_{Thank you to ~GrotesqueDarling13 for unknowingly supplying this article with a title!}

Before we get started

Horror art is an acquired taste and people tend to love it or hate it (or at least just not get it). If you love it, great! If you hate it or don't get it, please learn to move along politely and refrain from being insulting towards other people's creations simply because the subject matter isn't to your personal taste. If you don't get horror art and would like to chat about it, feel free to send me a note and I'll happily answer your questions as best I can.

Why it makes sense to explain your methods and materials

As most of you already know, images depicting real self-harm are not permitted on dA. If you use special effects make-up, prosthetics, fake blood or anything that looks like special effects make-up, prosthetics or fake blood in your art, you may have been asked by someone viewing your work if the injuries, blood or gore are real. While it may seem completely obvious to you that they aren't real, especially if you work within the horror genre on a regular basis so such effects are commonplace for you, it isn't always that obvious to the people viewing your work.

Unfortunately some people do upload photographs showing genuine self-injury, so to ensure that no-one makes that assumption about your or your work I would suggest adding a little extra bit on to your deviation description to explain that any injuries shown are simply created with effects make-up and fake blood and are therefore not real injuries.

Obviously no-one would expect you to detail every step of your process if you prefer to keep your methods closely guarded, but if you don't mind people knowing what you used in your horror art, its a good idea to explain what materials you used. This also helps to reduce the number of times people ask where your bought your liquid latex or what you made your fake blood from (although some people will still ask, regardless of how much detail you go into in your description).

Language barriers

It is important to remember that not everyone speaks your language well enough to understand unusual words in your description. While people who you don't share a language with may recognise some words - blood, horror, zombie - and some brand names, they may not understand everything you've written so please be patient and respond politely to questions of people who don't have a strong grasp of the language your description is written in.

Deep calming breaths

There will always be people who don't read the description. I'm not saying this isn't annoying (cause it is), just that it takes less time and effort to type My methods and materials are explained in the description than it does to bitch at someone for not bothering to read the description. As crazy as it may seem, some people genuinely don't assume that injuries in photos are fake. Try your best to be patient!

A few examples

Some examples of short explanations of materials and effects in deviation descriptions from around dA:

The blood is fake (glycerine with red and blue food dye) and there's a section cut out of the blade so it sat over my lip. I did not injure myself in any way taking this photograph.

Store-bought fake blood

Blood - Corn syrup, green food coloring, red food coloring.

All blood and injuries in this PHOTOGRAPH is entirely fake. It is a display of FX make up and is not depicting any kind of self-harm, nor is it condoning it or glorifying any act of self-harm in any way. Please respect this at all times.

SPECIAL EFFECTS MAKE-UP: IT'S FAKE!

Injury effects are a combination of make-up and food dye (Asda do awesome red food dye, great colour and consistency, washes off skin very easily).

tl;dr

For anyone having a 'too long, didn't read' moment, here's a summary:

Stating in your deviation description that your horror art is created with effects make-up and/or prosthetics explains that you are not uploading pictures of actual self-harm (which is against dA policy) and helps to reduce the number of times you are asked the same questions by people viewing your work.

Holy FAQ!

Instead of just linking to a bunch of FAQ entries that not many people will be bothered to click through to, I'm going to put them all here, in their entirety, so that you can easily refer back to this article if you need to. Please be aware that FAQ entries may be updated. There ones are current at the time of writing this article, 11th July 09.



FAQ #284: What is the policy for submissions concerning injury, self-harm and mutilation?
DeviantART does not allow photographs of real-life self injury or mutilation to be submitted. Any such photographs will be removed immediately as they come to the attention of the staff.

Graphic photographs depicting injuries which were not self-inflicted may also be removed at the discretion of the staff without prior notice.

Makeup effects and other simulated effects are allowed.

_{[Note: There is now a Body Modification gallery within Traditional Art > Body Art with the description Photographs of the permanent or semi-permanent deliberate altering of the human body for artistic reasons. I do not have any information relating to how this fits in with the FAQ so please don't ask me for clarification on this one]}



FAQ #7: What is the policy concerning photographs of corpses, cruelty or death?
Images depicting real life corpses or death are allowed providing that a reviewing staff member does not consider the work to be unnecessarily graphic. Photographs judged to be necessarily graphic will be removed. All allowable submissions of this nature must be marked with a Mature Content tag.

