Interview with the Vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac Anne Rice Tattoo Flash by RedSelena
Tag Archives: tattoos
@i-want-my-iwtv About the tattoo ask, I asked this question a while ago and this was Anne’s answer.
Oooh, thanks @frankenland!
Much appreciated. @wavesofwood, check this out. If we accept the author’s words as canon, we can say definitively:
1) Tattoos that the vampire tries to get AFTER they have been turned: Will vanish in 24 hrs.
2)
Tattoos that the vampire has BEFORE they have been turned: Will fade/lighten/change (see comment from @monstersinthecosmos on my post about this,
below)
@monstersinthecosmos adds:
i remember Anne said on FB once that someone’s tattoos would probably go really light and lacey/elegant looking after they’re turned, but remain in a way that looks ~ethereal~ lolol
^I’d have to find the post but I would imagine that AR means that the tattoo will “go really light and lacey/elegant looking” over time, not at the moment of turning, but it could be interpreted either way.
It would have been nice if she had answered your whole question and included whether any of them DO have tattoos, and maybe
accepted your compliment graciously, but OH WELL.
Ok but tattoos and vampires?? If you were to have a tattoo and get turned into a vampire, do u think it would fade since the vampiric blood supposedly erases all the “imperfections” or not?
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.
[^X is @page537‘s VC quote tattoo!]
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
on his sternum, Angelina Jolie has a number of tattoos for blessings and other reasons,
- 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.
@daniel-james-molloy‘s VC tattoo [X]:
I have a question, well, we know this thing that when they get transformed into a vampire, their hair never change of how it was before, the long etc. But what if the person has colored hair like in pink or whatever? It keeps like that forever or it just vanish while transforming. What do you think?
For Ricean vampires (idk the rules with others), I don’t think dye would last forever bc they can cut their hair, and the dye would be effectively removed.
Dye is a color treatment on material that’s basically dead and outside their bodies. Even though their hair does not grow longer than the length it was when they were turned, it can be cut off and will grow back their natural color. I don’t think the dye would vanish during turning, either, like nailpolish wouldn’t vanish during turning. The nail underneath would change to that vampiry glassiness, but not be visible. The hair would change in texture inside the dye.
With something like a tattoo, I would think that it could be permanent, if the mortal had them before being turned, because the ink is under the skin, but maybe the vampiric parasite would reject the ink as being unnecessary. I don’t think we have any tattooed vampires in canon to know for sure.
@thebibliosphere? Thoughts?
would you happen to have any ridiculous Lestat quotes? im looking for new tattoo ideas thankssssss
Oooh! That’s a cool idea… Fandom, let’s gather some ridiculous Lestat quotes for a tatt on this post. Mention the book it came from, too, if you can.
Here’s some I grabbed from IWTV, they’re not all ridiculous but they might work as a tatt, anyways. They all sound like canon to me, but check a legit copy of the book bc these are from an unreliable PDF.
Ridiculous Lestat quotes from IWTV:
I’ll play the drum if I like!
- Stop looking at my buttons,
- Don’t fall
so madly in love with the night that you lose your way! -
You’re dying, that’s all; don’t be a fool.
-
You’ll have to bed down with me this morning. I
haven’t prepared you a coffin. -
If I want to sleep all day
and drink all night, I’ll do it, damn you! - Now, I’m getting into the coffin, and you will get in on top of me if you
know what’s good for you. - The hell I won’t!
-
He’s dead, you idiot!
-
Don’t be such a damned idiot. Haven’t you ever seen a rat?
- Rats can be quite nice
- [Re: a shattered crystal glass that he shattered] You don’t mind, do you? I surely hope you
don’t, because there’s nothing much you can do about it if you do
mind. - I’d like to meet the devil some night, I’d chase him from here to the wilds of the Pacific. I
am the devil. -
I ought to drive your horse
into the swamps. You’d have to dig yourself a hole and smother! -
You whining coward of a vampire who prowls the night killing alley
cats and rats and staring for hours at candles as if they were people and standing in the rain like a zombie until your clothes are drenched and you smell like old wardrobe trunks in attics and have the look of a
baffled idiot at the zoo. (<— This is probably too long but a piece of it might work, like “Staring at nature like a baffled idiot at the zoo” which is my tag for cool nature-related stuff, and some ppl have even adopted it from me.) - You’re being morbid! It’s almost dawn.
- I
can give you death more easily than I gave you life! - Did I kill him or did I not kill
him! What’s your guess?
Jesse/Yvette made my day, thank you!
That’s so sweet of you! You’ve made my day, telling @wicked-felina and me this *u*
VC has few F/F (are we supposed to call them w|w now?) ships, there is plenty of room for more. It would be such an honor if Yvette and Jesse became a new ship thanks to our little AU!
Jesse/Yvette was something we didn’t predict, and it’s not a real ship (yet!). Btw, that’s Hattie Watson as Jesse on the right, from her IG. I’m using a pic of Yvette from movie!IWTV bc our Yvette was originally inspired by movie!IWTV’s Yvette, who some of us headcanon grew up with Louis and was more of a sister to him than his own sister. That they genuinely cared about eachother. In our fic,
Yvette is a baker par excellence, grew up with Louis, and they even were a couple at one point. That’s long over now, but they’re very good friends.
[X] Lookit this cutie, Hattie Watson! She has tatts, she could be a modern AU Jesse w/ tatts.
Hit the jump for more pics of Jesse.
[X] Lovin’ those freckles!
[X] Coffee break…
[X] Did I mention she has tatts? She has them.
[X]
[X] Suited up
“If I am an angel, paint me with black wings…”
My new tattoo, i’m pretty proud of it. Now, until my last breath, Armand will stay under my skin ❤
vagabonddaniel replied to your post: anonymous asked:Hi! What’s canon?…
//I love that graphic. That edition of IwtV, the movie paperback, was the first copy i ever got. 😀 It makes me happy to see. Also good explanation of canon vs headcanon.
Merci! I really love the concept of “headcanon” as separate from “canon,” gives that old “Read between the lines” quote so much flexibility.
That edition was not the first one I read (which was borrowed), but it was the cover for the copy I got for myself:
Can we talk about the star symbol? Check out that star symbol.
I wonder who designed it? And what did it mean? IIRC, there weren’t 5 books in the series at that point. Maybe just “5-pointed star looks cool so here ya go.” Is it significant that the star is upside down? Is it a subliminal witch-related thing?
At any rate, I was pretty obsessed with drawing it on my hand in marker. Just now, I cobbled it together in pshop… I am AWARE that the angles are ALL WRONG but I AM TIRED IT’S ALMOST MIDNIGHT GIVE ME A BREAK AND ANYWAY IT STILL LOOKS COOL:
^I considered getting it as a tattoo, w/ inverted colors. But can’t really justify pulling the trigger bc A) I’d have to clean up the design and I am lazy… and I know what it means to me, but B) I really would want to know who designed it and what exactly it’s meant to be?
I-want-my-IWTV 