ABSTRACT
When encountering any image people tend to focus on what they may least expect or on its most disturbing element. Blood, the thing that flows through everyone's body, is not seen that often. It is associated with wounds, accidents, and religious exclusion as it relates to menstruation, high blood pressure, violence, and forensic imagery. In the case of the young girl bleeding from her mouth, something bad is likely to have occurred. The painterly and dark quality of the photograph questions this as the evidence could have been added. Blood sacrifices in ancient rituals, leeches to cure disease, and mythologies about drinking one's enemies' blood to imbibe their strength do not do much to rehabilitate people's immediate associations and in many cases continue to shock. Images where blood is worn as a badge of honor tend to be those which continue to celebrate testosterone in modern contexts, though they too have ancient roots and are ritualistic.
