Seductive androgynous

I acknowledge the fact that these way too infrequent and low-quality posts of mine might be taking this blog to a direction it’s not meant to go, but I will try to keep sharing my vampirism with you anyway. I might be too honest here, and thus my failing shows through in my photos and writing.

As some of my readers already know, my inspirations usually strike at the worst possible time, like just after the sunset, in the middle of the night or when it’s too dark to take photos for some other reason. Vampire alter ego might have got the same sleeping pattern as the real things in classical vampire stories or something. Anyway, I ignored the bad photo shooting circumstances yesterday evening and decided to act on a stroke of inspiration I got from this photo:

(Photo credit to sargonnas, whose profile I saw this photo in for the first time.)  Kamijo is one of the Japanese rocker vampires I love the most. In case someone is unfamiliar with him, he’s the singer of a fabulous visual kei band called Versailles. Personally I love their music, their looks and their attitude (although I tend to lol at them for quite a bit), so I strongly recommend listening to them.

Anyway, I had the worst possible setting for my midnight inspiration; there wasn’t enough light, not to talk about my lack of clothes that would even try to match those of Kamijo’s. It was time to be creative, open-minded and prepared to do quite a bit of photoshopping. My end results were as follows:

(Lol at the beret, didn’t have anything even closely resembling a pirate hat…)

  See where the title of this post is coming from, yet? Yes, trying to imitate Kamijo results in provocative poses.

I’m not totally sure about where this one’s going, except for worse quality. Webcam, need I say more?

And here is a slightly more feminine photo from earlier that day night. I actually spent this evening trying to edit it as best as I could, and the process resulted in a blog post written way too late at night, with Yours truly being way too tired. So I’ll just apologize for this post full of nonsense and head to bed.

Until next bite again, my blood drops! ♥

Reanimating the inner vampire

It seems that this blog didn't take flight the way I had hoped. I apologize for that to all of you, my dear readers, and promise that I’ll be sharing my vampiristic thoughts with you more actively from now on. Other things than vampires have been occupying my mind in this all too hypocritical place they call real world. Well, I’m back now, trying my best to reawaken my vampire-self from her hibernation.

My wish is to make this blog a conversational one, so please feel free to share your opinions on anything related to vampires or to this blog. Respectful behaviour is advised, I do not wish to see a Twilight vs. anti-Twilight war in my comment box.

My love for aristocratic vampires has taken a leap towards all things noble – which shouldn’t be too surprising, since I have loved all princess-related things ever since I was a little girl. As I still don’t have any significant topics to write about, I will show you a few photos from yesterday. I was going for something like a princess in the garden, but ended up with a bit more gothic twist.

(Click to see bigger photos)

Our pool manages to ruin the feeling in that last photo…

I also took a few new balcony photos, wearing basically the same clothes as in my vampire photo shoot last summer. I wanted to go for a more vampire-like feeling here, but as I found a nice piece of lace I decided to veil my eyes and so the photos took a twist towards mystique. I think I ended up looking like a seer of some kind.

Well, I guess that was it for my appearance update. Now it’s your turn. What do you think about the appearances of vampires? Do you prefer your vampires as gothic or aristocratic or just like any average human? I prefer gothic and/or aristocratic myself, as you know, but I think their looks depend on their personas – same as humans, in that sense. However –and I don’t want to sound like a jerk here - in my opinion the vampires in the TV series True Blood look way too human. Especially the ones with beer bellies seem downright wrong to me. Is it just me or do too many human characteristics make vampires lose some of their unearthly charm?

Alright, that was really it. Until the next nightly encounter, my lovely vampire clan. Keep the comments coming and tell me if you are interested in editing my photo. I feel like they could use a hand of a talented photoshopper. Here is what Iiraliina came up with while editing a photo from my previous vampire photo shoot:

Thank you dear~ ♥

Where did they come from?

This is something that happens when I have too much time to think. Like when I’m washing windows. I let my mind wander and then come up with the strangest of ideas. This time I’ll blame a musical called Elisabeth.

I’d bet there are thousands of different theories of how vampires came to be. Some people would say through a genetic mutation, others think that God created vampires along everything else. Well, I came up with a new (?) theory. I can’t say it’s a very original one, but I thought I’d share it with you anyway.

I’ll begin with introducing Death as a character or rather a being. A young, androgynous and egoistical man who takes people’s lives. The embrace of Death, the kiss of Death and all that jazz, you know why this thought inspires me. Now what if the first vampire was actually a human who became Death's first love? Death would have suffered from this forbidden love for years until finally the human fell in love with him and took Death with pleasure. This love, however, encountered obstacles in the world of Death, because the human got jealous every time some other human was granted the kiss of Death. In the end, the love faded away and Death sent the human back to the world of the living... But the human could never be the same again. He or she became the first of the undead and the rest, as they say, is history.

So what do you think? I'm just a silly girl obsessed with dark, mysterious male characters and the perfect creatures of the night? I think I can live with that. It would make a good story though; maybe I'll draw a comic with this kind of a setup or something.

