Suicide Girls - Vorpal Suicide
Questions: Courtney Jones
It’s hard to believe there was a time not so long ago where alternative girls lived on the fringes of the media who favoured your typical sterilized idea of beauty. In 2001 Missy Suicide and Sean created a concept and a website based on the idea of seeing hot punk rock girls naked. In 2014, Suicide Girls isn’t just an alternative pinup site; it’s an institution and a lifestyle. Women in all their various glory, tattooed, pierced, and body confident celebrating the female form in all its splendour.
In March, Suicide Girls will be bringing the Blackheart Burlesque tour to Australia.
Caught in the Mosh spoke to Australian Suicide Girl and hostess Vorpal Suicide on what we could expect from the show and her experiences.
First of all, how are you feeling? I heard you ended up in hospital after being bitten?
I was! I was in hospital for a good twenty-four hours, I was hooked up to, I think, six different drips and oh… it was hectic. I accidently shut my little kittens’ tail in a draw and he jumped on my leg and bit me and I thought it would be fine and clearly it was not. So if you get a cat bite, seriously go to the hospital straight away.
That sounds awful!
Yeah, it’s nothing like a dog bite actually. Some can be horribly horrific obviously but if you get a cat bite, no matter how small it is, get to the doctor!
For people that don’t know you or Suicide Girls in general, what are the essential things they need to know?
Suicide Girls is the alternative modelling world. It’s the girls that don’t look like the normal girls that are in all the other magazines but it’s still models. We’re just a little bit different. It’s kind of more interesting to look at cause there’s more things to see.
How did you become a Suicide Girl?
Well, I was the first Australian Suicide Girl, from back in 2009. Four years went by without Australia having a Suicide Girl and then luckily somehow I got in. So what happened was that I didn’t actually get through the first round. A lot of us girls here haven’t cracked the Suicide Girls for a very long time and then I woke up one day and I was entered into a Facebook competition with twelve other girls and two of those girls and myself got through. We needed 3000 shares on our photos, not likes, but shares; which was just insane, you never really see that many shares on anything and yeah, the public voted and I got through.
So what do you think makes a Suicide Girl?
There are so many different types of girls on the site. We don’t just look for a standard girl; it’s everything and anything. What somebody might not like, somebody else is going to be in love with.
In March, Suicide Girls will be bringing the Blackheart Burlesque tour to Australia.
Caught in the Mosh spoke to Australian Suicide Girl and hostess Vorpal Suicide on what we could expect from the show and her experiences.
First of all, how are you feeling? I heard you ended up in hospital after being bitten?
I was! I was in hospital for a good twenty-four hours, I was hooked up to, I think, six different drips and oh… it was hectic. I accidently shut my little kittens’ tail in a draw and he jumped on my leg and bit me and I thought it would be fine and clearly it was not. So if you get a cat bite, seriously go to the hospital straight away.
That sounds awful!
Yeah, it’s nothing like a dog bite actually. Some can be horribly horrific obviously but if you get a cat bite, no matter how small it is, get to the doctor!
For people that don’t know you or Suicide Girls in general, what are the essential things they need to know?
Suicide Girls is the alternative modelling world. It’s the girls that don’t look like the normal girls that are in all the other magazines but it’s still models. We’re just a little bit different. It’s kind of more interesting to look at cause there’s more things to see.
How did you become a Suicide Girl?
Well, I was the first Australian Suicide Girl, from back in 2009. Four years went by without Australia having a Suicide Girl and then luckily somehow I got in. So what happened was that I didn’t actually get through the first round. A lot of us girls here haven’t cracked the Suicide Girls for a very long time and then I woke up one day and I was entered into a Facebook competition with twelve other girls and two of those girls and myself got through. We needed 3000 shares on our photos, not likes, but shares; which was just insane, you never really see that many shares on anything and yeah, the public voted and I got through.
So what do you think makes a Suicide Girl?
There are so many different types of girls on the site. We don’t just look for a standard girl; it’s everything and anything. What somebody might not like, somebody else is going to be in love with.
And where does the name Vorpal come from?
This is probably one of my top five asked questions over the past year. Vorpal is actually the Vorpal Blade from Alice in Wonderland. We all choose our names and some girls go for the typical name and some of us dig a bit deeper. I was one of the ones that dug deeper. Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourite things in the entire world and has been since I was a kid. I thought about Alice and that sort of area and then thought about what the most awesome thing in Alice in Wonderland. The Vorpal Blade is the hardest sword to obtain and only Alice can use it to slay the Jabberwocky. So it’s an awesome thing that gets rid of the negativity in Wonderland.
