The symbol depicted on the cover is a veve, a voodoo sign. According to Ellefson, the original concept for the album's cover was very different, however, it was changed at the last minute. According to Menza, "The original album title was going to be Needles and Pins. The cover was supposed to be a girl holding a Cupie doll with a bunch of pins in it... she's stabbing the doll with a syringe in the chest. That didn't fly." The title derives from a lyric in "Use the Man". Aside from being a lyric, Ellefson stated that there was not really any correlation between the title and the music on the album. The first 500,000 copies of "Cryptic Writings" in the United States were released with an album cover featuring a silver background. These releases also included a Vic Rattlehead collectible card which promoted "The Cryptic Writings Of Megadeth", an issue run by Chaos Comics. Later US pressings features the same artwork with a black background instead. The black background album cover is also featured in the remasters.