Vampire decks and all that blood!

So what's the deal with vampires being shown as such messy eaters? LOL I mean do you become a slob when you become a vampire? Humans don't walk around with what we eat running down our chins......well not normally. Even other carnivores, like big cats, will clean themselves afterwards and don't have blood dripping from their mouths long after eating. So why vampires? I think I would like the vampire decks more if not for this. What are your opinions of why vampires are portrayed this way usually?

Interesting thought here, I don't know how else you would portrait a Vampire in a picture, maybe by biting someone in the Neck? But that is the same. People recognize them as vampires by looking at their teeth. The blood just adds to it.

Although I don't like gory art, it makes sense to me. Think of a baby/toddler eating. They literally enjoy every part and sensation: texture, taste. They are openly abandoned in the Experience.

Oh my gosh! The big cats get blood all over them when they're eating! You don't watch nature shows enough! They're fastidious enough to clean themselves up after their meal, but they get really messy. Any carnivorous animal that has to eat with it's mouth and paws only is bound to get messy.

Vampires just wouldn't be ghoulish and scary enough if they didn't get blood on their faces. Besides, they'd have to just position their prey, cut the jugular vein with something, and let it drain neatly into a cup, but even then----think milk moustache? They'd still get it on them, wouldn't they?

Not only that, the vampire was erotica of an era when it wasn't proper to outright talk about such things or for women to admit they enjoyed being ravished in any way. The neck is a very sensually sensitive area of the body, and then there's the element of the poor damsel being taken by surprise and being forced to allow this mysterious stranger to bite on her neck---kind of hints at sexuality that can be enjoyed even though not invited?

Linguists have studied and written about the twenty or so most stable meanings through all languages. Words that don't budge, in terms of meaning, over the centuries. Words like water, fire, death, blood. It's so primal, blood. And, once upon a time (and still, in some remote cultures) it meant food and life for us mortals, too.

We might be squeamish, but blood makes a high visual impact, and a strong symbolic one as well. (although, TBH, I think artists just like the way all that red looks on their canvas.)

Grizabella said:

Vampires just wouldn't be ghoulish and scary enough if they didn't get blood on their faces. Besides, they'd have to just position their prey, cut the jugular vein with something, and let it drain neatly into a cup, but even then----think milk moustache? They'd still get it on them, wouldn't they?

Click to expand...

They can always drink blood out of a cup.

Golden Moon said:

They can always drink blood out of a cup.

Click to expand...

That's what I said---draining it into a cup and drinking it, they'd still have a "blood moustache", wouldn't they? Or at the very least, bloody lips.

Grizabella said:

That's what I said---draining it into a cup and drinking it, they'd still have a "blood moustache", wouldn't they? Or at the very least, bloody lips.

Click to expand...

yes but artists always seems to portray them as never wiping said moustache off. LOL. And I also agree that big cats get blood all over themselves but like you said they clean themselves afterwards. So why do vampires always seem to have blood on themselves in art? Maybe it is the scary sensuality aspect brought up above. ???? This is just a question that came to me earlier. Why?

The best sex is messy sex, sweaty and all over the place...

the best vampire dinner is obviously messy dinner - no hint of being civilised or civilisation, no manners or humanity, just an animal, a beast, filling a need, with haste and with greed, not knowing when the next 'meal' is.

However, the Gothic Vampire Tarot by LS is just needless rivers of blood, and thats the only vampire deck I've not bought as I dont understand it. The Tarot of Vampyres has it just right I think... the blood is the life and for beings that have no life force of their onw, they need plenty of blood lol.

I think drinking blood out of a cup is more romantic, but there's something primal about taking it directly from the source. The best example I can think of is the blood splattered wedding dress.

Take a look at this image, for instance:

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/City_Elf.JPG

This isn't a vampire, but an elf, but the effect wouldn't be the same without the blood.

I think a lot of people forget that vampires are predatory creatures, and as a few posters already mentioned, carnivorous animals generally don't worry about making a clean kill. I think the blood stains are there as a reminder that, while vampires may seem human, they can be savage and dangerous.