You’re hosting the Australian leg of the Blackheart Burlesque tour, what can we expect from the show?
So the cool thing is that there’s like, ten Americans coming here that are naked models. So that in itself is awesome. The second part of that is that you need to leave your expectations of what’s going to happen at the door. You never know, every show something different happens. We had someone propose! It’s just craz!. If you love your pop culture, if you love tattoos, if you love dancing, if you love women, then you’re going to love the show.
That sounds like something I would love all of!
Yeah same! It’s got something that everyone will love.
You hosted part of the American leg of the tour, was that your first time in America and how was that as an experience?
It was and it was crazy! I woke up one morning to a phone call from Sean, who’s the co-owner with Missy Suicide, of Suicide Girls, saying can you pack up and leave Australia and come here in three hours’ time (laughs). I said no, give me twenty-four. So I got twenty-four and then, you know, I got there and it was the most craziest experience of my entire life. I think it changed me more than you could ever have imagined. I’m quite shy when it comes to my normal everyday life and then I got thrown on stage in front of over a thousand people at every show… to talk. It was awesome. I just got the crowd involved and that’s another one that I’m a big one for is that you’re going to feel like you’re on the stage with me. You’re going to feel like I’m talking directly to you because that’s exactly the kind of person that I am.
There are a lot of pop culture references in the show and I know you’re a fan of American Horror Story…
Oh… you know that? How do you know that?
I might have done some Tumblr lurking…
Oh you did? My Tumblr’s fun, isn’t it? I can’t really stand Facebook. Tumblr’s my favourite. I actually went to the American Horror Story house with my favourite tattoo artist in the world so…
Oh my God, that’s so cool…
I know! Probably one of my best moments in my life! There are so many different things that happen in our show. There’s Star Wars… The end dance, for the final dance, is ridiculous. There’s Kill Bill, Game of Thrones. Actually, when I went to America, I had to do the previous girl’s solos, so I did two solos which were Portal, the game Portal, and the other one was Doctor Who. Now I’ve never seen Doctor Who and I’ve never played Portal, so I had no idea what I was wearing! But this time I got to choreograph and design my own solo. So I’ve been able to do something that kind of represents me and looks like me a little bit. So one lucky person from every show gets to get a lap dance from Lara Croft. I dressed up one time last year as Lara Croft and I was like, you know, I’m just gonna rock it!
This is probably one of my top five asked questions over the past year. Vorpal is actually the Vorpal Blade from Alice in Wonderland. We all choose our names and some girls go for the typical name and some of us dig a bit deeper. I was one of the ones that dug deeper. Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourite things in the entire world and has been since I was a kid. I thought about Alice and that sort of area and then thought about what the most awesome thing in Alice in Wonderland. The Vorpal Blade is the hardest sword to obtain and only Alice can use it to slay the Jabberwocky. So it’s an awesome thing that gets rid of the negativity in Wonderland.
You’re hosting the Australian leg of the Blackheart Burlesque tour, what can we expect from the show?
So the cool thing is that there’s like, ten Americans coming here that are naked models. So that in itself is awesome. The second part of that is that you need to leave your expectations of what’s going to happen at the door. You never know, every show something different happens. We had someone propose! It’s just craz!. If you love your pop culture, if you love tattoos, if you love dancing, if you love women, then you’re going to love the show.
That sounds like something I would love all of!
Yeah same! It’s got something that everyone will love.
You hosted part of the American leg of the tour, was that your first time in America and how was that as an experience?
It was and it was crazy! I woke up one morning to a phone call from Sean, who’s the co-owner with Missy Suicide, of Suicide Girls, saying can you pack up and leave Australia and come here in three hours’ time (laughs). I said no, give me twenty-four. So I got twenty-four and then, you know, I got there and it was the most craziest experience of my entire life. I think it changed me more than you could ever have imagined. I’m quite shy when it comes to my normal everyday life and then I got thrown on stage in front of over a thousand people at every show… to talk. It was awesome. I just got the crowd involved and that’s another one that I’m a big one for is that you’re going to feel like you’re on the stage with me. You’re going to feel like I’m talking directly to you because that’s exactly the kind of person that I am.
There are a lot of pop culture references in the show and I know you’re a fan of American Horror Story…
Oh… you know that? How do you know that?