Images of animal cruelty are not allowed and will be immediately removed as they come to the attention of the staff.



FAQ #165: Do you allow images depicting bodily wastes or fluids?
No.

The deviantART staff reserves the right to remove any image which depicts feces, urine, vomit, or any other bodily waste or byproduct without warning. Such images may be considered unacceptable for submission under any circumstances.

_{[Note from me: Please observe the words 'staff reserves the right to remove' not 'staff definitely will remove']}



FAQ #554: Is my deviation Mature Content?
Please be aware that we do not allow the submission of sexually explicit or pornographic content (images, literature or otherwise).

By tagging your deviation as Mature Content you are in essence informing a potential viewer that your submission contains material or theme which more sensitive viewers may find to be offensive or upsetting. Common subjects which are considered Mature Content are nudity, excessive violence, blood and gore, sexual themes, strong language, or ideologically sensitive themes. See below for explanations.

Nudity - Fairly self explanatory. If your work contains nudity, displaying a penis, testicle, vagina, breast, nipples, or buttocks you should assign this tag.

Sexual Themes - References to sex or overt sexuality, including sexual based humor. This category may also cover images involving models in lingerie, provocative poses, and "skimpy" or erotic styles of dress.

Violence/Gore - This refers to overtly bloody or violent imagery, generally associated with the horror and macabre genres, but could also pertain to photojournalism or written work. This should mainly be applied toward depictions of violence or gore etc, that are portrayed in a "realistic" manner as opposed to the zany or exaggerated cartoon violence.

Strong Language - Profanity, vulgarity, and otherwise coarse or offensive language.

Ideologically Sensitive - If your work may be construed as offensive toward a person or group of people due to a religious, political, social or other belief please assign this tag to it. While deviantART does not allow the submission of hate propaganda or hate art we do recognize that often works motivated for political, religious or other personal beliefs can be seen as offensive by those holding opposing beliefs.

Pornographic and other unacceptably sexual themes continue to be prohibited despite the presence of this tag as are certain other contents which have been judged unacceptable. Information concerning this is covered elsewhere in this FAQ



FAQ #199: How do I add Mature Content tag to my deviation?
You may tag your submission as Mature Content at the time of submission or at a later date by using the Edit function. By doing so your deviation will be concealed behind a special warning thumbnail for anyone who has the Hide Mature Content checkbox selected in their Settings.

If you choose to tag one or more of your deviations as Mature Content you will have a choice between two levels; Strict or a Warning.

The Strict setting of mature content will limit viewing to those members who are eighteen (18) years of age or older.

The Warning setting will allow viewing by members age thirteen (13) and older through use of a click-through warning screen.



FAQ #155: How do I report a submission which I think breaks the rules?
Beneath every Deviation or Scrapbook submission you will find the Artist's description area. At the top right of this boxed area you will find the Report Deviation link preceded by a small symbol to help it stand out.

Upon clicking the Report Deviation link you will be offered a standard form where you will be able to make selections and enter information or explanations. We have tried to word each selection to be as clear as possible.

Your report will be kept completely anonymous. Only a small number of staff with the proper set of privileges will have access to the report and the person that you report will not receive your name or any information with which to identify you.

All reports will enter the Moderation System where they will be reviewed as soon as possible by a member of the deviantART administration. Since the volume and complexity of reports has a direct impact on how quickly any one report can be handled we cannot give an estimate to how long your report may wait before it is reviewed.
Once a report has been reviewed and the case has been closed by staff you will receive a notification outlining exactly what sort of action occurred.





<sub>Please be aware that volunteer Gallery Moderators do not write or enforce policy and cannot delete deviations or suspend or ban users from deviantART.

Also please remember that a lot of reports are made throughout dA every day and while these are dealt with as quickly as possible, certain issues take longer than others to resolve. Sending multiple reports about a deviation or encouraging your friends to send multiple reports will not speed up the process of dealing with the issue!</sub>