You should read...

Let me start out by telling you that this was my sister's idea...you all remember my sister, right? Let me refresh your memories.

Cute, right? And this is her hung over. 

She had a great idea for a series on my blog. Well, she didn't want it to be a series. Or maybe she did. She never mentioned the word "series" but maybe she was thinking it and I picked it up subconsciously over the internet? Anyway the other day on Twitter she asked me if I would blog about some of my favorite books and why I like them. And I thought...yes, yes I will do that.

So here we go. Welcome to ... You should read. Part one.

You should read...

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I loved this book and I really didn't think I would like it at all. I liked it so much that Ryan and I actually had one of those moments where he came into the room, I was lying on the bed on my stomach with my feet in the air like a teenager in Seventeen magazine. He said "dinner's ready" and I was all like "JUSTLETMEFINISHTHISCHAPTER THEY FOUND A T-REX"

So yeah, I know what you're thinking, and YES it's an old book. You have to get over the racism and sexism and the old words. But it is not a slow book, and if you have any imagination at all you will get lost in the lost world. Which seems like it was probably just Brazil, but whatever.

Anyway it's a pretty funny novel that reads like a children's book for really smart children. Which is about the level the average 21st century adult is reading at, right? Perfect.

The Lost World is written mostly in letter format, the protagonist is a journalist who basically gets dared to go on this ridiculous expedition with some scientists to find dinosaurs and he's like "What the heck, what else am I going to do?" because his girlfriend was leaving him or cheating on him or thought he was boring or something like that. So he goes on the expedition but keeps writing back to the newspaper he was working for, and that's what we, the readers, get to see. Mail service was amazing back then, hey? Spoiler alert. Not really but I have to tell you that they do end up finding dinosaurs and it's cool damnit. Dinosaurs are cool.

The end. Read this book. Or go here and have someone read it to you for 24 hours. You can probably find forty seven copies of this book at the used book store. Go get one. And laugh at the super retro cover. But then you really should read it.

The BEST painting ever.

My awesome friend Colin Wiley painted this painting in 2009 for an art show. I've had my eye on it for two years while it hung in the tattoo shop, and the other day Colin gave it to me!!!!! I can't even tell you guys how cool it is. I mean...you can see. But AAGH I LOVE THIS PAINTING. Look how great it looks on our dark brown wall. I am beyond stoked about this.

Bumper Sticker or Custom Paint Job: An Open Letter to Lisa Khoury from Caitlin

Hi everyone!  Thanks to Nova for letting me post this on her blog. If you haven't read the article "Why Put a Bumper Sticker on a Ferrari?", well, consider yourself lucky.  Seriously though, in the article a plucky young wannabe-journalist named Lisa Khoury wrote what I'm sure she thought was a snappy article about her feelings on tattooed women.  I don't want to spoil the surprise for you who haven't read it, and really I can't express to you how pedantic and unoriginal her ideas, and delivery, are. If you haven't read it, you should check it out before you read my open letter below.

I shared this link with Nova, one of my favorite ladies (tattooed or otherwise), and we decided to do a "guest post trade" on each other's blogs. Fabulous idea, right?   Without further ado, here is my letter:

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Dear Ms. Khoury,

I get it. You're in your early 20s, still in college or a recent college graduate. You know a lot about tattoos because you've seen people with them from afar or maybe even saw an episode of Miami Ink. You can understand, even from a distance, all of the dimensions of a woman's choice to get tattoos. Awesome.

By way of an introduction, I am a twenty-something professional working in higher education. I travel across the country visiting colleges and universities and guiding them in the creation of effective training strategies. I speak three languages and received highest honors in my Russian degree. I am married to my high school sweetheart Rob, an Army combat veteran whom I almost lost during a 13-month deployment to Iraq and who recently accepted a position as a wildland firefighter in New Mexico.

I also have tattoos.

I got my first tattoo at age 19, a tiny word in Gaelic that loosely translates into "soulmate." My husband had the same thing tattooed on his arm--along with the word "comrade" in Arabic for his Army buddies-- and carried it with him for the entirety of his Army enlistment. Far from "proving a point" or "craving something new," I got this tattoo because I chose to have a physical manifestation of something that  meant the world to me, in this case my relationship. On the other hand, I also am getting a tattoo in the next few weeks that was offered as a gift by my artist.  The meaning behind the design in and of itself isn't as deep, or really all that deep at all. But like all of my tattoos, it is reflective of my journey and of the various relationships and events that make up the sum total of that journey.

