Mexican tattoo star Maria Jose Cristerna, better known as “La Mujer Vampiro” (Female Vampire), poses during the Venezuela Tattoo Expo in Caracas, January 27, 2012.
She is a 35-year-old attorney. 98 percent of her body is covered in tattoos. She also has prosthetic fangs, and platinum implants in her forehead.
“The ‘Vampire Woman’ was not something I thought of, it was a name that one of Mexico’s major television stations baptized me with,” she tells ABC News in one interview from the tattoo expo. “It doesn’t necessarily bother me because it has helped me transcend to a new level. Yes, I do like vampires but they are only a dream, a fantasy.”
She says the body modification project was a form of self-expression she sought after being the victim of domestic violence in a former marriage.
There’s a fun video interview with her on Telegraph TV here, ABC News has another here, and ITN News has a segment from the con here.
(REUTERS/Jorge Silva)