Media

Wes Naman shot this lovely photo of Chris Partain (CPT!) from Star Tattoo in Corrales, NM giving me a fake weed tattoo.

It appears in the January 2009 issue of High Times with James Franco (swoon) on the cover.

I’m sorry to all of you who think it’s real, but there’s no amount of money you could pay me to get a chronic tattoo, especially that big and especially on my ribs.
This was painted on with fluorescent acrylic paint that started peeling off about half way through the shoot. haha.
Luckily, they fixed that in photoshop.

Also taken out in photoshop was the scarification on my left leg. I’m not too happy about that as I love my scars.

But anyway, everyone conveniently forgot to bring any weed with them this day, so that was tobacco in there and UGH!!! I don’t smoke cigarettes and oh good god, I was reminded why.
That was horrible and gross and while I have no problem with people who smoke (hell, 95% of my friends do), BLAH, how do you do it??
It’s so disgusting!
Although, when I’m drunk and out with friends and someone has a clove or a random tasty flavored cigarette, I’m guilty of having one.
But regular cigarettes….eew.

So anyway, back to the weed!!
This shoot was a blast. We were there for a few hours, being goofy and having fun and I think it came through in the photo.

I’m also under the impression someone photoshopped my visible boob cuz it looks really good and looks like I actually have some boobage.
So if you did, thank you for that;)

Recent Interview with “Italian Horror Magazine”

The music starts, it’s the unmistakable Marilyn Manson style. A blonde girl, whose eyes are hidden by a pair of heart shaped glasses, just like Kubrik’s Lolita, walks in a crowd of half naked girls dancing all around the place. It’s Heart shaped glasses, one of Marilyn Manson’s videos and the face and brilliant eyes we see quite often are those of Vanessa Alexandra, gothic model, singer and actress who shared some very interesting moments of the backstage, of her friendship with Manson and all about her songs, decorative scars, tattoos and piercings decorating her slim body.
Vanessa is an eclectic, controversial artist, different from everything we’re used to. It’s quite simple to notice these characteristics in her, right from the start, even because this twenty-five years old girl will leave everyone who’s lucky enough to speak to her even for just some minutes with their mouth open. It’s for this reason that – trying to let you be as involved as I was from her vitality and strength – I decided to leave our interview untouched, without any cuts and just adding these lines to tell you briefly something about her artistic career.
In 2002, Vanessa Alexandra started working as a model for gothic and fetish photographers and stylists, while working in a small agency. When she left that place, she decided that it was about time to give all of herself to her artistic career and to her singing skills, her dream since when she was a kid. The brief agreement she signed with Suicide Girls - a controversial dark/gothic models agency I’ll write about in another number of this column – officially gives its start to her real career. Yet it’s not all. Vanessa really loves music and to sing her own songs, she in facts also confessed to have been a singer since when she was seven years old, and this brought her to meet the metal/punk band Deadstar Assembly, quite famous in the United States of America, where their concerts are always sold out. In 2004 Vanessa marries the Deadstar Assembly’s guitarist, Dreggs, but the marriage only lasts a few months. In stead than being all sad and depressed, Vanessa packs her things and goes to Los Angeles, where in 2005 she starts to become more and more familiar with the mode and music scene of that city, getting to know bands like 30 Seconds to Mars (for those who don’t know them, let me just tell you it’s Jared Leto’s band, the same Leto we have seen in Alexander by Oliver Stone), The Underneath, of course Marilyn Manson, that she had already met in 2004 and artists like Dean Karr (photographer and director of music videos for Rancid, Cypress Hill, Ozzy Osbourne and many others).
Always fighting for animals rights, Vanessa has been participating to PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) campaign, it’s an organization that wants to help respect animal’s rights, and Vanessa has her own saying about this… “better naked than in fur”!
Aside from mode, music and movies – all successful activities for her – this artist loves horror, splatter and of course vampires and blood. One of her distinctive traits is that she has modified her body with tons of tattoos, piercing and scars – this form of art is in particular called scarification, because it creates decorative scars on the body – one of which starts from the top of her left leg, going down to her ankle for the whole length.

1: What do you do when you’re not modelling?

