By 2003, it gets difficult to cover a large number of sets—because the volume of sets (and the pace at which they were coming out) seems to have increased significantly.
So I will start with the first three months of the year.
New Year’s Day got off to a bang with a glam masterpiece entitled Gumball featuring the very talented @elara .
This set immediately causes the strains of Todd Rundgren to waft through my brain.
I feel like I am looking at Bebe Buell in her prime.
Before there was Licorice Pizza, there was this ICONIC set by Elara wherein a retro MAGIC was captured for all time.
I cannot say enough positives about this set.
Lou Reed and Andy Warhol would have loved this one.
There is even a sort of Roxy Music glitter to the whole thing.
But a new star would emerge Jan. 17, 2003 when @synnove knocked it out of the park with her home run—the aptly-named Melon .
She was boldly announcing herself with this one as a significant SG talent.
Soon, we would have another BEAUTIFUL set by the mysterious @bug . The photography in Fingerless is just as quixotic and magical as her work the previous year.
The color timing is icy-blue, but the model is a warm pink, alabaster goddess.
What a model!
And then we come to an explosive bit of sacrilecious mischief: the infamous Habit by @al .
This one is hot in an Exorcist sort of way.
If you are looking for a big silver crucifix dangling on the precipice of a quadruple-pierced vagina, this is the set for you.
Punk.
Offensive.
And pretty goddamned awesome.
Not to mention, Al has stellar tits.
But the set of the quarter has to go to @bettina .
Finally SG had a set with more than a one-word title—and here it is: Classic Style .
This set is positively ATOMIC.
Truly a lady worthy of being painted on the Enola Gay.
Everything about this one is just superb.
Her hair is certainly worth mentioning. Definitely a WWII vibe to this one. Truly a set that would have made many red-blooded men enlist.
But we cannot count out the MASSIVE talent of @mary . She was hot on the heels with her set (another two-word affair) Couch Surf .
Mary seems to have been getting more used to being photographed nude.
She seems more comfortable here.
And more playful.
For me, she is probably the first big star of Suicide Girls.
Her work is always of the highest quality.
Switching gears, we come to TWO sets (by the same model) released the same day:
and
(both by the stunning @mitten ).
Prep has Mitten looking like the ultimate riot grrrl—perhaps even like Justine Frischmann of Elastica
Indie shows off Mitten with curly hair in a vibe which (in retrospect) reminds this viewer of the strangely erotic rapper Peaches.
Both sets are wonderful.
Mitten really excelled on both of these.
She has an unforgettable gaze.
Rounding off the first quarter of 2003 with a bang, we come to the explosive @seraphim and her scorching set Myth .
Models like Seraphim and Mary could have graced the pages of Playboy, Penthouse, etc., but they were too cool for that.
They needed their own space—their own home for their work.
And Suicide Girls was (and is) the quintessential indie pin-up site that filled that gap in the market.
Looking back through these photos, one is struck by the audacity of these models.
Wonderful models like Mitten.
Models who would have been shunned by the aforementioned mainstream publications.
But they are so damn interesting as models.
And their real-ness and unique personas make them so much more relatable than the vapid, vacuous offerings of Playboy circa 2003.
Suicide Girls was a movement.
And these early models tried AUDACIOUS SHIT!
That’s why I love them,
They were gonna blow your mind—like seductive sex pistols.
Early Suicide Girls was all about breaking the rules of nudie pictures.
Go back through these archives.
There is some WILD stuff in there.
And I love it!
Letting your freak flag fly can be the sexiest thing in the world.
-Pauly Deathwish
