Bizarre Magazine, British Bastion Of Fetish, Freaks, Extreme Tattoos And Porn, Closes After 18 Years

Fans are devastated after Bizarre magazine, the British publication celebrating alternative culture, announced it would be closing next month.

For nearly two decades, Bizarre’s covers starred tattooed girls in latex, stories of monsters and vampires, punk porn, weird photos and avant-garde art – but February’s issue will be its last.

The magazine for people who “dare to be different” sometimes featured a warning sticker saying “don’t buy if you’re easily offended”. It launched in 1997 but is closing with its publisher blaming falling sales in the digital age.

Bizarre has been considered a home to subculture around Britain and a place where “freaks” could indulge in non-mainstream passions like fetish sex, extreme body art and macabre music, films and literature.

It also covers political and human rights news, such as censorship, sex offences, terrorism and bigotry.

It campaigned to raise awareness of discrimination against alternative culture in 2007 after the murder of Sophie Lancaster, whose “gothic” clothes were thought to have led to her killers targeting her.

In its heyday in the early 2000s, Bizarre sold over 100,000 copies per issue, but at the last count in 2013 it was shifting barely 11,000.

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 http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/01/16/bizarre-magazine-closes_n_6485340.html