Earlier in her life, trained lawyer Maria Jose Cristerna may have been passed on the street without a second glance, but now, she can hardly step out the door without getting some pretty interesting looks. So what’s so special about Mexico native Maria? Well, first we can start with her nickname: the Mexican Vampire Lady.
Maria was raised in Mexico, and used to be an average girl, attending Catholic school and later working in the legal profession. She married early at the age of 17 and began to build a family life. But after enduring domestic violence and finally filing for divorce, she began to transform herself into what she is today: a human vampire.
Proclaiming that she has loved vampire lore since she was a child, the ultimate symbol of strength and immortality was to become a vampire-like creature, so Cristerna spent several years getting pierced, tattooed, and implanted until she began to transform. Her modifications include a beautiful full body tattoo, titanium subdermal horn implants, stretched lobes, dental fangs, and piercings in her lip, labret, bridge, septum, nostril, brows, forehead, helix, and tongue. She also shaves the sides of her head, preferring to wear a long dreaded mohawk, and has had her eyes colored powder blue.
Today Maria has developed her artistic talents into a new career as a tattoo artist, and attends several industry conventions annually, including some in California. She is in her thirties, and spends much of her time raising her four children. Although not the most pierced or tattooed woman in the world, her body mods have made Maria famous, and a wax likeness of her has been added to the “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” Museum. She continues to modify her appearance, and says that her new image and its artistic components are symbols of freedom and strength.