Suffice it to say I was extremely resentful of how you so naively frame women with tattoos. It is positively egregious that I find myself having to tell a young woman coming of age in the 21st century that "class" does not come from physical beauty, having one's nails done, or wearing high heels. It comes from strength of character, intelligence, curiosity, integrity, and kindness. It comes from not judging others who may believe differently than you, who wear different clothes or hairstyles, who make the choice to put pictures or words permanently on their skin, or who choose to keep their skin bare.

It's bad enough to judge a group of people of whom you clearly have no knowledge or understanding, but to suggest that we replace tattooing with manicures and high heels? I find it appalling that you so easily deride tattooed women for not doing something "productive" but imply that "productivity" translates into buying new clothes and new shoes.

Indeed, it is my opinion--and the opinion of many--that tattoos are not mutually exclusive with productivity; one can have tattoos and work hard at their job, volunteer or give to charity, just as one can not have tattoos and do those same things. To imply that "elegance" comes from embracing a very stereotypical image of what women "should be," and not, say, from the ability to hold an interesting and intelligent conversation is not only antiquated, it is unquestionably harmful.

We are in an unprecedented period of history, when women are closer than ever to being completely equal to men at least in the eyes of western society; viewpoints such as yours, namely that a woman's true strength lies in her appearance and that her appearance is only marred by adding artwork, only manage to set back the progress we have made.  It's even more tragic when it's our fellow women who do this to us.

Your reference to "gym memberships" or "yoga" in place of tattooing was also extremely naive. I live in a small town of 7000 people, and should you go to our local gym you would find that the majority of the returning patrons have at least one tattoo. Some of the most fit people I know--one of them my tattoo artist and another, my husband--are also the most tattooed people I know. I suppose you would be surprised at how many people with tattoos take care of themselves and view their bodies truly as temples; after all, when's the last time you saw a temple that had no decorations or adornments at all?

You know, only someone who had never set foot inside a tattoo parlor could say something like, "Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo. You get a tattoo, and that's it," because had you ever gone through the tattoo process you would know that there is far more to it than ink on skin.  One of my tattoos took a total of 25 hours to complete, and the experience of those 25 hours--talking with my artist, developing a relationship, watching the art take form--is just as valuable to me as the tattoo.  And you know what? Every time I look at that tattoo I'm reminded both of the period in my life that it represents (namely my husband's Army enlistment) and of the fun I had working on it with my artist.

In short, Ms. Khoury, I can tell you that I learned far more about myself from having tattoos than I ever have from wearing high heels, getting a new hairstyle or a manicure.   I know, however, that my experience is not everyone's.  I do not pass judgment on those who choose not to get tattoos any more than I pass judgment on those with different hairstyles, though interestingly the people from whom I receive the most judgment are those who do not have tattoos.  We all choose to live our lives in our own way, and as long as we aren't hurting others I don't see a reason to pass such harsh judgement, particularly if you have no understanding of those of whom you speak.

I hope, Ms. Khoury, that you come to see how harmful articles like the one you wrote are.  And I hope you get to know some tattooed people, because despite your best efforts to generalize, we probably will surprise you.

Caitlin

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Thanks for reading and please make sure to check out Nova's post on my blog.

If you write your own response to Ms. Khoury, please share it with us in the comments or send her an email at lisa.khoury@ubspectrum.com.

Things I Love Thursday

I love that so many people have asked to see more of my face on this blog. It's very flattering and I can understand it. Sometimes all you have to go by is the little Google profile picture someone took of themself from their skinniest angle five years ago. Sometimes I'm shocked when a blogger suddenly posts a picture of themself after I've been reading their stuff for a year. Most of the time they look NOTHING like their profile picture and it kind of makes me want to unfollow them because I feel like I've been mislead. Same with people who use uncredited photos, I feel so angry when I find out they're not the incredible and interesting photographers I was lead to believe. Instant unfollow.

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Another thing I wanted to quickly mention was the little survey I posted a few days ago. Thank you so much to everybody who responded, I think I have like forty-ish of them to sort through. I'm going to keep it open for another week or so, so please feel free to go fill it out if you haven't already. Come on, I know you like talking about yourself as much as I do!

The people who volunteered to do a guest post, I will be in contact soon, that's very exciting. I asked you  to write some ideas in the survey, and a few people have messaged me since saying they'd like to do guest posts but didn't know what to say. If that's the case please let me know, I can tell you what to write about, no problemo.