I might have done some Tumblr lurking…
Oh you did? My Tumblr’s fun, isn’t it? I can’t really stand Facebook. Tumblr’s my favourite. I actually went to the American Horror Story house with my favourite tattoo artist in the world so…
Oh my God, that’s so cool…
I know! Probably one of my best moments in my life! There are so many different things that happen in our show. There’s Star Wars… The end dance, for the final dance, is ridiculous. There’s Kill Bill, Game of Thrones. Actually, when I went to America, I had to do the previous girl’s solos, so I did two solos which were Portal, the game Portal, and the other one was Doctor Who. Now I’ve never seen Doctor Who and I’ve never played Portal, so I had no idea what I was wearing! But this time I got to choreograph and design my own solo. So I’ve been able to do something that kind of represents me and looks like me a little bit. So one lucky person from every show gets to get a lap dance from Lara Croft. I dressed up one time last year as Lara Croft and I was like, you know, I’m just gonna rock it!
What is it about burlesque that entices you, that you find empowering?
I was a dancer for years and years and years, so it probably was a good thing that they chose me. And I never thought that I’d be touring, pretty much the world, dancing. But burlesque is... it’s an old school sexual, but empowering to women, movement. It’s not something that a lot of people can really do. It’s really different, you’ve just got to really entice, you’ve gotta really... it’s about bringing that moment to you not just as a dancer but as a women, as a, you know, as a sexual being. It’s ridiculous! It’s awesome! I just love being on that stage, I never thought that shy little me would do it but, you know, I did!
There’s a lot of pressure put on female body image and do you, as a nude pinup, feel like a role model?
I’m the model recruiter for Suicide Girls and like I said before, what someone might not like, someone else will love. So none of us have the same views on what is beautiful, none of us. And it has really opened my eyes seeing the different views on different women, like, someone might like someone that’s a size eight or someone might like someone that’s a size eighteen. It varies. For me, I’m just about body confidence. Whatever you have, flaunt it! If you are happy with yourself, there are going to be so many other people happy with you as well. So if you look at things negatively about yourself, other people are going to see that too. So get rid of the negativity and focus on something that you absolutely love and rock it.
So do you have a mantra that you live by, like, for example; that if you surround yourself with beautiful things than beautiful things will come to you?
Yeah, that’s gorgeous. That’s almost like reading The Secret (laughs). Oh, I don’t really know; if you follow me on Tumblr then I guess you’ll see what my mind entails. I’m just all about waking up today and being better than who you were yesterday. It’s not about being a better person but it’s about bettering yourself. So think about something that you may have done yesterday than you weren’t really happy with and you don’t need to put it out there, you don’t need to tell everyone about it, just change it. Something will become a habit in 27 days, 28 days, so do it that long and it’ll become who you are.
How has your life changed since you became a Suicide Girl?
Oh! Dramatically! I couldn’t even being to tell you how different my life is. I’m on the cover of magazines. I’m in magazines. I’m being flown to America. I’m being flown to Sydney next week. Everything has changed! I walk down the street these days and I don’t know if people are looking at me now because of my tattoos or because they know that I’m Vorpal. I’ve got no idea of anything, it’s just every day I wake up and something new is happening.
Do you ever have people on the street approach you because they recognise you and do you enjoy that fan interaction?
Yeah when I’m out, I have girls... When it all kind of first happened last year, I had girls come up and hug me and I had no idea what was going on and they were thanking me, saying that they were so proud of me. Just random people! And I had no idea and it was just so lovely and there was so many welcoming people and of course, there’s the negative side of things, I’m quite lucky where I don’t have too much of that. But the amount of love, just the amount of love and support for me is awesome.
I was a dancer for years and years and years, so it probably was a good thing that they chose me. And I never thought that I’d be touring, pretty much the world, dancing. But burlesque is... it’s an old school sexual, but empowering to women, movement. It’s not something that a lot of people can really do. It’s really different, you’ve just got to really entice, you’ve gotta really... it’s about bringing that moment to you not just as a dancer but as a women, as a, you know, as a sexual being. It’s ridiculous! It’s awesome! I just love being on that stage, I never thought that shy little me would do it but, you know, I did!
There’s a lot of pressure put on female body image and do you, as a nude pinup, feel like a role model?
I’m the model recruiter for Suicide Girls and like I said before, what someone might not like, someone else will love. So none of us have the same views on what is beautiful, none of us. And it has really opened my eyes seeing the different views on different women, like, someone might like someone that’s a size eight or someone might like someone that’s a size eighteen. It varies. For me, I’m just about body confidence. Whatever you have, flaunt it! If you are happy with yourself, there are going to be so many other people happy with you as well. So if you look at things negatively about yourself, other people are going to see that too. So get rid of the negativity and focus on something that you absolutely love and rock it.
So do you have a mantra that you live by, like, for example; that if you surround yourself with beautiful things than beautiful things will come to you?
