Maria Jose Cristerna is having one stress-free month. Unlike those of us scrambling for a last-minute Halloween costume, Maria can rest assured she’ll outshine anyone at a October 31 party simply by showing up. On that day — just as every other — Maria’s going as the Vampire Lady of Mexico.
The 37-year-old mother-of-four began her physical transformation after escaping an abusive relationship.
“All I did was bring what was in me out. It’s what I always was beforehand. More than anything there was fear. Fear that he wouldn’t like it, or fear of being mistreated psychologically,” she told CBS News of her relationship with her ex-husband. “After that, I could breathe, as many women can breathe when they can wake up in the morning and have a coffee without feeling as if somebody is going to squeeze their throat. That’s how I think it is, in a way.”
Finally free to express herself, the former lawyer started the process of getting 40+ tattoos, filed teeth and titanium horns inserted into her forehead — all of which earned her the Guinness World Record’s title “Most Body Modifications by a Female.”
^ The Vampire Lady before, during and after her transformation.
Not only is the Vampire Lady a personal tattoo fan, but she’s a talented ink artist.
“Tattooing is my way of being immortal, of really being a vampire and not dying — leaving my work on other people’s skin,” she said in 2011.
The Vampire Lady also got one step closer to immortality last year when Ripley’s cast a life-size wax model of her. You can check it out at multiple Ripley’s Believe It or Not shops around the world…