There's also something else about vampires I've been thinking about for quite a while. This isn't the most pleasant of subjects but something that I as a girl can't just ignore like it's nothing. Great, I'm feeling disgusted before I even get to the subject. You've probably guessed already what I'm talking about - vampires' reaction to PMS. This is really not a subject I'd personally like to associate with vampires, but books like Twilight really make it hard not to think about it. When you are a girl who basically never leaves her vampire boyfriend's sight and your blood is of the most desirable flavor anyone has ever tasted, what will you do when you're having your PMS? Doesn't that count as blood? I personally can totally understand why it isn't considered desirable but what about a vampire? Are they pickier than we think? In the end, just any human blood won't do, after all? It makes more sense when the vampire is very particular about his/her appetite, like the ones who only drink the blood of a virgin or an artist etc. but still... It's a dilemma.

Here you go, a couple of things for you to ponder. Again, I'd like to hear your opinions, comments, suggestions... Anything you come up with!

Until next bite, my dears. <3

P.S. I’m sorry that this post isn’t of the highest quality possible… I could have written more but I fail enough as it is.

Let me introduce you to my inner vampire

(You might have already caught a few glimpses of her here and there in my posts in Rising from the Ashes, though.)

Let’s start this with the basics. What is vampirism? Who is considered a vampire? There are various definitions for vampirism and vampire, some very similar to the original concept and some very different. In this blog I’m writing about vampirism and vampires the way I see, or rather feel them. I’m personally not too strict about how to define a vampire. It doesn’t matter that much whether vampires are described as vile monsters who can turn into bats or wolves or as inhumanly beautiful creatures that sparkle in sun. From Dracula to Twilight – bring it on. And when I’m talking about vampirism it doesn’t necessarily involve the thirst for blood, burning in sun or sleeping during the day and staying awake at night. For me it is more about the aristocracy, the aesthetics, the romance and the perfection of it. The mystery behind those beautiful creatures, the wisdom they have gained during the decades, the centuries, even the millennia of their existence. I don’t enjoy the vulgar massacres. For me, the mindless beasts who kill violently for their lust for blood are just the bad guys, inevitable to the story progression.The ones who fall in love with humans and drink only small bits of their perfectly intoxicating blood are definitely my favourites.

How did it all start?

This is a question I love to ponder, and not only when it comes to vampires. How did it all start indeed… I can’t name just one thing that would have been the ultimate source for my love of vampires. The question how walks hand in hand with the question when. I guess my love started growing after primary school, claiming its place in my heart after my obsession with elves. Reading horror books and listening to metal must have been some kind of a trigger, as well as my growing interest to gothic culture. Books like In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and the manhwa series Model by Lee So-Young are some of the earliest things I remember getting hooked on. Then there were, of course, the Twilight books, Hellsing anime, Malice Mizer’s song Transylvania and Interview with the Vampire (movie & book). I am a girl who has always loved all kinds of supernatural things, fantasy and dark beauty so it isn’t a surprise I ended up with a huge vampire obsession.

The vampire in me

I know there are some people out there who would rip my heart out for even mentioning ‘an inner vampire’ without the thirst for blood. No, I definitely do not drink blood on a daily basis. A glass full of blood looks good in a comic or movie and sounds appealing in a book, but to even think about actually drinking it myself makes me sick to my stomach. My parents always laugh at me who loves vampires but nearly faints at the sight of blood. It’s complicated. I think blood makes a great visual effect in a painting, for example, and it can look very aesthetic when used with care. I guess the line for my fear of blood follows the line that separates fiction from reality. The things I can tolerate are mainly small wounds slowly dripping blood. Sharp white fangs sinking to the soft flesh of an ivory neck, silver knife dancing over the silky skin, drawing a thin line of blood… You know the deal. But when it comes to slashing something open so that the blood spurts out like a geysir, you won’t find me conscious. And the same goes with needles. I feel like I’m going to pass out soon just from writing this. I guess I do like the taste of blood in small amounts though, if I don’t think about it too much. If I get a small wound, I most likely lick it clean rather than search for a napkin or rush for the nearest sink to wash it off. Yeah, my mind works like that. Contradictory, isn’t it?

Well, I guess it would be better to move on or else I won’t have anything interesting to write about in the future. ;) So here we go. These photos go pretty much with the text in the sidebar. Compared to the vampire photos I’ve taken previously, these are more on the black side. There’s some green and quite much light, something you probably wouldn’t come up with when thinking about vampires. Now I think I should shut up before I completely ruin the vampiric feel I’m going for. (Click the photo to enlarge)

About 30 photos made it to my computer, but in the end I felt like only these five are worth showing. This is why I’m not a model or a photographer. Well, I guess the bad quality doesn’t matter after all, since these photos were taken for me in the first place. Feel bad –> dress up & take photos –> feel better.

The clothes and accessories used:
Skirt – from Morticia
Corset – from Morticia
Shirt – from Lindex
Cross necklace – from Claire’s in Portsmouth, England
Silver pendant & earrings – from Kelttikorut.com
Silver bracelet – from my grandmother
Rings – from my mother, Heureka and some random seller at a local fair

I think that was it for now. I’m thinking of writing about my favourite vampires next time… If you have any suggestions/ideas for future posts, questions, things you would like to know or anything else, please feel free to leave me a comment.

I dare you to bite me, darling. ♥

The Grand Opening of My Vampire World Coming Soon

Stay tuned for the introduction, my vampire history, photos and more!