Meet ‘Vampire woman’ Maria Jose Cristerna

Meet 'Vampire woman' Maria Jose Cristerna

Mexican tattoo artist Maria Jose Cristerna, known as 'Mujer Vampiro' (Vampire Woman), attends a photo opportunity during the "Expo Tatuaje" international tattoo expo in Monterrey April 3, 2011. Link

She claims she turned to inking after suffering domestic violence, adding: "Tattoos were a form of liberation for me. "My family was and is deeply Catholic.©
"I studied at a religious school, I fell in love, got married in white at 17, followed a career. I wanted to make things right." She says constant beatings and abuse at home triggered her reinvention and led her to ink nearly 100 per cent of her body.

Maria has also added multiple piercings to her face and titanium implants to create "horns" under the skin on her temples and forehead. The mum-of-four, 35, has even had dental implants to create "fangs" to complete her look 'but claims to live a "normal life".

Maria said: "The horns I have are a symbol of strength and were implanted without anaesthetic. I had the fangs done because I loved vampires as a little girl and I changed the colour of my eyes so they were how I really wanted them to be." And her transformation is not yet complete' she plans to have two more titanium implants added to the back of her head. She said: "Tattooing is my way of being immortal, of really being a vampire and not dying - leaving my work on other people's skin." (thesun)