The Vampire Lestat was God; or the nearest thing he had ever known to it. The giant on the video screen gave his benediction to all that Daniel had ever desired. How could the others resist? Surely the fierceness of their intended victim made him all the more inviting. The final message behind all Lestat’s lyrics was simple: Lestat had the gift that had been promised to each of them; Lestat was unkillable. He devoured the suffering forced upon him and emerged all the stronger. To join with him was to live forever: This is my Body. This is my Blood.
Armand & Daniel | Into The Very Midst of Life They Plunged
“You are my teacher,” Armand told him. “You will tell me everything about this century. I am learning secrets already that have eluded me since the beginning. You’ll sleep when the sun rises, if you wish, but the nights are mine.” – The Queen Of The Damned
Hello! This question, actually, is much deeper than it appears.
I’ve addressed it physiologically before, and originally, I was going to link you to that privately, but then I remembered a tattoo from years back (under the cut bc it was under a cut on the person’s blog), and it inspired me to make further considerations, more in the context of the purpose of a tattoo. In that secondary but equally meaningful aspect, I haven’t addressed what the tattoos represent to the ones who wear them, and why the erasing of a tattoo could be devastating to a fledgling vampire. (As always, this response is only about Ricean vampires.)
I’m answering this with good intentions, just the exploration of this deeper question and context. I’m not trained in the issues that I will touch on, but these are just my thoughts on the topic at hand, and not meant to be authoritative in any way, shape, or form. I invite anyone who has gotten tattoos or is thinking about getting them to share your thoughts on this, to get some more perspective.
PART I: The physical aspect:
I don’t remember any tattooed Ricean vampires in canon, so I can’t say definitively whether the tattoo ink would remain or not :- This may be a question for the author. For our purposes:
On the one hand, as @thebibliosphere added to one of my posts: “I treat vampires as just very long living humans, which means even tattoos fade over time as the skin cells regenerate.” [X] I’m inclined to agree. I also think a tattoo could be removed from vampire flesh “by scraping/cutting/etc. off the tattooed skin and letting it regenerate to its natural state).” as @skeletalroses put it [X].
HOWEVER! On the other hand, the ink could be flushed out along with anything else on the body that is incompatible* to the vampiric parasite at the time that the vampire is turned (*“incompatible” meaning “unnecessary,” like the bodily organs for solid food breakdown or whatever else that are flushed out). Is a tattoo, or the ink thereof, an “imperfection” also an “incompatible” thing? I don’t know. So would the vampiric blood erase a tattoo? It’s possible!
– PART II –
People get tattoos for a wide variety of reasons, here’s just a few (and the first three I’m asterisking & bolding bc I feel like those are the reasons that I didn’t address properly before, and I want to try do so, albeit in a limited way, further down).
*To change something about themselves bc they are unable to change a larger aspect of their lives, possibly they want to transition from one gender to another, and are not financially able to do so,
*They are in the process of changing
a larger aspect of their lives, maybe they are gathering more information about the processes in order to make informed decisions about transitioning, or are taking HRT and gradually seeing the changes, or they have a specific quote/motto that is helping them through the change,
*To show that they have MADE a change about themselves and want to commemorate/celebrate that change, maybe they transitioned genders, or accomplished a life-long goal,
For protection/good fortune/etc., – my cousin has a viking rune of protection
To be part of a group – symbols that indicate allegiance to a group or religion,
To advertise one’s interests – like getting a Superman logo might draw other fans of the character to you and strike up a friendship or more,
(Some ppl do get tatts purely bc they’re aesthetically pleasing)
Etc….
Those first three are my focus right now, and I have not undergone a life change of that magnitude so I do not wish to offend anyone by presenting any misinformation.
But I can speculate that it is a deeply meaningful body modification. In some cases, it’s the only body modification that can be made and it has tremendous value to the person who chooses to have it. On a related note, when ppl ask about vampires and hair dye, I think this may be a similar kind of body modification, something that one can do if they are unable to do the larger desired change.
>>So a mortal gets a tattoo, or several, that help them feel like they’ve made at least that change to their bodies, and it helps them, whether it’s for a change desired, a change accomplished, or a change-in-progress.
If that mark is erased when they become a vampire, what does that mean about the change that the tattoo was about?
Is it erasing the change
desired/accomplished/-in-progress?
If that mark is erased, is being a vampire a sufficient replacement?
What are the consequences of erasing that mark as it pertains to the change desired/accomplished/-in-progress?
What emotional impact would it have on the vampire that that mark was erased?
So when this question is asked, it’s also about the fact that when someone chooses to get a tattoo for the sake of representing CHANGE, will that representation of change last into eternity? Would the mortal WANT it to? Would they be devastated that it was gone? These are all considerations and I don’t have the answers.
On the other hand, and on a lighter note,
Does this mortal really want that conversation-starter of a Superman logo on their thigh for ETERNITY?
How frustrating would that be to be stuck with something they’ve decided they DON’T like and/or support anymore, and keep getting asked about it repeatedly??
It could make for some intriguing vampire emotional exploration. #NO REGERTS indeed.
Again, a tattoo that I remembered from years back, which inspired me to make these considerations, is under the cut bc it was under a cut on the person’s blog originally.
Louis will probably spend a lot of time fawning over Lestat, there will probably be a wedding and he’ll probably get another gawdy emerald ring to add to the pile of them. IDK but apparently he can fly now, so he’s using his vampiry gifts finally! Hopefully we’ll see some more of that.
“I’ve been asked often: will there be crossover books involving my vampires and my werewolves? Will we see more crossover books with the vampires and the Mayfair witches? — As I see things now, no, I will not be doing crossover books again that involve two different series. The simple reason is: I’ve discovered from experience that each series has a certain texture, a certain ambience, a certain dominant set of aesthetic rules; and crossovers seldom do justice to the series involved in this regard. I’m proud of the hybrid vampire/Mayfair novels (Merrick, Blackwood Farm, and Blood Canticle and appreciate very much those readers who enjoyed them), but these books have not aged well in my mind and heart. I also think many readers were confused by them, especially Mayfair readers who did not especially care for the vampire books I wrote. But I would never say never to anything now. I love to experiment, break new ground, take twists and turns. Who knows? And I do appreciate the questions on this very much.”
//What if Lestat’s propensity toward writing so many books is not so much just grandiose storytelling but..
1: An attempt at atoning for those first years he kept so much from the ones he loved (Nicki, then Louis, even Antoine) and ended up hurting them, by now oversharing basically everything.
2: His own desperate attempt at self-therapy so he doesn’t completely lose it anymore than he already does.
Yes, I think so. His first book was definitely an answer to IWTV… “Read between the lines.”
I-want-my-IWTV 