Turquoise Cherry

The tattoo on my back limited my reconstruction/skin graft options after surgery for cancer. The ink in my lymph nodes also threw the oncologist, but didn't pose any problems in itself once they knew about my tattoos.

Thank you, else and Pugilist! Yes, I saw that you'd just had your viva for a History PhD. Well done! Mine is in English Literature. I'm researching Victorian mourning literature, mostly life-writing. I have my first archive visit next week. Just part-time for now as I need to work. Hopefully eventually I'll prove myself enough to be eligible for a studentship.

I finally enrolled as a PhD student. It's taken almost a decade just to be able to begin. I don't have an MA and went to art school, so I was told by the university I wanted, 'I'm sorry but it is simply our policy and without a good Master's degree you will not be considered.' I got depressed, then indignant, then pissed off. So I spent a month reading, focusing and writing a proposal and extra essays, sent it all in, and proved (mainly to myself) that I could do it. That felt pretty good.

I love Duncan X's work. I gasped when I saw this photo. Beautiful.

@jade1955 Knob Creek Bourbon is very nice. It's another of the Kentucky bourbons. I'm not a whiskey/bourbon drinker myself, but people I know who like Maker's Mark also tend to like this one, if that means anything. Knob Creek 9 Year Old : Buy Online - The Whisky Exchange

Probably because she wasn't employed by M&S. She was a volunteer for a charity and using the M&S entry to raise money for a separate entity, and her employers wouldn't have been on-site. As much as everyone agrees that employers have the right to dictate appearance of their staff, the fact that she wasn't their employee seems to make no difference. M&S has the right to dictate the behaviour of anyone on their property, but they should brief charities about their appearance policy. I imagine they will now.

Isn't it beautiful? He's the same artist who did all the portraits of and for Henry VIII. I had an old 1920s copy of Dances of Death checked out of the library for about a year that I just kept renewing so I could paw through it again and again. It's not as good as owning a copy, but I just saw that you can download the digitised version of the entire book: The dance of death : Holbein, Hans, 1497-1543 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

OK, I read the article differently. I thought the woman at M&S got argumentative (and on the phone), not the charity volunteer. Re-reading it, it's still not clear to me who got argumentative. One thing is certain: it's a shittily written article. I agree that anyone arguing on another person's/company's property isn't being professional. This discussion has been great (and admittedly, reassuring) to read through. I'm not heavily tattooed yet (money), but I've always intended to keep them private, and I keep the few I have covered unless I'm at home or in a social situation. I've always thought I was being a hypocrite because although I believe that society should always be challenged to accept everyone, I myself am not willing to use my tattoos to do this. I'm a fairly private person and my tattoos are not a billboard to make me be seen a certain way. I hate being looked at and I hate attention. That said, while I don't have any particular respect for people just because they don't cover up their tattoos, I do think society in some areas is changing slowly to accept them. Whether or not that should be an aim, I don't know. I thought in principle it was a good idea, but after reading these comments, I'm getting the idea that it could be to the detriment of the art itself. Very interesting. Stewart, really interesting that you mention nudism. Did you see the article in the paper yesterday about the nudist who has been in prison for six years for refusing to wear clothes? I was thinking of this discussion yesterday when I read about him.

That is beautiful! (On my dream tattoo list is Death and the Soldier, to be tattooed up my rib cage. Some day.)

This is interesting. (I'm not being sarcastic, either). I get what you're saying about choice, consequences, etc, but I still think they were out of order because she wasn't employed by them. She was "working" on their property, so if they wanted her to leave because she was trespassing, or raising money for another company, that's different. The way I read the story, their reasons for ejecting her could be extended to anyone walking into the store. Employers are able to legally demand people working with the public look a certain way all they like when it comes to choices, but I would still like to know how far M&S' policies extend. I keep mine covered but I don't expect other people to be as private about their tattoos as I am. That's not me making a point, by the way. I am aware that forums can make people sound passive aggressive when they don't mean to, and I rarely post, so I want my tone to be clear. I am curious about your other comment about being sick of seeing tattooed people in every shop, etc. I don't live in a place where many people are tattooed, so when I go to London or Manchester, it's good to see people with tattoos. It sounds like you're talking about an integrity issue as well, keeping tattoos from being overdone, pulling them back from being a trend. Is that what you mean? Ursula, I'd heard about American Apparel taking photos of prospective staff to make sure they "had the look". I think they had gotten in trouble for this a few years ago, but I have a memory of this being more to do with weight and age discrimination. I don't know what happened with that though. Obviously not enough to make them stop the twattish practice.

hahahaha! The "Awkward Family Photos" of the artists is brilliant!

Have you seen this story of moronic bumpkinry? A tattooed charity volunteer at a Marks & Spencer in Newcastle was told her appearance was not "acceptable" and was told to leave. As she pointed out, it seems unlikely they would have asked her to leave if she was a shopper. M&S charity volunteer told to cover-up tattoos or leave store - Chronicle News - News - ChronicleLive I feel like I'm reading a story from 1956.

I so want this to be real.

@Gregor hahaha! I hadn't seen that one. Have you watched his live webcam shows where he sings along with shit radio?

Usually I get idiotic things stuck in there, like things that Limmy sings, or something from Adam and Joe's Song Wars, particularly Doctor Sexy. They often turn into a medley. Unfortunately, I had Lambeth Walk in my head for all of last week, and it was awful. None of this will probably mean anything to people outside of the UK, so I've provided links, as well as understood apologies for any resultant head sticking-ins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ZYBOq2-3o

Here is a how an Australian bakery owner found a possum who had sneaked in and eaten so many jam tarts it couldn't move:

Aside from cat-related injuries and my general ability to nearly murder myself every time I'm in the kitchen, probably my stupidest injury was when I was working a summer job in an amusement park making personalised rings. We'd use these teensy, threadlike jeweller's saw blades to carve initials into rings, while holding the ring in a vice with the other hand. I snapped a saw blade on a downstroke and stabbed it straight into the joint of my left thumb. The serrated blade held it in the cartilage and kept me from being able to pull it out easily. It was one of the most painful things I've ever felt and thought I was going to puke and faint simultaneously. I counted to three, ripped it out, it went TOING! and apparently I turned green. Being an amusement park, a crowd of people had watched the whole thing like it was an episode of Jackass.

I have a few friends who are in the "I only like tattoos that don't look like tattoos" group. They keep getting awful blobs of scabs drawn on them, but they're overjoyed. I just say something like, "Wow, who did that?" as I don't want to hurt their feelings. (In fairness, they also hate mine).

....

Well, she did say that this magical ink change occurred at some sort of hippie jam festival...

I spoke to a woman with a white sleeve who said that when she spends time in the sun, the white ink starts turning brown.

Gets me through most days.

"This is a twat."

I had a similar thing when I had my back done. I simply HAD to keep my face flat into the cushion or, nose squashed and everything, the pain got worse. Maybe it was oxygen starvation I was after. *Edited to say that, after re-reading what you were originally saying about left/right, my thing is actually the opposite of what you were saying. I am therefore a plonker.