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By infmom, March 2, 2011 10:53 am

I got my ears pierced for the first time when I was 16. Two friends and I went to the doctor’s office (which is where things like that were done in small-town 1967) and the doctor told us each that he was going to give us a shot to numb the area. Well, he didn’t. That was just so we would think the actual needle going through the earlobe was the anaesthetic shot.

We were told to bring our own earrings and they should be smooth gold balls. I wasn’t able to go shopping for my own earrings (can’t remember why, at this late date) and asked my mother to do it for me, and she paid no attention to what I’d requested and got me some cute little flower shapes instead. The doctor was dubious, but that’s all I had, so he put them in. And that, I think, is how I got my nickel allergy. My ears were crusty and oozing in no time, and I didn’t think my parents would finance another trip to the doctor (my dad had actually forbidden me to get my ears pierced because it “looked cheap”) so I had to fix the problem as best I could by taking the offending earrings out and putting, I shudder to think about this now, short lengths of nylon guitar string through the holes till they healed. Ugh.

Years later, I got a second set of ear holes, and by that time the piercing gun was all the rage (we didn’t yet know how ridiculously un-sterile those things could be) and earrings had evolved considerably, so it was possible to buy non-allergenic earrings off the rack. By the time I got the third set of ear holes done, properly, in a piercing store, the array of body jewelry available was downright amazing.

Since the first time I saw a bellybutton piercing, I’ve thought they were amazingly attractive. I just wish I wasn’t such a tubby old lady–I hate to think what a piercer would have to do to put one of those rings into my bellybutton. The other night at the upscale mall we passed a kiosk that was just loaded with glittery, sparkly, dangly bellybutton rings and I stopped to look at them–but the kiosk girl knew just as well as I did that there wasn’t much chance of a sale there.

Still, I was curious enough to look up bellybutton rings when I got home, just to see what the prices were like. Wow, there are a lot of body-jewelry web sites out there! Ye gods, if we’d only had the internet back in 1967. One of the sites I thought was particularly good was Fresh Trends. It’s not just for belly button rings, but that seems to be one of their specialties and the selection is amazing.

They also have a full line of tattoo aftercare products, earrings (including some cartilage-piercing earrings I’ve never seen before), rings, t-shirts, you name it. Sure wish someone would invent a time machine so I could give my teenage self some way better jewelry to start out with.

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By infmom, February 27, 2011 5:43 pm

Up till now, I’ve let people comment without registering first. But due to the flood of spam I’ve been getting lately, I’ve been forced to change the policy. Now only people who register can post.

Registering is free and you have my promise that I will never use the information you provide for any purpose whatsoever. Someone who hates spam as much as I do isn’t going to spam anyone else.

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By infmom, December 29, 2010 9:42 pm

The documentary “Ancient Ink” has been one of the more popular discussions here, and I’m very pleased to announce that the producer/writer of the show has joined the thread, and now we know where to find the show on YouTube.  You can see this discussion here.  Be sure to thank Dan for such a great show.

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By infmom, November 13, 2010 11:10 am

Fellow Twitter user @tattoome101 sent me a link to an interesting web site called TattooMeNow. By registering with the site, you can use their designs or other site members’ designs to create your own original tattoo flash.

The site offers a trial membership, so you can see if it’s for you.  But this is a “risk free” membership, rather than a really free membership.  They’ll give you your money back if you change your mind within 60 days.  They offer some freebies for joining, the alleged price of which seems somewhat inflated to me, but others might find them worth having.

If you’d like to have original flash that’s really your own, this site might be worth checking out.  I chose not to register with them, so I can’t give it any kind of personal review, but I thought I’d pass it along as a site that might be useful for my readers.

(if you’d like to follow me on Twitter, you can click the link at the top of the page. Let me know you read my blog.) 

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By infmom, October 17, 2010 10:51 am

I tried out a plugin for WordPress this past week that lets me take my blog posts and assesmble them into an e-book.  Unfortunately, the plugin didn’t work right and I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do with it.

That was just an experiment, but after I’d done it I realized that I could easily turn the blog content into an e-book all by myself.  I’d add more to it, of course, and make it a bit more substantial than just a bunch of blog posts strung together.

