Valienska Magfira

Modern Day Vampires

Consumption of blood whether it is human blood or animal blood in our modern culture has been associated to vampirism. In the past decade, our pop culture was fascinated by the fantastical stories of vampires and in some ways even glorifying them. Is there something sexy about living forever and craving blood? Or it simply because it's taboo and un-humanly?

 

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Drawing of a Vampire Bat -

When we think about vampires, we think of Bram Stoker’s Dracula: a nocturnal creature in human-form who kills innocents for their blood to rejuvenate himself. However, in modern time, self-acclaimed vampire Belfazaar Ashantison shows that you can still drink blood while sitting in the sun and not kill your blood source.

Rather, according to Ashantison, there is an etiquette to drinking blood. And the key to that is of course, consent from the donors. He practices this with a strict and clean procedure which is that he has to clean himself with mouthwash and cleanse the donor’s wound before feeding off a maximum of 6 ounces of blood. And one might wonder, ‘what makes this so necessary?’. Well like many self-acclaimed vampires, Ashantison claims that he suffers from an energy leak that prevents him from doing daily tasks. The way to help with that is through feeding off human blood.

Although there is no medicinal value in blood consumption, the placebo effect can still be very strong. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind the dangers of diseases through blood contact as a consumer as well as a donor.

You can read more about Ashantison's practices in his interview with Motherboard US.