I’m a singer, that’s my main point of interest as far as being in the entertainment industry goes.
I’ve been singing opera since I was 7 and singing rock music since I was 12.
Modelling is and always has been just a way to get my foot in the door, get people to know who I am and pay attention and them have my music come and kick them in the ass, haha.
I’ve got 2 projects currently, first is Goth Lolita Orchestra, which we’ve had some problems getting off the ground because the producer for that project, Johnny Uhrig, and I both have the same ideal in mind, but he’s very much into Meatloaf and Elton John and grandiose, over the top rock ballads.
Which I love too, don’t get me wrong.
But what I want to do is music you can rock out to and can identify with and sing along to, but with full on orchestral backing (especially violin, that’s my favourite instrument on earth).
Something you can go to see live and just say “That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life” because you’ve had an aural, visual and physical assault.
I wanna get up there and jump around and dance and sing my heart out and have fun, not just stand in front of a mic belting songs out at my highest octave. That’s fine for one or 2 songs but the point of being in a band and having live shows is to have fun!
We do have some rather wicked songs written but unfortunately, I’ve been sick the last 2 times we’ve tried to record (I’m sick as I’m typing this. We just tried to record less than a week ago and boy…recording vocals with a head and chest cold just sucks ass, let me tell you. And I’m very much a perfectionist when it comes to something that’s going to be there FOREVER. In live shows, when your sick, the audience is very forgiving, but when it’s something recorded that everyone’s going to hear, I want it PERFECT).
We did get most of a song we collaborated on called “Enemy of Me” recorded and it sounds great.
Hopefully we can get the last part of the song done soon, that’s when my voice decided to go out on me was at the end of the song.
My other project is with my brother William, who goes by the producer/artist name Antiks.
Our music is very much more on the trip-hop side of things, so it’s a complete 180 from Goth Lolita Orchestra. Which I love, I don’t want to be pigeonholed into one genre.
We got 3 songs recorded when I went to stay with him in Portland last month, and he’s currently mixing the songs.
My favorite song we wrote together, called “Pig” should be out soon.
Believe me when I say, EVERYONE will know when my music is available for them to hear, haha. I’m going to inundate the world with it;)
But aside from hat, I just enjoy hanging out with my good friends and my family, I’m a freelance makeup artist (I do all my own makeup in all my photos), I like playing with my crazy dog Bowie, drawing, painting.
Studying Japanese has been my main past time lately.
That’s a hard language to learn but I’m doing pretty well. I’m going to Japan with www. myspace. com/junkerdesigns this summer so I’m trying to get as much as I can in my head before we go.

2. Working with the Antichrist… Marilyn Manson. What do you remember and how did you feel? We’re curious, tell us everything!

Well, Manson’s one of my best friends. He has been since 2004.
We met at an after party for one of his shows and I was the only girl not drunk/high, not trying to flirt with him and not bugging him. I just sat there sipping a bottle of water and exchanging pleasantries when he spoke to me.
When all the girls left the room because someone announced there was marijuana in the other room, he came and sat next to me and said “Help me.” haha.
so I took it upon myself to be his security guard that night and kept all the other girls away from him.
I didn’t make any friends with the girls that were throwing themselves at him that night, but he and I spent the rest of then night hanging out and we’ve just been best friends since then. We trust each other with everything.
I’ve done a few endeavours with him. We did a really cool ;hotoshoot (he was the photographer, I the model)in January 2005 that has yet to see the light of day. All but one picture, which would be this.

The rest were all on digital, this one was taken with a Polaroid camera from he 1920’s or 1930’s…which broke which after we took this, haha. But he did my hair and makeup and we did a lot of very non politically correct things in the photo shoot.
It’ll come out someday, hell, even I haven’t seen any of the pictures so I’m curious.

Then of course, there’s the “Heart Shaped Glasses” music video, which I’m in the very front in all my topless glory.
The girls being topless thing was actually totally my fault. The wardrobe guy had completely misinformed all the extras on what to bring, including me. So, half jokingly, I said to Manson “I’ll do it naked” and well…you see the music video. Haha. He knew I would do it if he asked me to so I did. And so did a lot of the other girls, which was nice! Boobs are always fun.
I didn’t make many friends, other than the ones I already had, that day with, Because they were all out in the extras tent and I was in Manson’s’ dressing room with him and Evan, his girlfriend (who’s also a good friend of mine) most of the time we weren’t shooting.
But whatever, he’s one of those people I’m very lucky and grateful to have in my life because we just get each other. He’s a kindred spirit to me, though some of the world will tell you he’s Satan himself. Which he could be for all I know, but I don’t care.
He’s saved my life a few times, so he’s one of my angels.
And so goofy, he can always make me laugh.
I love him very much.

3. Mode and movies as well as books nowadays feel more and more attracted by blood and vampires. Are you a fan of the genre?

Well, I pretty much AM a vampire. Haha.
I hate the sun, I love blood and if I had to kill people to live, it wouldn’t be a problem.
It even says in my “occupation” slot in some places I’m a vampire, so obviously, I adore them and find a certain kinship with them.
Whether people believe they’re real or not, the whole idea of vampires and vampirism is something I identify with and find extremely romantic and erotic. Blood is a big fetish of mine so….technically I could be a vampire. A “daywalker”, I suppose, though.
I always wear jackets in the sun, though, because I’m so used to not being in the sun, it hurts if I’m not covered.
I prefer being deathly pale to looking the least bit “alive”, anyway. I think unnaturally pale skin is beautiful.

