Black Spot

"The Black Spot!"

- "Billy" Bones: Treasure Island

The Black Spot is a symbol synonymous with pirates, the name is not euphemism but rather quite literally a black spot given to someone. The spot marks a pirate or sailor for death. Once given, pirates are honor bound to see to it that the receiver of The Spot dies and any time left to them is assured to be quite temporary. The more traditional Black Spot is a simple black drop of ink on a page of The Bible however if not available a blank piece of paper will also do. In some cases the mark will be placed on a pirate's very skin as a mark of disgrace to invite others to kill them. The mark may either be a sign of one crew's grudge against a person who offended what few honors pirates grant each-other or simply be meant to call out to any/all other pirates to kill the person for them as it signifies they can not be trusted. While the spot is half death-sentence it is also half hex, used to connect the malice of those who gave it so that their hatred follows the individual around as bad luck of the worst kind that will not rest until the one to whom it was given is dead. The mark was in-fact used in real-life as well but became most famously used in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and has been a steady staple of pirate fiction ever since.