Yeah, that’s gorgeous. That’s almost like reading The Secret (laughs). Oh, I don’t really know; if you follow me on Tumblr then I guess you’ll see what my mind entails. I’m just all about waking up today and being better than who you were yesterday. It’s not about being a better person but it’s about bettering yourself. So think about something that you may have done yesterday than you weren’t really happy with and you don’t need to put it out there, you don’t need to tell everyone about it, just change it. Something will become a habit in 27 days, 28 days, so do it that long and it’ll become who you are.
How has your life changed since you became a Suicide Girl?
Oh! Dramatically! I couldn’t even being to tell you how different my life is. I’m on the cover of magazines. I’m in magazines. I’m being flown to America. I’m being flown to Sydney next week. Everything has changed! I walk down the street these days and I don’t know if people are looking at me now because of my tattoos or because they know that I’m Vorpal. I’ve got no idea of anything, it’s just every day I wake up and something new is happening.
Do you ever have people on the street approach you because they recognise you and do you enjoy that fan interaction?
Yeah when I’m out, I have girls... When it all kind of first happened last year, I had girls come up and hug me and I had no idea what was going on and they were thanking me, saying that they were so proud of me. Just random people! And I had no idea and it was just so lovely and there was so many welcoming people and of course, there’s the negative side of things, I’m quite lucky where I don’t have too much of that. But the amount of love, just the amount of love and support for me is awesome.
Okay. Which one of your tattoos is your favourite and what’s the special meaning behind it?
This is the hardest question ever (laughs). Every single tattoo that I have means something to me, except for my spider web on my arm and I just wanted a pretty elbow so I got a pink elbow with a diamond in it. But my favourite, oh, every single tattoo I have I could tell you about for five hours. Let me think. Oh, I’ll tell you about my latest. My latest tattoo is my Blackheart Burlesque tattoo. Actually I got that done in America by Alex Strangler (?) who is my favourite artist. That’s who I went to the American Horror Story house with and went shopping with on Melrose. She took me everywhere; we spent like, twelve hours together. Which is crazy ‘cause she’s like my favourite artist in the whole world and I got to spend a whole day with her! It’s a corset on my arm, it’s above a tattoo on my wrist which says ‘breathe’, which is for my best friend. She passed away and I got that. It was a tattoo we were originally were going to get together. See? Everything means something to me. And above that is my blackheart burlesque corset, which is a ridiculously beautiful corset. It’s purple, which is my favourite colour and it’s got the black heart with a ribbon around it in the middle and it’s on my arm because I find that the ones on my arm are the ones that I view the most. I got my knuckles done as well but I find that I don’t even notice them as much as I notice my forearm and it’s just to show me that, no matter what things will happen and you’ll just get blown away and you’ve just got to get thrown into the deep end and go for them because I never believed that I would go to America, you know, for free to tour with twelve other girls on a bus and dance, pretty much naked in front of, six thousand people. And now look at me! I’m touring Australia, which I never thought would happen either. Yeah it’s just going to be ridiculous. My life is just a little bit crazy.
On that which city are you most looking forward to visiting on tour?
Melbourne’s my favourite place in… the world, I guess. I have so many friends there and I have so many friends coming to the show there that I’m just looking forward to getting on that stage. I’m really nervous. I’m really nervous about doing the Australian tour, to be honest with you, more so than I was America because I know people in every state whereas when I was in America I had no idea who anyone was. But yeah, Melbourne’s going to be fun.
And while you’re here with some of the international Suicide Girls, are you going to introduce them to some Australianisms?
I’ve thought about it and people want to take them to the zoo and I’m thinking I don’t want to go to the zoo. I don’t want to see the koalas! I’ve seen the koalas (laughs). They’re probably going to hate vegemite; even I don’t really like vegemite. I think it’s going to be so different for them, like it was so different for me when I went to America. Over there, the houses look like they do in the movies! I didn’t realise that. For some reason I thought that it was like… some sort of movie thing but it’s not! It’s real! I think its gonna be... ‘cause none of them, no, one of them has, but other than that, none of them have been here but it’s just so different. When I came back I was like “Wow we’re boring”, our streets look boring. It’s just going to be funny to see the way they feel about things and everything’s just so much cheaper in America. So they’re going to have a big shock.
I find that Americans are really fascinated with the way that we talk. They’re really obsessed with our slang.
The funny thing is that when I was there, when I was around them, I developed an American accent. I can do it pretty well. It’s stupid, half the people didn’t think that I was Australian and I’m kind of nervous that it’s going to happen here! Because everyone is going to notice! They’re going to think, hang on, that’s the Australian girl; she doesn’t even sound Australian!
Well so much thanks for your time today and I can’t wait to see you in Melbourne, and I can’t wait to see the show!
