|
Who
and what is Ampulove?
Ampu-love's History
|
Ampulove started about 22 years ago, as a 1 page
site, with information
about the subjects Amputees, devotees and wannabes, later Ampulove
became a commercial site with a lot of information for
everyone interested in the Amputation Subject. The site had
forums, medical information, chat rooms, thousands of
pictures, movies, interviews, live webcam and much
more. The name Ampulove was found by Tina, the
presentatrice of Ampulove. Sitting together
on an evening, talking about the fact that there wasn't enough for amputees on
internet, even no dating or contact sites, the
name Ampulove coming from Amputees and Love was
very easy founded.
Afterwards, end 2007, Ampulove went offline for
a few years. Till July August 2011. That moment
Alex, founder of Ampulove, decided to start back
with a new Ampulove, on request of many people,
but this time with a totally different look then
before and also a kind of different orientation.
|
Tina with
Amputee Brenda
Presentatrice in the Brenda Movie |
The first logo of Ampulove was very simple. A blue
background, here you can see the first Ampulove Logo:
Ampulove's first logo, over
22 years ago
Later the
bird with his right leg amputated above the knee and on
crutches showed up. This logo was already during years the
image of Ampulove. The bird of Ampulove, the Parrot looked
completely different in the beginning, here it is:
The first Ampulove Parrot
Logo
So Ampulove
became the biggest website when it comes to the subject
Amputation, especially into the direction of devotees and
wannabes. Mostly with over 2000 visitors a day, during
years long. Over thousands of members and millions of totally
visitors found their way to Ampulove.
Ampulove's logo since 2005
till begin 2009
The Ampulove office in 2004
- 2005
Amputee Alex at the Ampulove
office in 2006
Ampulove's pen's around 2006, for
every customer.
Covers from the first three AmpuLove
cd's many years ago.
Magic Stumps 1, 2 and 3 - and from World Amputees 1.
|
Alex, Ampulove's
founder |
Ampulove's founder is Alex, a 50 years old amputee
from Europe who lives officialy in Portugal. Alex is a double above the knee and
a right below the elbow amputee. Alex is very open
minded to the subjects devotees (people who are
attracted to amputees) and wannabes (people who want
to be an amputee). During all the years of Ampulove,
Alex met different admirers and wannabes. He was in
different newspaper and magazine interviews. He was
in contact with different psychiatrics who wanted to
know more about those phenomenon's. Alex did a lot
of anonymous investigations, all investigations done
for psychiatrics on request. Near all that Alex
wrote also a book about the subjects devotee and
wannabe.
Here
you can read some old articles about Ampulove &
Alex:
newspaper - the wave
- USA
Here you can order the book
that Alex wrote:
On lulu, barnes and nobles and Amazon, you can find
it in A5 or pocket size. On lulu also as E-Book.
|
Alex
from Ampulove
|
Alex, triple Amputee
(DAK and RBE), founder of Ampulove |
Alex is not only the founder of Ampulove, but also a book writer.
Alex loves traveling, and lived in different
countries: Belgium, Europe - Sri Lanka, near India -
Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and ES in Brazil - Miami area FL, USA
- The Philippines - and Portugal.
Alex himself is an amputee. Double Above the Knee (DAK)
and Right Below the Elbow (RBE).
Alex
was first a left below the knee Amputee, followed by
a left above the knee amputation. After that he
became also a Right below the Elbow Amputee, right
below the knee amputee, followed by a Right above
the Knee amputation what made him a DAK amputee.
Alex & Ampulove:
In 2007, Alex had a tattoo-artist
friend on visit from the Netherlands. A wannabe. He
placed the Ampulove - logo on Alex.
Here are some pictures of him during the years:
|
|
|
 |
During All the
years of Ampulove, Alex met already a lot of
people. Amputees, Devotees, Wannabes. Here
are a few pictures from a few people that
Alex met. On the left side, the first
picture is Alex together with Derik Rawson.
In the late '90 's Derik helped Jama Bennett
with her website Ascot.
One of the first sites on
internet, amputee and devotee related. Derik
was on visit in Europe and traveled to
Belgium to meet Alex. The day of the meeting
Alex was only a few days a LAK Amputee. Left
in the middle you see Alex with Tina. Tina
was the presentatrice of a lot of
Ampulove movies and near all that she did a
lot of work for the site. Also on the left
site, last picture, you see Alex with
Geronimo, a European left above the knee
amputee and once a model for Ampulove.
On the right site, the first picture is Alex
with Angelique, a female devotee from
Austria that traveled to Belgium that time
to meet Alex. In the middle you see Alex
with Wolfgang from Berlin, Germany.
Wolfgang was once in a relationship with a
female amputee. Unfortunately she died. Near
that, Wolfgang started years ago with one of
the first Amputee - Devotee oriented real
magazines named 'AmpFax'. Also on the right
site, last picture, a meeting between Alex
and Thomas, a German left below the knee
amputee.
Alex met much more people; A French doctor
who was a wannabe and is now a LBK amputee; A
DAK amputee man who became an amputee by
wish; Some 'famous' amputees; A female
wannabe who desperate wanted to become a DAK
amputee, and is at this moment. Some surgeons and other medical people interested in the
world of amputation, devoteism and
wannabeism. Alex discovered during all
the years that it is pretty amazing how many
people are interested in the subject of
Amputees & Amputation. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Also Alex met a
lot of Amputees, one of them was Helen
Smith, a quad amputee from Cambridge who
lost all her limbs and was the first female
model for Ampulove. After Helen there
were a few more models, like Brenda, a
Belgium RAK amputee (see picture right
side). Alex worked also together with male
Amputee models. |
Something more about Alex
Alex was born in 1970 in a very little city in Belgium. He was 3
times married (1 time even with a female devotee).
