Some people look good with tatoos, some dont.

But one thing I have noticed, no one looks good with a pin or bolt thru their lip or the bridge of their nose

I always think it looks really sill, but like a great place to hang house keys to keep from losing them.

A teen at my weekly bagel shop has two little horns poking out beneath his lower lip at about nostril width.

This is not appetizing. Extra portals to the alimentary canal never are. (So I get the bagel to go, with lox spread on the side in a tiny little plastic tub.)

He also has braces. He's just bringing too many alloys to this incidental retail encounter.

And if he's trying to convey a sense of daring, not-afraid-of-pain machismo with his fellow fashionable teenagers, it probably collapses as soon as he speaks... Because as soon as you seen the dental work, you think of the parents who must be paying for it. (Noah's doesn't pay a teeth-straightening wage.)

Heh heh. BF's daughter is starting to collect tats. She's got a few tiny little stars on the top of one foot, 2 larger stars (one in front of each shoulder, in line with her bra straps), another on her upper arm, another on her hip, and for the most part they're cute, I like them. She also has a very small (stud-earring kinda thing, looks like it could be her birthstone) piercing in her nose, and another above her lip, but if you weren't looking for them, it would take you a little while to notice them. They're definitely not "loud" look-at-me piercings that were done for shock value. Her father most assuredly did not like them at first, but he's getting used to them. She's a good kid, just finished college (got her MSW), and is moving back home with us soon. I have no problem whatsoever with her "decorations" because they're very tastefully done, and they don't scream for attention.

My body is a temple, sort of. No desecration permitted.

The problem comes when you get a bit older, and if you put on a few pounds. Rita could start looking a bit bloated.

Yeah, there is that. I've only got one tattoo, a guardian angel on my left shoulder. Got that one a couple of days after I was in 2 car accidents within 24 hours, both of which I walked away from unscathed, except for a chipped tooth. Still can't figure that. I should've been dead in the second one. The first one, I hit a van broadside when the guy driving cut me off, he was turning left across a 4-lane road from the right-hand lane (and of course he was uninsured and had no license); the second one, the guy who towed my car from the first accident was a friend, he picked me up at my house the next morning to bring me to the garage to look at the damage to my car. He forgot something at home, so we were going there first, guy cut him off coming out of a gas station, we were on the main road, he just plowed right into us. The EMT guys were amazed that we both walked away from it, both vehicles (my friend's pick up truck, the other guy's Camry) were totaled. The guy in the Camry was taken to the hospital, I heard later that he died from his injuries. Something was looking out for me.

"Oh yeah, here's really doofy team name: 'The Clippers.'"

That's the name of our local minor-league baseball team. Meh.

I just started shopping for my first tattoo. It was a condition set by my wife prior to undergoing IVF. She figured she'd have to get poked with a ton of needles, so I had to, too (and giving ME the shots wasn't an option apparently). Going to see if the local shops can do a nice custom rendering of Athena (my daughter's namesake) on my calf.

"(Noah's doesn't pay a teeth-straightening wage.)"

I went to Noah's in Burbank a few weeks ago! It was Memorial Monday. Maybe I saw you and didn't even know :-)

The Clips were originally the Braves from Buffalo prior to moving to San Diego in 1978. The owners of the Celtics and the Braves traded teams, yes, literally swapping the teams for one another and the new owner was off to San Diego where they became the Clips. And in their history not much has ever really gone well for them...

And I'm a firm believer in tattooing. I don't know why but I've always been intrigued and drawn to it. I continue to ink myself and will continue to do so until I run out of space I'd imagine. I most definitely will not be tattooing my face. That's where I'll draw the line...no pun intended.

I might get somethin' if I had a reason like flynne's... elsewise? nothing in my life has ever been that permanent. everything that really matters is graven in the heart... with fire.

> Maybe I saw you...

Sure. I was the extremely attractive man in the golf shirt... The quiet, masculine figure whose alluring speaking voice, athletic gait and commanding bearing sent a silent shiver of excitement and gentle fantasy through the line at the cash register.

Actually, this was at the Noah's in Culver City, which is on the way to work. You'd remember this kid behind the counter if you'd seen him. He's unforgettably obnoxious in a teenage kind of way.

> That's where I'll draw
> the line...no pun
> intended.

Too late!...

> but I've always been
> intrigued and drawn
> to it.

Also, Amy comes through like a sister:

> The problem comes when
> you get a bit older

I wrote a huge comment about this last night and then didn't post it because it was the rantings of an old man who wants to go out and dance the Charleston with some flapper girl.

Listen, I understand that the people do these fashions specifically because they'll be revolting to people they're trying to exclude from their social circles, meaning me.

But they'll get older, too, and aging skin isn't improved by inked cartoons or scar tissue. Just sayin'.

Tat's come in handy for the cops to ID the body. Hey, what the heck?

> My body is a temple, sort of.

It's only Monday, but that may be the comment of the week.

Talking silly sports team names: how about the L.A. Lakers? Utah Jazz? Would be hard for those names make less sense for where the teams are. At least Boston is full of Irish people, even if the team isn't.

The sale and/or relocation of teams plays havoc with regionally-inspired nicknames that made sense in the original location.

The name "Lakers" made sense (sort of...wtf is a "laker?") in Minnesota (Land of 10,000 Lakes), but seems out of place in water-starved Los Angeles.

The Utah Jazz? Not the kind of music SLC is generally associated with...unless the Tabernacle Choir has been kickin' out the jams lately. When the team played in New Orleans, the name was regionally-appropriate.

The Charlotte Hornets nickname paid homage to Lord Cornwallis' remark that Mecklenburg County North Carolina was a "hornet's nest of rebellion." The New Orleans Hornets are just named after a mean bug.

And oddly enough, the Detroit Pistons, who couldn't have a more appropriate moniker, were originally the Zollner Pistons of Fort Wayne, Indiana. They go back to a time when teams were named for their corporate sponsors. Kinda like Little League.

Maybe the tattoos and piercings are a generational thing. I just don't get it.
the tats aren't so bad, but the piercings are frightening.... I saw a guy in NYC one day a few years back. i will never forget him. he had little round metal studs following the curve of each eye brow, maybe 10 on each side. he also had these straight metalbars running through his nose from the bridge all the way down to the nostrils. The bars did not go through the nostrils, just through the skin along the top making a long line of bars. I swear his face looked like a zipper.....

Then and now I only have one question... What the hell is the point of THAT????

What about people who get plastic surgery to look like an animal or ET? For example Stalking Cat.

Would anyone here do such a thing?

Oh, you mean, like "The Bride Of Wildenstein"?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-516768/Is-scariest-picture-EVER-Bride-Wildenstein.html

Jeez, what a shame. Reminds me of Jacko. I imagine - perhaps wrongly - that these people must be pretty unhappy before they start down that road, and thoroughly miserable by the time they arrive.