As for the TILT question, most people, maybe 95 percent, like the Things I Love Thursday posts as they are, a few said "do whatever you want" and there were only a couple people who thought they were overwhelming. Obviously it is my blog and I was never going to stop doing these, but I did want to know what you guys thought. I'm glad you agree with me for the most part! :)

Anyway, bla bla bla, on with the show. Things I Love Thursdays are here to stay.


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I love...

Interview with a one year old. (video)

Camera holding suspenders.

Chocomole? Count me in!!

 This post is hilarious. I have a few 'weed cats' of my own.

Chantilly and Elycia team up to answer blog questions. (video)

I can't even handle all these photos at once, they're all too amazing.

Violin soloist totally owns a  cell phone ringtone mid-concert. (video)

25 things I learned from opening a book store. 

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T-rex trying to do things.

Poor little guy. He can't help the way his arms are!

See more here.

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How to fire a bad friend.

This is why you need to be careful what you put online. (Thanks Suzy)

Hippies of Haight St., San Francisco 1967.

Celebrity sleepovers. (video)

My friends are all married with kids. Will they abandon me? 

Ashley is having bloggers link back to their favorite posts of the month. Cool idea!

This article on 'The Marilyn Meme'.

Kristin Bell meets a sloth and totally cries about it. She's awesome. And if you liked that, check out Kristin Bell's Body Of Lies. hahahaha (videos)

Portraits of ladies in cardboard fashions. 

BENSPOTTING. Congratulations Ben! haha

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This video. SERIOUSLY number seven. NUMBER SEVEN. I hate when people say that one.

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Quotation marks and punctuation: in or out? So helpful.

I do not love this - transgender people can't fly out of Canadian airlines unless they're basically 'in disguise' because their appearance must match the gender listed on their ID. There has to be a way around this, Canada!

My friend Colin gave me an AMAZING painting he painted. 

How to make your photos more dreamlike.

This art installment is very cool! 

On bisexuality, polyamory and "having to choose".

Famous paintings improved by cats. 

David Lynch on creativity. 

This girl who can say any word backwards in under three seconds. (video)

These photos of famous actors who were given scenarios to emote. (Thanks again Suzy)

I have the coolest friends. This is Kyle Carter, he works with me at Tattoo Zoo. He decided to try tattooing a traditional tattoo by hand on his friend! Here's a video, it turned out really well, you can't even tell it's a stick and poke.  Do not try this at home, he's a professional and this was done at a real (clean) tattoo shop.

What it's like to get your knee tattooed.

In December I ever so casually asked my boss Gerry if I could get a rose tattoo from him sometime in 2012, because I decided that was my New Year's resolution and he makes really nice roses. Somehow we decided I should get two, one on each of my knees.What the heck was I thinking? haha just kidding. But I was scared as hell.

I started googling knee tattoos like crazy. I couldn't picture how it was going to look, and honestly there's not much out there on the internet about them. It makes sense when you think about it, hardly anything will look good in that spot because of all the bending. In the end I decided just to trust Gerry and see what he came up with.

Yesterday was the day.

We talked about the options: doing both of the outlines, or just finishing one entire tattoo, or going for the gold and getting both done in one sitting. I am SO GLAD I didn't try to do both of them! hahaha I knew I wouldn't be able to sit through both tattoos because even though you'd think a rose is just a small palm-sized-ish easy tattoo...it's not when it's on the knee. You have to consider how much the surface area expands when you bend it. The one tattoo took around 2.5 hours, it's pretty big!

We put the stencil on with my leg straight out, and then I bent it and Gerry drew a bunch of leaves and petals and spiky things on with a sharpie. And then there was a lot of looking in the mirror and people saying "Okay straighten it. Bend it. Straighten it. Bend it." It didn't seem too difficult for Gerry to figure out what would look good. And so we went for it.

The outline went pretty well, it felt really weird though. And there was one leaf kind on the inside I immediately declared my 'enemy' because it really hurt a lot. Right on the kneecap and the spot below your knee that gets skinned when you fall down were really easy for me, but around the sides (as I had been warned, thanks Amalie!) were pretty terrible. After the lining we took a little break and Gerry took this instagram photo.

I was actually planning on making a little video of me getting tattooed, but hoo-boy I'm glad I didn't. It was getting pretty crazy up in there, even at that point. Not that it particulary hurt really bad, but my body was not having it. I had so much adrenaline, and my reflexes were totally making me want to kick my leg out straight. It was the weirdest thing. I'm normally a pretty good tattoo client but I got all shaky and shivery like I've seen so many other people do. So I got myself a drink of water and a sucker, we took a three minute break and then, just like that I was good to go again.

