Hemo-Erotic



Sometimes, plain old vanilla-flavored sex just won't cut it. For some, it takes actual cutting, biting and drinking of the resultant flowing blood to get sexually turned on. When one or more characters enjoys Hemo Eroticism they need to "feed" on others, and probably enjoy being "fed upon" by their partner in a similar fashion. Characters with this Fetish aren't necessarily violent, they may look for willing partners rather than kidnap someone and strap them down. Nor are these characters all blood addicted vampires, though this group does make up a majority of this trope's examples. What unites all Hemo Erotic characters is that they can only be sexually aroused or satisfied when blood is involved, sometimes accompanied with ritualized cutting or biting.

That said, this trope is strongly connected with the Interplay of Sex and Violence involved in most sensual blood drinking, especially if vampires are involved. For them Hemo Eroticism is Better Than Sex and often forms a part of their feeding habits. Between two vampires (or a vampire and their preferred mortal lover) feeding on and being fed from are the ultimate, and perhaps only, means to express physical love. It's important to make the distinction that while it's possible for a vampire to make the character they feed on enjoy it by employing the Kiss of the Vampire, the vampire may or may not enjoy Hemo Eroticism as well. Sure, the blood (probably) tastes good and it's easier to feed if the victim is having fun, but that doesn't mean they can only get off if it's involved. It may in fact be a sign that a vampire isn't friendly when the ennui of decadent immortality has led them to pursue Hemo Erotic feeding to begin with.

Even mortal characters who are into Hemo Eroticism can sink into The Dark Side of this fetish. What sometimes happens is they're such perverted hedonists that the pain is what they're going for. To that end they may use other wicked and sharp instruments like knives, razors, or Femme Fatalons to kink it up further. Especially deviant vampires may purposely abuse the fact that vampire bites can be painful to get sadistic kicks while they sink their fangs into a victim. Oh, and if they're also a Combat Sadomasochist? Best to run before they lick the blade.

Neutral pronouns are used in this description because gender rarely matters to the Hemo Erotic characters. The character in question may also fall into one of the following: Lesbian Vampire, Psycho Lesbian, Depraved Homosexual, and Depraved Bisexual. Compare In Love with Your Carnage. See also Blood Lust. Contrast Afraid of Blood.

Anime and Manga

 * Tsukuyomi from Mahou Sensei Negima gets a little too excited from wounding her opponents (especially Setsuna).
 * Part of the confusion from fans as to whether Vassalord is a Boys Love series or not stems from the fact that the blood-sucking scenes between the two main characters are so blatantly erotic that the blood drinking almost ceases to be a metaphor.
 * Hellsing does this a fair bit in all 3 of its incarnations, the most obvious example being Integra slicing her own finger open and Seras licking the blood from it. Alucard lapping up Integra's blood when she's shot in his chamber also counts.

Comics

 * Henry Preston and Pearl Jones from American Vampire have a very kinky sex life where Pearl feeds off of Henry mid-coitus.

Films -- Live-Action

 * The various vampire-club scenes in the Blade franchise often involve the vampires being aroused while feeding. In fact, the series begins with a vampire-rave in which vamps are sprayed with blood, then start getting hot and heavy.
 * In Bram Stokers Dracula, when Dracula gives Mina some of his blood by slicing into his chest, boy howdy does she make it look sexy.
 * Used horrifyingly in Hostel Part II. A girl is hung upside down and slashed across the back with a scythe, while the woman doing it lies beneath her, bathing in her blood, and clearly getting off on it, till she finally slices the girl's throat, killing her, and then orgasms from it.
 * This is one of the themes of Thirst. The main character is a priest before he becomes a vampire; his affliction massively enhances his senses and desires, causing him to feel lust for the first time. When he is alone with his girl, he wants to have sex with her and wants to drink her blood - and does both, at the same time. She wonders out loud if it is weird that she enjoys it.

Literature

 * Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla very much implies that the titular character derives erotic satisfaction from sucking blood.
 * A rather vague passage in Bram Stoker's Dracula suggests that a new vampire can only be created if a bite victim somehow ingests vampire blood. Then again, the same book was criticized for its "sucking sounds" which many readers interpreted as suggestive of oral sex rather than blood drinking.
 * In the Anita Blake series, vampires of Belle Morte's line tend to do this, both between vampires and mutually between a vampire and a close human/therianthrope partner.
 * In The Hollows, the taking of blood by a vampire is very definitely akin to sex and is a turn-on for both the human and the vampire. Vampires will sometimes feed off each other as a pleasurable act.
 * Invoked in The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries as well as the TV series based on them, True Blood. A vampire's desire for blood is intrinsically tied to their sex drive; not only is biting/drinking de rigueur during sex, once during the books,
 * In the Vampire Academy series, drinking someone's blood is seen as the ultimate domination. Doing it during sex is just plain kinky and weird. One of the series' Fantastic Slurs, "bloodwhore" revolves around that fact.
 * Happens a lot in The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. It's also shown as erotic between vampires and humans.
 * In Fledgling by Octavia Butler, feeding between Ina (vampires) and humans isn't necessarily erotic, but usually leads to erotic feelings between the human and the vampire.
 * Inverted in The Dresden Files, where, a half-turned Red Court vampire, gets her hungers "confused" when it comes to her love interest. Their chosen method of artificially sating her hunger for blood should be obvious. Played straight with some of the White Court vampires, and various other depraved and/or monstrous characters.

Live Action TV

 * Mitchell and Lauren in series 1 of Being Human (UK). Mitchell says at one point that he "has trouble separating" sex and blood-drinking.
 * The american version is the same. Yet Aiden has mostly avoided it because he does not drink blood except when he dated another vampire and even then he felt guilt about it.
 * In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, some humans pay vampires to suck their blood for the thrill of it (as a metaphor for prostitution).
 * One time on Forever Knight when Nick couldn't repress his urges any more he called on Janette, his vampire friend. It was implied that this wasn't an unusual occurrence amongst vamps in general.

Tabletop RPG

 * In Vampire: The Masquerade, human blood is to animal blood like a premium steak is to Spam. The same applies for vampire blood in relation to human blood, making for quite a bit of vampire-on-vampire action involving blood. Oh, it's also addictive.
 * Also vampires are (usually) incapable of enjoying sex very much without drinking their partner's blood during coitus.
 * Drink another vampire's blood in Vampire: The Requiem and you risk becoming addicted to it. It is easy to mistake this addiction for love, which vampires are incapable of truly feeling.

Web Comic

 * Discussed in this strip of Keychain of Creation.