“So before you start complaining that another old person has joined Tiktok, I have a question for you. If you could ask somebody born in, I don’t know, 1844, any question, what would it be? No reason… Just curious.” – rosethevictorian
So by now we know that TikTok is essentially Pandora’s Box. A quick scroll (let’s be honest it’s never “quick”) will drop users into the most random rabbit holes. That is exactly what happened when we stumbled across none other than “Immortal-Tok”. Yes. Immortal-Tok.
Immortals are allegedly real and they have TikTok accounts, which they use to answer the public’s questions about immortality. Although there could be more, two particular accounts have caught our attention; ‘rosethevictorian’ born in 1844 and ‘askavampire’ a.k.a Verity born in 1593, and naturally, these two know each other.
Motivated by pure fascination, we deep dived into these accounts and have extracted the top ten most interesting facts about the lives of immortals:
1.Being immortal is a ‘genetic defect’
According to Verity, immortality is inherited by your parents having carriers for the recessive immortality gene. If both have this unexpressed/hidden gene, the child may get both recessive genes, meaning immortality is expressed.
She says immortal beings have cells that do not oxidize, which leads into the vampire blood drinking trope. She further explains that by drinking the blood of a mortal being/regular being, immortals can briefly age up as their cells are encouraged to oxidize “a little bit.”
Might need to fact check this one with Dr Karl.
2. There are immortals working in government
Both rosethevictorian and Verity say there are people within government/places of authority who are immortal and help their fellow immortals with all the necessities of life- such as having a legal identity. It’s certainly not like the olden days where birth and death certificates were easily fabricated!
3. They stop naturally ageing around the age of 21
There are signs of immortality early on in life, Verity tells us. She explains that baby teeth take a long time to fall out, puberty is a slow process and immortals tend to stop ‘naturally’ ageing around 21. Side note, they also can’t reproduce.
As far as we know, immortal babies do not look like the creepy Twilight doll baby.
4. Yes, they can actually die
Despite the general understanding of the word “immortal” meaning a person cannot die, and will come back to life after death, this does not apply to the immortals on Immortal-Tok. Because apparently, yes they can actually perish. Essentially, the only thing immortals can not die from is age. If they die; from an accident, illness, etc – there’s no coming back.
5. Some immortals become famous before they decide to die
Okay another one from Verity. Living for so long has it’s ups and downs and Verity says some immortals want to finish on a high and this means becoming famous. She doesn’t leave it there though! She lets us know that Paul Rudd, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves and Will Smith are all famous immortals!
Let’s be real we all knew this about Paul Rudd already.
https://www.vulture.com/2013/03/take-our-ageless-paul-rudd-quiz.html
6. Immortals are vegan
In the same way that if they drink blood they age, eating “mammalian” meats can cause immortals to age. If you see an immortal eating meat, they’re likely trying to age a bit.
7. Their voices change over time
Much like your friend from uni who came back from Contiki with a slightly french accent, or your cousin who went to New York for a semester and came back with an american accent, Immortals pick up and change their accents depending on where they are living at the time. And as accents develop over decades, they adapt to fit in, and pick up the slang.
8. You can see an immortal doctor
Normal GP’s are fine for immortals but because they live for so long, some are doctors so fellow immortals can see them as well. Verity says for all intents and purposes her body appears to be in her 20s, so when visiting a normal GP, she just says her age is around that ballpark. Rosethevictorian also let’s people assume she is around that age.
9. If you live too long you’ll go mad.
Despite the comments section begging to learn how to become immortal, Verity says it’s not all fun and games. The longest living immortal Verity knows of was 1500 (according to “records”), and when he reached that age he was unable to communicate in modern language. In general, Verity explains that living too long is more of a burden than anything else and it’s unlikely your brain will cope.
10.Belief is up to you
Verity and rosethevictorian seem unphased as to whether or not we believe their claims of immortality. When prompted in the comments to answer as to whether it was all a joke, rosethevictorian commented that she would leave it to the commenter to decide. Likewise, Verity’s bio says “immortality is a joke”. Verity also has described it as fun to see all the comments on her videos, and knows no one will believe her, so she isn’t scared to share her story online.
Micro trends, like this, on TikTok are fascinating as they pose the question: is it harmless or fun or troubling? Are people really believing in immortality?
Interestingly, both Verity and rosethevictorian have been posting videos since April/May this year. There are still a lot of questions we need answers to! Luckily we’ve got a lifetime.