- Location on the body: Bruises on the legs tend to take longer to heal than bruises on the arms or face, partly because gravity pulls blood downward and blood pressure in the lower limbs is higher. You may also notice a bruise “travel” downward from its original spot over a few days as leaked blood shifts with gravity.
Multiple Colors at Once
It’s common to see two or three colors in the same bruise at the same time. This happens because the edges of the bruise, where there’s less trapped blood, heal faster than the center. You might see yellow at the margins, green in the middle ring, and purple at the core. This is completely normal and just means different parts of the bruise are at different stages of cleanup.
Colors That Signal a Problem
Ordinary bruises, no matter how ugly they look, are harmless. But certain patterns deserve attention.
A bruise that hasn’t healed within two weeks, or one that seems to be getting larger rather than fading, could indicate ongoing bleeding or a clotting problem. Frequent bruises that appear without any injury you can remember are also worth investigating, as they can signal blood disorders, vitamin deficiencies, or medication side effects.
A firm, swollen lump beneath the skin that causes significant pain, numbness, or tingling may be a hematoma, a larger collection of pooled blood that can press on nerves and surrounding tissue. Hematomas in the legs or arms sometimes need medical drainage, especially if the swelling restricts movement or circulation.
More serious warning signs include a bruise on the head accompanied by a sudden severe headache, confusion, weakness on one side of the body, trouble speaking, or vision changes. Bruising on the chest or abdomen with difficulty breathing, unexplained pain, or pale and clammy skin also warrants emergency care, as these can indicate internal bleeding.