Scott Bush

When I was a teenager, I had a game called Splatterhouse for the Turbografx 16. Crappy game, but my hormone-addled friends and I liked it for the “realism” of 16-bit video-game graphics (we also enjoyed 1991’s Andre Panza’s Kickboxing for the same reason, though that game had all the fast-paced action of Karate Champ and none of its excitement). Fast forward to today; I’ve turned in my game consoles for a wife whose sister-in-law is a forensic scientist for the Washington State Patrol.

Where am I going with this? Almost there.

I learned that the mess of blood at a crime scene left by bullets (or sometimes fists, crowbars, or other things) isn’t called blood splatter. It’s spatter, sans the l. The art and science of forensic discovery from blood patterns is called spatter. The font of all knowledge also reports that paint sprayed off a roller is called spatter, too, as is excess metal while welding.

Another of those oft-misconstrued words that is just accepted by everyone. Upon what evidence do I make that claim? Try searching Google for “blood spatter” and then again for “blood splatter.” Through some amazing feat of SEO, the results are nearly the same. Wikipedia’s entry appears for both, as does bloodspatter.com’s tutorial. Hats off to them, but I hope with this post is the first of many blows against the improper use of the term “splatter!”