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Symbols people commonly find unsettling — watching eyes, skulls, warnings about things that cannot be seen. This is about the impression they make.
None of these symbols means anything sinister by virtue of appearing here. Several are ordinary safety marks that happen to look alarming, which is usually the point of them.
This describes how the symbol looks, drawn from its recorded visual attributes. Appearance is not meaning: a symbol can look alarming and mean something ordinary.
Its recorded form is built on a skull: “A black silhouette of a human skull above two crossed long bones, inside a diamond outlined in red.”
A black skull and crossbones in a red-bordered diamond, the GHS symbol for acute toxicity.
Its recorded form is built on a skull: “A small skull, a coffin outline, a skeleton or an hourglass with wings, enamelled or engraved on the face or the shoulders of a ring.”
A skull, coffin or hourglass on a ring, worn as a reminder of mortality.
Its recorded form is built on a serpent: “A long scaled serpent with a small head, drawn as a curved line coiled, knotted or gliding across the shield.”
A snake, often borne coiled or knotted.
Its recorded form is built on a skull: “A human skull carved facing forward with deep hollow sockets and bared teeth, a spread wing extending from each side.”
A human skull with wings, carved on early gravestones.
It depicts an eye. A drawn eye reads as watching, which many people find unsettling regardless of what the symbol is for.
An open right-hand palm, often with an eye motif, used across Jewish, Muslim, Christian and secular Middle Eastern/North African traditions as a protective symbol.
It depicts an eye. A drawn eye reads as watching, which many people find unsettling regardless of what the symbol is for.
A blue glass disc bearing concentric rings around a dark centre, worn against the evil eye.