Blood fetishism

Last updated 4/13/98.

By "blood fetishists," I mean people for whom blood-drinking and/or bloodletting are either an erotic turn-on or a preferred expression of intimacy/bonding (not necessarily erotic). I distinguish between blood fetishists and two other categories of blood-drinkers: (1) sanguinarians, who have an out-and-out bodily need to drink blood, and (2) blood-drinking psychic vampires, who crave blood as a source of "pranic energy." All these categories do overlap heavily. Those blood fetishists who are not also sanguinarians or psychic vampires are generally not considered "vampires" by the other major categories of self-described vampires, although blood fetishism does have a long history of being called "vampirism" in psychiatric literature, newspaper articles, and nonfiction vampire books. Some blood fetishists call themselves "vampires" while others do not. Here are some links pertaining to blood fetishism:

• Fiona Corealis's Bloodplay Awareness Campaign
• Interviews with the Vampires (on "self-made vampires") by Carol Lloyd, in Salon Magazine
• Blood fetishism at Nocturnal Visions
• What is cutting/play piercing/burning/branding/electrical play? What are "bloodsports"?, in the soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm FAQ
• Blood Mysteries: Are Cutting and Bloodsports a Women's Thing? by Pat Califia, in Cuir Underground
• Personal perversions, by Malice
• What the psychiatric establishment says about us :-(
  • Abstract of the journal article Clinical vampirism: blending myth and reality by P. D. Jaffe and F. DiCataldo, an example of psychiatric literature on blood fetishism and vampirism.
  • Clinical vampirism at Demythri's Domein
  Alas, as far as the psychiatric establishment is concerned, blood fetishists and sanguinarians are still about where lesbians and gay men were 30 years ago....
• The Dungeon at Csejthe Castle
• Vampyres at the homepage of Withered Black Rose
• Bloodfetish at No Dead Trees (A largely fantasy-oriented site. It also has a message board.)

See also my separate listings of sites with articles on sanguinarians and psychic vampires and sites pertaining to the Vampyre lifestyle and club scene, on my Vampire Research Resource Page.

Comments? Please write to Amy Krieytaz, akrieytaz@hotmail.com. Thank you.

Back to:

• Why would anyone drink blood?
• Blood-Drinkers' Resource Page, main inside page.