You’re going to love it. Melbourne’s going to rock it for me. Enjoy it!
This is the hardest question ever (laughs). Every single tattoo that I have means something to me, except for my spider web on my arm and I just wanted a pretty elbow so I got a pink elbow with a diamond in it. But my favourite, oh, every single tattoo I have I could tell you about for five hours. Let me think. Oh, I’ll tell you about my latest. My latest tattoo is my Blackheart Burlesque tattoo. Actually I got that done in America by Alex Strangler (?) who is my favourite artist. That’s who I went to the American Horror Story house with and went shopping with on Melrose. She took me everywhere; we spent like, twelve hours together. Which is crazy ‘cause she’s like my favourite artist in the whole world and I got to spend a whole day with her! It’s a corset on my arm, it’s above a tattoo on my wrist which says ‘breathe’, which is for my best friend. She passed away and I got that. It was a tattoo we were originally were going to get together. See? Everything means something to me. And above that is my blackheart burlesque corset, which is a ridiculously beautiful corset. It’s purple, which is my favourite colour and it’s got the black heart with a ribbon around it in the middle and it’s on my arm because I find that the ones on my arm are the ones that I view the most. I got my knuckles done as well but I find that I don’t even notice them as much as I notice my forearm and it’s just to show me that, no matter what things will happen and you’ll just get blown away and you’ve just got to get thrown into the deep end and go for them because I never believed that I would go to America, you know, for free to tour with twelve other girls on a bus and dance, pretty much naked in front of, six thousand people. And now look at me! I’m touring Australia, which I never thought would happen either. Yeah it’s just going to be ridiculous. My life is just a little bit crazy.
On that which city are you most looking forward to visiting on tour?
Melbourne’s my favourite place in… the world, I guess. I have so many friends there and I have so many friends coming to the show there that I’m just looking forward to getting on that stage. I’m really nervous. I’m really nervous about doing the Australian tour, to be honest with you, more so than I was America because I know people in every state whereas when I was in America I had no idea who anyone was. But yeah, Melbourne’s going to be fun.
And while you’re here with some of the international Suicide Girls, are you going to introduce them to some Australianisms?
I’ve thought about it and people want to take them to the zoo and I’m thinking I don’t want to go to the zoo. I don’t want to see the koalas! I’ve seen the koalas (laughs). They’re probably going to hate vegemite; even I don’t really like vegemite. I think it’s going to be so different for them, like it was so different for me when I went to America. Over there, the houses look like they do in the movies! I didn’t realise that. For some reason I thought that it was like… some sort of movie thing but it’s not! It’s real! I think its gonna be... ‘cause none of them, no, one of them has, but other than that, none of them have been here but it’s just so different. When I came back I was like “Wow we’re boring”, our streets look boring. It’s just going to be funny to see the way they feel about things and everything’s just so much cheaper in America. So they’re going to have a big shock.
I find that Americans are really fascinated with the way that we talk. They’re really obsessed with our slang.
The funny thing is that when I was there, when I was around them, I developed an American accent. I can do it pretty well. It’s stupid, half the people didn’t think that I was Australian and I’m kind of nervous that it’s going to happen here! Because everyone is going to notice! They’re going to think, hang on, that’s the Australian girl; she doesn’t even sound Australian!
Well so much thanks for your time today and I can’t wait to see you in Melbourne, and I can’t wait to see the show!
You’re going to love it. Melbourne’s going to rock it for me. Enjoy it!
Suicide Girls: Blackheart Burlesque national tour this March
Wed 12th March - Melbourne, 170 Russell - tickets from Oztix
Thu 13th March - Adelaide, HQ - tickets from Oztix
Fri 14th March - Brisbane, Tivoli Theatre - tickets from Ticketmaster
Sat 15th March - Sydney, the Metro Theatre - tickets from Oztix and Ticketek
Sun 16th March - Canberra, ANU Bar - tickets from Oztix
Wed 19th March - Perth, the Astor Theatre - tickets from Oztix
Fri 21st March - Wollongong, Waves - tickets from Oztix
Wed 12th March - Melbourne, 170 Russell - tickets from Oztix
Thu 13th March - Adelaide, HQ - tickets from Oztix
Fri 14th March - Brisbane, Tivoli Theatre - tickets from Ticketmaster
Sat 15th March - Sydney, the Metro Theatre - tickets from Oztix and Ticketek
Sun 16th March - Canberra, ANU Bar - tickets from Oztix
Wed 19th March - Perth, the Astor Theatre - tickets from Oztix
Fri 21st March - Wollongong, Waves - tickets from Oztix