"This face was born in blood and desperation / So don't look deeper than my skin dear child / This body cost my soul, there's no salvation / So don't look deeper down within"
“Wer Schön Sein Will Muss Leiden” by Oomph! (True Beauty Is So Painful) uses the fairytale motif of Little Red Riding Hood to criticize modern beauty standards and body obsession. The “grandmother” represents an unnatural ideal of eternal youth, physical perfection, and outward success. Her beauty appears admirable but also unsettling, because it is achieved through pain, self sacrifice, and constant adaptation. The child’s questions reflect our fascination with perfect bodies and how early these ideals are passed on to the next generation.
At the same time, the song exposes the true cost of this perfection: inner emptiness, emotional wounds, and the loss of one’s authentic self. “True Beauty Is So Painful” becomes a bitter truth in a society where appearance, success, and money are valued more than humanity or mental well being. The warning is clear: what looks flawless on the outside is often deeply broken on the inside, yet this ideal continues to be inherited.
I tried to capture the core message of the song in an SDXL generated image, exploring artificial beauty, pain, and what lies beneath the flawless surface.
Original Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94a0yKWz7ho
(english version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2YqrfQRONI )
#darkart #gothicart #vanitas #beautystandards #bodyhorror #darkfairytale #sdxl #stablediffusion #aiart #generativeart #oomph