Beauty and Gore Mods?

I appreciate well done scar and gore mods because I admire the skill and artistry required to make it realistic. It's art, and beautiful because it's art. But poorly done mods (of any kind) are painful to look at, haha.

 

I personally quite like scars in real life, it is not the idea of hurting someone, but the idea of someone coming through that hurt- I find scars quite attractive in that way and my boy Salem is going to have some quite extensive scarring whoch, I hope, will look beautiful when i'm theough.

At the same time as enjoying scars on an aesthetic level, I also agree with Botflybaby ​that any well done mod is beautiful in its own right as art x

 

I love scars. Scars a very fascinating and beautiful to me... they tell stories, and to me, a scar on a doll could tell a similar story. I see a photo of a scarred doll and I just imagine the story of how it got that scar, what the scar can mean.

Well done gore mods have the same effect to me.

 

I don't think BJDs represent just our ideals of beauty, which is a pretty narrow idea to me. What I think they represent is several pieces of what we might like, fear or wish for, for example. One can explore many things by using characters and dolls as creative outlets for these things, therefore, gore mods mean the owner wanted to express something else with the doll instead of plain beauty (which is perfectly fine!) and that 'something else' is what attracts me to them. I'm tired of seeing pretty dollies just being pretty, but a gore doll can tell a diferent story to me. It can mean the owner is experimenting with diferent kinds of beauty or traumatic/ghost stories and much more!

 

This post reminded me there was a study a few years ago by the Uni of Liverpool that showed women find mild facial scars on men more sexually alluring/attractive. Personally I like my own scars and wounds because they are part of my character but I would not put them on a doll and do not find them "beautiful". I find well done gore mods on others peeps dolls artistically impressive and enjoy those posts.

 

I just love every kind of horror and gore. That doesn't mean I think gore mods are beautiful but I have always been fascinated by scary characters. You can buy sweet and beautiful dolls everywhere but there are barely and dolls that are really scary or gore. When I will commission someone one day for a custom face up and some other mods I will definitely commission a doll that in the best case will scare myself, not just others^^

 

I am a huge fan of worn looking dolls, and I put the blame entirely on amazing artists like Kamarza and Illusionwaltz. I just flat out adore them with all of my being, because I think that it makes them more human in a more surreal manner. Personally I am not capable of enjoying company face-ups because they are symmetrical perfection and that just makes the doll look like... a doll.

All of my dolls have freckles and most have heavy blushing over the bridge of the nose and/or the eye area to give them a feel of... life experience I suppose. I don't really know, I just think it looks gorgeous, some also have tilted eyebrows making them look worried or sad, because I think that looks lovely as well in an odd way.

I suppose I just like giving life to the dolls. Some form or expression, because I think it's easy for them to just look... futile. Don't get the wrong it can work, but it's not something I enjoy.

And with serious gore mods, I find them fascinating and more often than not also very beautiful aesthetically. I'm not sure if it reflects how I see and feel about beauty, but I suppose it can connect to me view of todays physical ideals, because I despise them. I think someone with a face plastered with freckles and moles is a hell of a lot more gorgeous than the airbrushed blondes on magazne covers.

 

I have a Ringdoll Frankenstein and I bought him because of his gore. But it's not super-realistic gore. It's just a really unique concept and his face is mark-free. (I'm pickier about faces having intentional marks/damage.) I don't think I'd want like...an accident victim BJD, or something that looked severely grotesque. Scars would be okay as part of the character, too.

 

I completely agree with this ^^ My BJDs are all based on characters, and communicating their character is far more important to me than them just being beautiful. I also find very pretty dolls a bit boring, because it makes them look more doll-like, and thus less alive, to me. It is a bit of a vapid, soulless look. That's only my personal opinion though.

I have a doll with two scars, one around his forehead and the other around his neck. The first was where his head was hacked open to stuff his brain back inside his skull, and the second was from when he was hanged on the gallows. I love these scars because they represent his past, which he "told" me, and also the hard work I put into researching how old scars look and how to recreate that on a doll. They are not beautiful in the traditional sense - not many of my dolls are - but beauty is not the main goal for me and so I don't care about it that much, either in my own dolls or in other people's. If the doll has a strong vibrant character that is skilfully expressed in the physicality of the doll, then that to me creates an intriguing and beautiful doll.

 

Some of my dolls have scars or marks, but none are all out "gore mods". I'm into realism, not beauty OR gore. Some of my dolls should be near flawlessly beautiful in character, others are just average and flawed. They all belong to a modern human world, so extreme gore or perfect beauty is out of place.

That said, I don't mind gore mods and have been impressed with how well done some are. I just don't want them on my dolls.

 

I appreciate well done gore mods, because I know it takes a lot of talent to do. I also like horror movies. I wouldn't say that a gore mod was necessarily beautiful in and of itself, though I would refer to the quality of the work as beautiful, but there's more to dolls than just beauty. Sometimes being interesting, being able to invoke a particular memory (like watching horror flicks with my dad) or creating an emotional response is just as special as being 'beautiful.'