During all the years till he became an amputee, he
was a cook and had a Real Estate office. Since the
day Alex is an amputee he discovered more and more
about the devotee and wannabe world.
Since the start days of Ampulove Alex received
thousands of emails from Amputees, Devotees and
Wannabes. Some of the wannabes became Alex's best
friends and unfortunately some of them died in the
try to become an amputee. Alex, as so many other people, realized
that wannabes needed some help. |
Alex with RAK
Amputee Brenda, model for Ampulove |
|
Alex with Kenneth,
a homeless AK / BK amputee from Florida
and a very good friend of Alex |
So
more and more Ampulove and Alex became more open for
the subject Wannabe, a subject that was during many
years big taboo. In many ways Alex tried to help the
wannabe world with spreading the fact that there are
wannabes on this planet; male and female, young and
old, and that they need help, that they need their
amputation(s).
Alex traveled to many places on the blue planet, he
have seen 19 countries. A few of them are USA,
Brazil, Sri Lanka, Morocco,... Almost from every
country on the world Alex received emails from
people that are amputee, devotee or wannabe.
Some meetings were very interesting. He
remembers a time he was sitting on the table, eating
pizza with 4 wannabes, and... all amputees.
More and more Alex discovered that a lot of people
didn't mind so much anymore as years ago that there
are wannabes on the planet. The reactions in the
beginning on the fact that there is a group of
people that want to be an amputee is completely
different then it was years ago. In Brazil and the
USA Alex had one of the best reactions. People
didn't mind, found it even interesting.
Being 'open minded' and trying to be 'helpful' for
devotees and wannabes wasn't always simple. Alex
remember days, years ago that there were a few
police investigations on Ampulove. Once the police
thought that Ampulove was a hidden place, a fake
name, but that the site was basically to sell
children from poor countries, another time there was
a case that a female amputee started a court case
against Ampulove, but finally after years Ampulove
and Alex won that case. Another time the police
tried to close the site Ampulove, because it was
that time for them to open minded when it came to
the wannabe subject. |
|
Alex and his life as an amputee
Alex likes mostly the reactions on him as an
amputee. In so many funny ways Alex likes to 'upset'
people. Give them answers that people don't expect.
Once a woman in the grocery store, a cashier told
that her knees hurt so much from the whole day
standing. Alex his answer was: 'I have that problem
too'. After looking to Alex, discovering that he has
no legs, she started laughing so hard that she even
left her workplace for a few seconds. Another time
Alex asked on the airport by checking in for a
flight: 'Do I need to do my shoes off to?' knowing
that everyone else needed to do their shoes out. To
a street shoe cleaner Alex asked once: 'Can you do
mine for a special price?', and to shoe sellers he
asked once: 'Why do you never try to sell me some
shoes?', and on the airport ticket service he asked
or he could get a 50 % reduction, since he told them
that he is traveling with only a half body.
Meetings and Traveling:
During all the years being active in the world
of Amputees and their Friends Alex traveled a lot to
meet people. From all over the world amputees,
devotees and wannabes invited him, to meet Alex, to
talk about those subjects. |
Alex at the Hardrock
Casino in Florida
together with another Amputee |
 |
When Alex lived in the USA he met a lot of
very interesting people. A few of them are
George (Jorge), a professional dancer (see
picture on the left side) who was also an amputee
(but unfortunately died). On
the right side you see Alex with Gerald
during a meeting in Fort Lauderdale -
Florida.
Living in
the USA:
Alex was almost 37 years long in Europe. One
day an Ampulove Customer that became an
internet friend invited him to the USA.
First it sounded like just a regular |
 |
|
meeting, a regular
vacation of maximum 3 weeks. But after a few weeks
everything changed for Alex and he staid living in
the USA that time. Alex discovered how wheelchair accessible
America is. What a paradise it is for wheelchair
users. Alex words were once: 'You have no any reason
to feel disabled here'.
The friendship with the Customer of Ampulove that
invited him over there was so big that Alex now
consider him as his best friend. Near that Alex was
also married to a female devotee from the U.S., but
that part didn't worked out very well.
After a long visit
in different countries as Brazil, Alex ended back up
in Belgium in the year 2013. But finally
after being so tired of the arrogant Belgian
mentality and the cold climate, he moved in 2017
to Portugal, Lisbon, where he lives now.
Alex about
devotees and wannabes:
1 on 30.000 people in this world (male and female)
are wannabes, 1 on 500 are attracted to disability.
That's quit a lot. So, if you are devotee or / and
wannabe, just don't care about what people think of
you. Just believe in yourself and know only you need
to be happy with yourself. A lot of medical
investigations proved already that devotees or
wannabes are not retarded. A few of those very good
documentaries like the BBC Horizon about BID
and the documentary Whole proofs this even
more.
Amputation Wanted:
In 2001, Alex wrote the first book about wannabes
and devotees. You can download it here in English,
and in Dutch.
|
Alex in a box
|
And some more meeting
pictures
Amputee Taina, Bruna, Edilson, Jailton,...
Find Amputee Alex his group
on Facebook:
|
|
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)