Vampyres

"Vampyrism" refers to a subculture of people who find the allure of the darkness and Victorian style associated with vampires very appealing. These individuals often model their homes after a Gothic or Victorian style, and apply the same principle to their choice of clothing. These are people who actually wish to be vampires(notice the "i"), and do whatever is physically and outwardly needed to achieve this "status". For instance, many "suffer" from what they call a "blood-thirst", which is a supposed need to ingest blood. Many times in fact, this is considered a sexual turn-on, and is practiced at or close to the sexual climax. This practice was noted in an episode of the show "Nip/Tuck"^[1]. Also noted in this same episode was the tendency for vampyres to permanently affix prosthetic fangs to their teeth or to file their own eyeteeth to a point to presumably act the part^[2].

The Visual Vampyre

A vampyre will most likely have similar physical characteristics to that of a Goth. Some of these characteristics include a painted white face and eye liner, though in other cases, one finds the vampyre having pale skin by default (vampires don't like the sun). Their faces may be adorned with black eyeliner and lipstick: standard Goth. Though, as mentioned before, the vampyre may also have fangs. A leather choker with spikes is also not out of the ordinary, for it would feed the sadistic and masochistic tendency very well. The vampyre, from what is known, would seem likely to wear black clothing that covers the majority of their body. This would clearly be an attempt to prevent their skin from being exposed to UV rays, for obvious reasons. The vampyre would likely also wear pointed leather boots, in the style of a vampire.

The Musical Vampyre

With regard to music, the vampyre will tend to listen to Gothic, Death Metal, Industrial, Classical and Techno.^[3] Though of course, this is very subjective. A possible reason why Vampyres might tend to listen to this music is because of the dark nature of it. For instance, Death Metal is always tuned lower (guitar-wise) than other types of rock. This allows for a deeper darker sound, more guttural and brutal. The topic of much of this genre's lyrics include death, torture and gory brutality. From what is known of vampyres this would be right up their alley. The traditional vampire was aroused and excited by blood and gore, torture and killing...so naturally the Vampyre would outwardly display a reverence for this genre. Industrial is more related to Thrash Metal, though with some of the similar characteristics as Death Metal. The reason this genre is known as Industrial is because of some of the metallic sounds and the noise factor.

A vampyre could also easily be seen listening to classical music, as that was the style of the vampires in The Gothic and Victorian Era, mainly because that was the music of the vampire's youth.

The Lifestyle

Vampyrism is a subset of the goth culture, however it tends to be more extreme. Vampyres attend public events which showcase sadism and masochism, as a testament to their beliefs. This culture, as mentioned before, arose largely from Anne Rice novels and Victorian England. The vampyres pride themselves largely on being against the ideals of Christianity; vampyre culture in itself implies the antithesis of Chirstianity.^[4] Though what is notable is the connection between vampirism and Christianity, namely, the idea of sustenance from another person's blood (see Christianity.

Sources

1. ↑ Giselle Blaylock & Legend Chandler, "Nip/Tuck" Season 5 Episode 22, watched 3 March, 2009
2. ↑ Tooth Filing, http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Tooth_Filing, Accessed 22 April, 2009
3. ↑ Vampyres, The Monstrous, http://vampires.monstrous.com/vampyres.htm, accessed April 6, 2009
4. ↑ Vampyres, The Monstrous, http://vampires.monstrous.com/vampyres.htm, accessed April 6, 2009