When it comes to scarring rather than full out gore mode I would say that scars do not necessarily detract from beauty, and they can help give background on a character visually.

I don't own any gore mods myself as they don't really fit into my group well.

 

I agree with the general sentiment in this thread that gore/scar mods can be very beautiful on an artistic level, and that the amount of skill and effort that goes into creating them is something that can be appreciated and applauded.

I think it is interesting to examine WHY a doll owner would create these mods, though. I imagine that for many people, the challenge of the mod itself, making it look realistic, frightening, or disturbing, is the main appeal. Some people might just really like the look of it, horror fans or people appreciating the inner workings and frailties of the human body.

But perhaps there are people who can express their own pain, or their character's pain, in a productive and creative way through these mods, and I think that's a really wonderful thing. Channeling feelings of hurt or trauma into a creative process is something not everyone is strong enough to do.

 

There are people who find beauty in 'death, gore, blood...' all that fun stuff. I am not one of those people.

If a 'gore mod' is done well it can really make for an awesome photo shoot. But I tend to see a lot that are, not so great. Mainly done by people who want to imitate what they've seen in the world of dolly trends. And the doll ends up just looking bad to me. But, it's not my doll and I have no reason to care what others do. There is so much variety in this hobby so it's easy to just look away and find something else.

Scars however, I am a fan of. Especially if they are well done and tell the story behind your dolls persona.
Sometimes it can go a tad too far, I would only have a few scars at most on a doll - but that's just my personal preference talking.

My current girl is very 'cute' so I don't think she'll ever ever have a gore mod. Maybe if I got a spare head for some sort of Halloween shoot - but it's just not something I like at all and would not want to own.

But as I said before, I won't put down what other people do with their dolls it's just not my taste.
Happy Modding!

 

I have a thing for scars and tattoos so there's nothing to get over for me. I'm not a fan of gore mods though, I've yet to see one that doesn't seem excessive.

 

to me, it depends upon the type of gore mod. I don't like burns that look fresh and real, I don't like guts hanging out or that sort of thing. That's my take. but, i do think that just like people, scars can be a part of the doll. raised or blushed either way is just a part of the doll or the character it's portraying. But for something that looks fresh, or was done by actually burning the resin, people heal from that so it wouldn't look fresh forever. I guess I hold gore to the same standards of human healing then? XD

 

Beauty is a complicated thing, it doesn't necessarily have to be all pretty-sweet or nice. It can very well have a 'sting' to it, be dangerous, intelligent, demanding, questioning, challenging or downright 'ugly' to most. So I don't think it is strange to enjoy gore-mods or something like that at all. As long as part of the doll is still pretty-beautiful I think the gore-mod acts as a contrast or juxtaposition (the 'beauty mark' springs to mind but that might be a bit of a strange comparison with a fullfledged horror-zombie-gore-mod) and therefore 'deepening' the existing beauty of the mold, to the owner at least.

I personally don't enjoy the gore-mods but beauty is also very personal. The well-done scare me... So while I can certainly reckognize the skill needed for some of the mods, they are not for me personally.

 

I've only seen a few of said mods,but I think they are amazing. On the artistic side, people who make them look this way command such great skill in order to make these wounds look accurate. My friend's doll has a large scar over his left eye I believe. I think he's lovely. Gore mods for me personally can look great. I think that they can really add character and personality to a doll. However,there are some more extreme mods with organs or things like that are a bit much for me personally.

To address the beauty side of this, no I don't think these dolls and their mods of any kind really represent the majority of our ideals of beauty. I think that these dolls are like blank slates for us to create. They can become the character or person that we've always dreamed of with their purple eyes, gray skin or tattooed torsos. What one person feels and thinks can be directly projected on their doll and because the doll belongs to them, so there is no real reason to follow normal conventions when it comes to creating their looks. Why should doll owners even try to feed into the stereotypical views of beauty if they don't feel like it anyway? I've seen everything from blue lips to melted faces on these dolls. The general accepted views of beauty seem to have gone out of the window, which I find to be a good thing. I enjoy the fact that a pretty face doesn't necessarily mean rosy cheeks, smooth skin and smile in the doll world. The gore mods or any mod allow dolls to be unique and beautiful in their own right, whether or not I like them.

XD I apologize if I got a bit off topic.

 

If I had a doll modded to look like a dead tree with green mushy stuff on it, then no, I would not find him attractive xD he'd be there to be ugly and because te character is dear to me. But I actually find most kind of scars fascinating and kind of attractive so a doll with cuts -either scarred or fresh looking- , small burns and things of that kind would still fit in my criteras of beauty in a way.

 

I live a well done scar or a mark. It gives the doll an imediate story. Something happened and that left tha scar. Somethimes it can even had to the beauty of the doll.
I don't like to see gore. though, and that is a personal preference. Id rather my doll's story wouldn't all be spent in the ER.