Your capillaries are the smallest blood vessels in your body that connect arteries to veins. When these capillaries narrow or widen to quickly, the thin capillary walls can tear, and blood can seep out, giving your skin the appearance of thin red or purple lines.

Capillaries are the smallest blood vessels in the body, delivering nutrients and oxygen to body organs and whisking away chemical waste products. Capillaries are very thin and fragile, moving blood along a single blood cell at a time.

Broken capillaries, also called spider veins, are ruptured capillaries near the surface of your skin. Their appearance is commonly associated with aging, but you may experience them earlier in life under certain conditions, such as weak vessel walls and poor circulatory health.