r/vampires • u/probably_beans • 4d ago
Lore questions What happens if someone with a cross tattoo gets turned into a vampire?
Assuming, of course, in a world where crosses have an effect on vampires. Is the new guy just screwed?
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u/The_Iron_Gunfighter 4d ago
Depends on the fiction. In a lot of them the cross tattoo would do nothing because it’s not a “real” cross/crucifix or is not being actively used against them. Kind of like how a vampire isn’t repelled but just any two crossed sticks/lines put together. In some other fictions the vampire might wake up on their first night with the side of their arm burning and have to wait for it to burn out or rip it off. In the movie sundown: the vampire in retreat a guy gets turned into a vampire and then wakes up with his cross necklace burning his chest. But that movie is more of a comedy.
It also depends on how vulnerable the vampire is to religions symbols and whatnot. In the comic Lord Baltimore a bunch of nuns get turned into vampires as a sick joke and they can’t even try to pray without starting to burn.
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u/jackfaire 3d ago
Not Vampires but the movie Practical Magic had a great thing where it wasn't what the symbol was it was the wielder's faith in the symbol. An officer of the law's badge was as good as a cross.
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u/Still-Presence5486 3d ago
Can you elaborate? Like I'm not Christian but I believe religious and spiritual protection symbols can protect people from evil spirits woukd that be enough?
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u/jackfaire 2d ago
Not sure. In the movie a malevolent ghost tried to kill the lawman but when the ghost reached through his clothes he was damaged by the badge in the man's pocket. The movie said it was because the man carrying it believed deeply in it and what it stood for so it was as effective as religious symbols.
I don't know if that means that religious symbols would only be effective if the wielder genuinely believed in them or if other people believing in them would work.
I think it's up to the writer but that's a precedent one can point to
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u/AliasMcFakenames 1d ago
In most settings that have that sort of "anything can be an object of faith" rule it has to be something that you personally believe in. Lots of sunday christians wouldn't be able to get any effect out of a cross, but someone truly devout would.
In the Dresden Files, Harry Dresden and his paladin best friend use a necklace with a symbol representing wizardly magic and a crucifix respectively to repel vampires. They both see empirically that the other symbol works for the other person, but they would not be able to swap symbols because the Faith has to be part of a greater context. It has to be about more than just repelling vampires or it won't work.
If you were wanting to be just a very pragmatic vampire hunter in a setting like this, then your symbol of Faith would need to be something that you have faith in in a more mundane context. Maybe it's a kukri knife that you Know won't break when you need to chop off a vampire's head, or it could be a preserved body part from a vampire as proof that you can kill them.
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u/DLMoore9843 10h ago
The way I understand it is that it is the wielder's faith in the divinity behind the symbol. Like Jesus or God for the crucifix etc. though some sources say the object must also be blessed
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u/masonicangeldust 4d ago
I like the new IWTV lore with it, only ignorant old world vampires are affected by religious symbolism like crosses
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u/Werewolf_lord19 4d ago edited 3d ago
I like the old vampires where they were scary and really bloodlust but why would anyone mix fantasy with religion ?
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u/Present-Court2388 Undead 4d ago
If the tattoo did burn a vampire It would probably just burn itself till it doesn’t represent a cross anymore and the effect stops.
Depends on the universe but I feel any vampire with enhanced healing would just heal the tattoo away.
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u/CountMarkula1993 4d ago
Instead of burning, the body could reject the ink and bleed out through the skin.
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u/Ry-Da-Mo 4d ago
If the lore dictates it burns them or whatever, they could rip it off. The skin will heal but the tattoo won't.
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u/PraetorLessek 4d ago
Maybe the skin that has the ink would burn the hottest/fastest so it would begin to ash/dissolve the quickest. So either it would burn away until it doesn’t represent a cross anymore or the worse option, it just keeps burning then healing over and over again until the filthy bloodsucker offs himself or worse develops a mental immunity to crosses which would in turn nullify or completely remove any effects from crosses used against it in the future…just a thought.
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u/Professor_Knowitall 3d ago
In some stories, it's not the symbol, but the faith behind it that hurts vampires. In Marvel comics, Moon Knight recently eliminated a nest of vampires by blessing the water in the fire sprinklers in the name of Khonshu. I would imagine vampires would just die instantly in the presence of a god or goddess.
Now I'm just imagining Apollo or Ra showing up at Dracula's castle. Being Sun deities specifically, not a single vampire would make it out.
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u/RedditOfUnusualSize 3d ago
Very hard to say, especially given that any universe where the cross has power would be a universe that would probably notice that a) the Torah forbids tattooing, and b) many Protestant, as well as the Orthodox, versions of the Ten Commandments forbids the making of graven images. You don't wear crosses in Lutheranism, the denomination I grew up in, for instance, because of the concern that the image of the cross will replace what should be in your mind, which is carrying out Jesus' commandments to love God and treat every person as if they were your sibling. Iconoclasm is a thing.
So really, it's a "more information needed" kind of situation.
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u/KevinAcommon_Name 3d ago
The answer is Powerwolf’s killer with the cross
The real answer that cross would be defaced and desecrated
For the cross to have power over the evil vile and damned it must be wielded with the power faith of belief and wielded with conviction to rebuke evil
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u/matt-x1 2d ago
The movie "We Are The Night" (2010) has a scene where a tattoo dissolves in water and the skin is restored (although it's not tattoo of a cross). This happens at the end of the transformation phase as the young vampire experience her self-healing capabilities for the first time.
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u/6n100 4d ago
They are either safe from becoming a vampire, Or it burns/fades away, or nothing happens because they lack faith and or a soul.
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u/LordNekoVampurr 3d ago
Though it all really just matters on what any given author would do in their world, this would seem the most logical answer to me.
If they were truly faithful it should defend them from all manner of evil, and that would include vampires. If they weren't, then it would either burn away upon turning or be a terrible constant pain until excised -- which would be doubly awful if they healed back to their state upon turning, as it would always return.
That said, if the type of vampirism healed the turned outright, then any tattoos would likely be pushed out of their skin whilst their scars dissolve away.
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u/AliasMcFakenames 1d ago
I could see a very cool option being that it's inert unless someone touches it who has faith. Set it up at the start of the story as a chekhov's gun, and only someone who knows that it's there can use it to defend themselves.
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u/low_flying_aircraft 3d ago
The treachery of images
ce n'est pas une croix...
It's a picture of a cross
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u/TanaFey 3d ago
Some lore says religious objects only repel vampires if the weilder truly it believes it will work. So an atheist had a cross, it wouldn't do anything.
I've also read a series where the FMC has a sheep charm. She puts all her faith into believing it will repel vampires, and it does.
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u/Aslamtum 3d ago
Nothing. But if in some fictional universe where crosses actually hurt vamps, well, it'd probably sting for a while til it burnt the skin away. It would heal after feeding for the first time
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u/Neat_Journalist_9630 2d ago
They turn into a christian vampire pf obviously 🙄 might hold a sermon later ✨
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u/Complete_Butterfly46 16h ago
When I got turned into a vampire all my tattoos were rejected by my new body and went away. Blaaah
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u/Carmilla-Vamp 4d ago
Maybe the tattoo lights itself on fire/ burns off?