I'm making it sound so dramatic but I couldn't help it, my body was going crazy. I have to confess...I even moved a few times! Usually I sit really well but I couldn't control my lower leg! It literally took me concentrating as hard as I could in a few spots just to sort of stay still. Gerry's pretty good at guessing when people are gonna wiggle, and roses are really forgiving, so you can't really tell but I was not at my best that day.

Coloring that fucking enemy leaf was the worst, but Gerry's real good at just kind of powering through, even when I'm breathing weird and going into the fetal position, hahaha. I tried to tell him how much I appreciate that all-business approach, but I think it sounded like I was calling him mean. I meant it as a compliment damnit! I wasn't at full mental capacity by that point.

I don't know about you guys but when I get tattooed my IQ drops dramatically for the rest of the day. Later at the grocery store I couldn't figure out how much money to give to the lady, she had to tell me "Okay just take that dollar back now." And later I told Ryan I felt like I couldn't follow the plot of and epiode of New Girl, and we should be watching Wipeout Canada or wrestling or something, haha.

Anyway, back to the tattoo. After we got going again it got weirder. I told Gerry I wished somebody was there to hold my leg down. I also couldn't stop laughing at one point because it just felt so strange and I had to hide my face and hug my elbows as hard as I could for like an hour to get rid of some of the crazy adrenaline-fueled energy I had.

It was really intense, actually. I couldn't relax and go to my happy place like I normally do because I had to focus so hard on not moving. But again I'm making it sound so terrible and dramatic, I'm just letting you in on what was going on inside me, the tattooee. On the outside I'm sure I didn't look as insane as I felt. Or maybe I did a little bit...Gerry told me the way I was sitting was making him sad, hahaha.

But I LOVE IT. I'm so happy we did it, and I am definitely going to get the other one done soon. Well, soon-ish. Not like, next week or anything. Because I'm getting my arm tattooed next week!! AAAHHH :) But also because I need a month or so to recover from this one. I think if we tried to do the other one today or something I'd be flinching away from every touch. Ah, reflexes.

So, in conclusion, knee tattoos feel really weird. But they look cool.

(photos stolen from Gerry's instagram)

It feels pretty 'swell' today. Heh heh.

LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

These people are cool and they didn't pay me to say that. Click around and get to know them a little better because you really should. 

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lately

Lately I've been...

Reading - Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. This is the second book by her that I expected to be sort of a lame love story and BAM it's super hard-core violent and crazy. I really have to stop judging her books by their titles. You should all read this book, it's insane.

Frustrated about - the gigantic queues on the library website! Hurry up, people!

Watching - Ryan and I went secretly to see the movie We Bought A Zoo, you know, the heartwarming Matt Damon movie? Let me tell you guys something, it was awesome. And bring a thousand tissues because I'm a real tough guy and I was choking back tears like every twenty minutes.

And we borrowed Conan O'Brien Can't Stop from the library on a whim. It's a behind the scenes documentary about the weird tour Conan O'Brien did when he was prohibited from appearing on television for six months. I thought it was going to be just his stand-up routine but it goes a lot deeper. Here's the trailer.

Listening to -a lot of Dimmu Borgir. I know they're not for everybody but I really like it. Here's one of my favorite songs. You should listen to it and pretend you're watching an epic battle scene in a 3-D fantasy movie or something.

I've also been listening to the band Ghost...they have over the top Satanist lyrics but the music is really good. Check it out. But just remember I warned you about the silly amount of devil-related songs. Here's a good one:

Nervous about - that whole gettin' my knee tattooed tomorrow thing. AAH

Looking forward to - starting a college class in February. It's called 'medical terminology' and I aim to get an A+. We'll see how that goes. Wish me luck!

And finally, here's a video of a baby pomeranian howling with some wolves. I love the head tilt.

Two things...

I created a short little "how's my blog doing?" survey and I would be SO happy if all you readers out there would take the time to go answer my questions. I promise it won't take long, and it would really help a sister out.

Click here to take survey

AND if you didn't know, Victoria over at Batzy Rockshop has been drawing me in my outfits. That's right, I'm a style blogger, didn't you know? (Not really.)

Anyway here's the latest one.

Awesome, right? 

If you click the picture you can see my weird short pants that I really like to wear a lot. Here's Victoria's blog, twitter, flickr, etsy, pintrest and facebook. She's one of the rare bloggers who will have little random twitter conversations with me, most people just ignore my rapist wit.

If you get the reference there, you win my respect and a high five.