Would you guys be interested in reading something like that?  I would release it through Smashwords, which creates e-books for all the popular book readers plus PDF, HTML and plain text, so everyone could read it one way or the other. (You can see my novel Closed Circuit on Smashwords here, if you’d like to see how it works.)

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By infmom, September 26, 2010 10:40 am

Image via Wikipedia

Imagine my delight when my copy of the Smithsonian magazine arrived yesterday, with cover art featuring a tattooed man, and a story inside about photographer Chris Rainier who travels all over the world to take pictures of people’s body art.  (The image at right is not from that article, I hasten to add.)

Rainier’s work seems to bear out what I’ve felt for a long time, that decorated people were more numerous than the plain-skinned sort, at least up till recent times.  And times are changing; according to the story, up to 40% of Americans between the ages of 26 and 40 have been tattooed.  I’m outside that age range myself but my daughter’s firmly in it.   Given how difficult, painful, and hazardous primitive skin-marking methods were, this says a lot about how strongly people felt the need to be decorated.

The article includes some links to other fascinating Smithsonian stories about tattoos, which are well worth investigating.  One talks about the differences in regional tattoos in the USA, and one talks about a new type of tattoo ink that’s designed so that a special kind of laser can remove it completely, without causing the kinds of problems conventional tattoo removal can.

Public attitudes in “industrialized” societies have seesawed back and forth over the years.  What started out as something only sleazy sailors did soon became something that the upper classes were mad about (according to the story, King George V had a tattoo) and from there went back to being something only sleazy sailors did.  Now the pendulum is swinging the other way again.

My dad never knew about my tattoos, but I have a feeling he would not have approved. After all, this was the man who didn’t want me to get my ears pierced because it “looked cheap.”  His attitudes toward that kind of thing were formed in the 1940s and 1950s when you pretty much only saw tattooed women in the circus.

I for one am glad times have changed, and I’m also glad we have modern equipment and sanitary practices!

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By infmom, September 18, 2010 12:05 pm

Check out the bargains here.

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By infmom, September 13, 2010 6:00 pm

Do you have a tattoo that illustrates science or scientific principles?  Would you like your ink to appear in a book?  Check this out. 

photo credit: megpi

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By infmom, September 12, 2010 12:47 pm

I’ve touched on this subject before:  Getting tattoos that are usually visible versus getting tattoos that are usually covered up by your clothing.  But a discussion in the About.com tattoo and bodypiercing forums (a link to About.com is in the sidebar on the right) got me thinking about the issue again.

All of my tattoos are in areas usually covered by my clothing.  That was a conscious choice on my part, because I knew I’d have to meet employers’ dress codes for years to come and I didn’t want to ink myself out of a job.  This is not to say I didn’t want a visible tat (or more than one) but I had to put other considerations first.

Well, now I’m retired and running my own business (OK, I have to put in a plug for that here, because I am proud of it, Logan Books) I can set my own dress code, and I’m strongly considering getting a bracelet tattoo on my left wrist.  I’m proud of being a tattooed person and I’d like to show off my ink a little more. Besides, I’m hitting my 60th birthday in November and wouldn’t getting some new ink be a grand way to celebrate? 

Have you had issues with hiding your ink to please your employer?  Do you sometimes wonder what the guys and gals in the “suits” are hiding under all those conservative clothes?  I sure do.  It’s fun to think that the guy in the oh so proper suit might have a pinup girl on his leg or a koi on his back, and the lady in the go-to-meeting dress might have a dragon on her upper thigh and a Japanese half sleeve.  My Egyptian tat shows off very nicely when I’m wearing a dress, but you know what?  I can’t remember the last time I wore a dress.  Retirement means a lot less money but a lot more fun.

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By infmom, September 5, 2010 11:10 am

As I adapt to the newest version of WordPress things are sometimes not where they’re supposed to be.  If you’re having problems finding things (getting a 404 message when you follow a link) I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know.  I’m trying to resolve as many problems with links as I possibly can.

Good thing I enjoy learning something new every day, hmm?

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