Since 2001, Suicide Girls has built a massive online community and a small media empire by championing girls outside of the mainstream and showing them off in skimpy outfits or often wearing nothing at all. The LA-based company’s latest release, Hard Girls, Soft Light packages images from the site—mostly nude tattooed women—into a NSFW but tasteful coffee-table friendly format.
Missy Suicide
We recently interviewed Suicide Girls co-founder Missy Suicide about the new book and the Suicide Girls. A book signing party is planned at Meltdown Comics on the Sunset Strip on March 23 with an after party to follow at Verdugo Bar.
What can we expect at the Suicide Girls book signings and after parties?
The booking signings are going to be super fun. It’s an opportunity to get the book signed by Radeo, who is featured in the book and on our website. She’s one of our most popular girls. At the after parties, people can come and hang out. All the local girls from each city will be coming out, so it will be an opportunity to hangout with some of the girls, and girls interested in being on Suicide Girls can meet Rigel, our model coordinator.
You started in 2001 and are still going strong—a pretty good run for a Web company. What has helped you remain successful? Is it just the girls?
I think it’s a combination of the community, the girls and I think the overall ethos of Suicide Girls. We try to project confidence. I think everybody can feel like an outsider at some point and I think the sense of community and bonding that people can find on our site definitely propels lasting friendships and relationships.
I feel that we got in early, before online communities were really a thing—before Friendster, Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. Everyone thinks the girls on the site are hot, which is why they are a member, but then they are able to meet people that they have something in common with in the online groups we host.
You lived in LA, launched the site in Portland and then moved back to LA. How did that affect the company and help you grow?
I think that Portland was kind of essential in getting Suicide Girls off the ground. It has more book stores and strip clubs than any other city in the world. It provided the inspiration for the site and also had a super low cost of living. Everyone there is creative, so it kind of provided a great incubator for us and the company.
When it came time to expand the brand, it seemed like everyone we were working with was in LA. Our first movie was distributed through Epitaph Records in Silver Lake and our first book was put out through Feral House, which is also in Silver Lake, so all signs were pointing to Los Angeles. It’s been great being here and making the connections we are able to make here.
Is your office still based in a house?
No, we’re actually in an office above the Bourgeois Pig, a coffee shop in Los Feliz.
Where are some of the Suicide Girls hangouts in LA?
The girls definitely hangout at Meltdown a lot. They are very into comic books. If you were to go to Bourgeois Pig, because of the proximity to our office, you would probably see somebody. A lot of the girls hang out in Venice, and they go to Verdugo Bar and the Dragonfly is popular.
In 2001, tattoos and piercings were more edgy and underground. Now it seems like half the population has some sort of body modification. Is it more difficult to set yourself apart now?
I think that while tattoos have become more prevalent in culture, I think there is still something that separates us. Our girls still have a presence that is decidedly not mainstream and there’s an edginess to them. There’s still something that sets us apart, and I think it’s the girls and their inner strength, confidence and beauty.
With Hard Girls, Soft Light, we tried to portray the girls in a ways that felt like you were waking up next to them in the morning—really soft and pretty and beautiful. Most pictures [in other publications] with tattoos and piercings are with harsh studio lighting or black, shiny outfits or bondage gear. We really wanted to show the beautiful and soft side of the girls.
Looking through the book, you can tell there’s not a lot of editing or airbrushing with the models…
The slight imperfections are what make us pretty. That’s definitely a conscious choice.
The book signing at Meltdown Comics begins at 7pm. The first 25 people receive a free copy of Hard Girls, Soft Light. An after party will follow at 9pm at Verdugo Bar. More details on Hard Girls, Soft Light.