4. If you can forget for a moment of all the people who are reading about this… could you tell us about your first horror movie? Were you alone and scared or you couldn’t wait?
And.. of course what was the movie in question?

Well, it doesn’t really count as a movie, but my first experience with horror was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.
It came out the year I was born (1983) and by maybe a year and a half I was bugging my mom to watch it.
She has a video of the first time my brother and I watched it and it’s the most hilarious thing in the world.
It’s terrible quality video, of course, because it’s from a 1980’s home video camera.
But it’s my brother (who is 3 years older than me) and I sitting in front of the TV and you see “Thriller” playing on the TV and we start out both smiling and then about minutes in both our faces just become like stone and we’re completely silent with huge eyes watching the video unfold.
I just saw it recently and couldn’t stop laughing.
But ever since then, my love for horror has just grown and grown and grown and now, developed into kind of a “calling card”, if you will, for me and the types of photo shoots I like to do. I absolutely love it.

5. You have over 50 tattoos and piercings. Why did you decide to modify your body so radically?

I don’t know actually. haha.
It just kind of happened.
If you look at when I started modelling in 2002-2005, I hardly have any body modifications. But over the last 2 years, I’ve amassed a giant amount of body modifications and scarification and all that.
I personally, think it makes me look much more attractive. I’d be far less colourful and far less entertaining to look at without all this colourful artwork all over my body and this giant wave of scars on the length of my left leg.
I’m not a big fan of piercings, obviously, as all I have are 2 gauge ears (soon to be 0 gauge, then I’m done) and my navel. I even took my nipple piercings out in 2006. I just outgrew that particular modification and got hooked on tattoos and scarification instead.
Of course, it hurts to do all this, but I find it very therapeutic and the end result is so worth it. I’ll be very happy when my half sleeve is fully finished (the artist that started it is a flake and has turned into an asshole and a terrible artist, so it’s been sitting on my arm unfinished for a year and a half. Help!) and all the things I want covered are covered and I get the rest of my left arm down. My left arm is dedicated to all things Japanese pop art and popular culture, and I’d really like the Jack Skellington head on my back covered.
I’m not into Nightmare Before Christmas anymore as it’s been SO oversaturated into American pop culture that I just don’t want it on me anymore. But I am keeping my Zero tattoo because that’s a tribute to my dog Mariah, who died in 2003 (1986-2003).
So there’s LOTS more tattoos coming in the not too far future. I just gotta save all my money for the aforementioned Japan trip then once that’s done I can start up with the tattooing again.

6. Every person does tattoos for different reasons: a particular moment they want to remember, because it’s trendy, or because they like the image. What is there behind yours?

All mine have a reason. Whether personal to me or just because I like it.
Like the “tokidoki” on my knuckles, it means “sometimes” in Japanese.
And yeah, I’m A HUGE fan of Tokidoki clothing and purses and all that but I didn’t get them for that reason, I got it because I’m always sometimes. Life is always sometimes. Happy, sad, lonely, angry. Always sometimes.

Others I just got simply because I like them. Like the Gloomy Bear on my right hand has no special meaning, I love Gloomy Bears so I got one tattooed on me!

Each one has a story and I could go on for hours about all of them, but I’ll spare you, haha.

7. You have also worked for movies and music videos. Would you tell us something about your movie, “Wizard of Gore”?

I’m only in the movie for about 5 seconds. I’m just the “Ring Leader” at the “Circus Of Horrors” and one of the girls wrestling in blood in another scene.
The movie itself came out great, the director Jeremy Kasten is a great friend of mine and it was a privilege to be in one of his movies.
It’s a throwback to the old, splatter-filled gorefests that we all love. I saw one of the premieres of it in Los Angeles last year and it was wonderful.

8.What are your current plans?

To sing my ass off and work and work and work until I’m the most famous singer in the world. I won’t be satisfied until I’m on everyone’s radio, all over the music TV stations, on every interview show, performing all over the world and meeting every single fan I can possible meet all over the world.

9.Ever thought of coming to Italy? We’d love to see you here!

I love Italy!! I’ve been wanting to go to Italy since I was a little girl! But I don’t really know anyone out there and wouldn’t know where to stay or anything. I know there’s some amazing photographers out there and Nana Rapeblossom is a good friend of mine I’d love to do shoots with. Anyone want to fly me out there and show me a good time? haha.