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:

---

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

---

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.

---

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.


---

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. 

--

T-rex trying to do things.

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

See more here.

---

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

---

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

---

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. 

ONE TWO THREE

ONE TWO THREE

ONE TWO THREE

ONE TWO THREE

 ONE TWO THREE

ONE TWO THREE

ONE TWO THREE

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.

Quick time lapse graffiti video.

Remember in October I showed you guys way too many photos of the Quake of the Cans paint in? I just found a time lapse video showing everyone working on the wall. It's neat watching them all run around like little ants.

My bus tweets. Again. Already. Things just keep happening. The first two go together.

(click here to see the video, there's a better visual at 1:07ish actually)

 

Welcome to my world. At least nobody stole my teeth though, amirite?

Things I Love Thursday (now without the annoying video!)

I love how dramatic Yeti can be in the early morning with the right lighting. 

I also love...


Dr.Seuss, as told by the people of Burning Man.  I saw a friend of mine in this video (3:32)! What!

Animals talking in all caps.

This NSFW post on the movie Libertine. 

18 things women can do that I just don't understand. Yup. Agreed.

This little video about Hense, a graffiti writer in Atlanta. 

Introvert? More like intro-jerk.

119 amazing facts. 

Hannah's Canadian adventure.

The ten seconds project. You have ten seconds to hide from your camera!

This Flickr photoset of  New York in the 80s. 

Kristin Luna's ride up to Angkor Thom.

Beauty is embarrassing. 

IRL Beavis and Butthead. AAAH

What Chelle discovered in her freezer.

The scientist and the stairmaster. 

Tough reads, but worth it: why I talk about rape and my rapist friended me on facebook.  

How to make just about anything happen. Even though I'm way too scared to do this myself nine times out of ten, it's really good advice. 

Behind photographs, a series of portraits of famous photographers posing with their iconic photos. 

 

The worst bus story of all-time.

 Painting by Tiffany Liu.

OH NO YOU GUYS do you want to read the creepiest bus story ever ever ever? It was sent in from a lovely lady (who didn't want any credit) and I can't even...

Just click here to read it. Nightmares. Because WHATTHEFUCK

Tattoo Tuesday!

Lucky me! Click here to read the interview!

diptych: fan tan alley, it's so narrow!

Randomly

 Here are just some things. Like a self portrait I took in the bio room at work. Why? I was trying to get a good shot of my outfit for Victoria and I'm so very terrible at taking pictures of me.

---

Here are five people on twitter who make me laugh: one two three four five

---

After reading about Arielle's coin collecting compulsion I had a flashback to this crazy genius prankster I used to work with in a grocery store in Calgary. He used to get all the cashiers to trade him American coins for his Canadian ones (they regularly get mixed up together and we just take them at par). Then when he saved enough up he would take them to the bank and trade it for Canadian money for a profit. That was during the period where the USA money was worth quite a bit more than Canadian.

This guy also used to take toothpicks and draw swear words and penises in the margarine, close it back up and put it back in the cooler so customers would get a surprise when they got home.

What else...he also used to change his nametag so it said Chris.T, but put the T really close to the Chris so it looked like it said Christ. I guess we got away with a lot though because my nametag used to say "Some people call me the space cowboy."

---

 Some of my top favorite google searches that have brought people here this week are: leaky boobs, bowie matroyshkas, connection orange, church peels, girls smashing cars, armpit partyfotos, the answer is "no", noba whale penis, weird soap, the real loch ness monster pictures, and best of all...

why do I get lightheaded when I shop at WalMart, I have a pacemaker. hahaha Sorry buddy, I wish I knew the answer to that. It can't be good.

---

Here are five blogs I'm particularly enjoying today: one two three four five

---

 Here's some snow pictures. It's already gone, it's been raining for two days straight.

triptych: in the sky and under your bum

down by the water

lately

Reading: I just read Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami and it was not what I expected. At all. Very very ... strange. I can't even tell you if I enjoyed it or not. I read it pretty quickly, maybe over three or four days, and I kind of feel like I missed something. Anyway, give it a try if you're into weird psychological experiments or unicorns. Not even joking.

Watching: All the Arrested Developments and all the Parks and Recreation I can get my hands on. I mean like six episodes at a time. It feels kind of gluttonous.

Listening to: A lot of Mastadon's album Leviathan. Quite good. Quite good. It took me a couple listens and then I was hooked. Here's a couple of my favorites from that album.

Doing: Pretty much nothing. First of all, it's been snowing here in Victoria, which is practically the end of the world. This city falls apart when it snows. Forget driving anywhere, they NEVER plow the streets or salt them or anything. They just let the ice build up and hope it melts soon.

 Tank doesn't like going pee these days, let me tell you something. He runs out, does his thing and is immediately knocking to come back in.

On top of the cold, I've had this endless flu that is just taking it out of me. I actually think I injured one of my uh...sinus tubes the other day from blowing my nose too hard. It really hurts still! Ryan and I had a big adventure yesterday though, we walked all the way to the pharmacy to get me some off-brand Neo-citran-ish stuff.

I tried to make a cute video and ended up with this pile of garbage because I wasn't taking it seriously and was just swinging the camera around like a maniac and showing boring stuff but whatever. This is what our walk was like basically. You like those boots? They're like 1999 Rocket Dog fashion.

Looking forward to: the Die Antwoord concert adventure Ryan and I are going on in February. Oh and I think I'll be able to pay for a college class with this upcoming paycheque, so I guess I'm looking forward to some new learning experiences. I'll keep y'all updated on that if it actually happens.

Thinking about: getting my kneecaps tattooed!!!!! For real. AAH do any of you have yours done? Any advice or stories you want to share? I'm totally scared.

I also tried Klout out on Twitter this week. I'm still not sure what it is? But anyway these are the top fourteen things I "have influence" on... both homosexuality and homophobia? Zoos? What? I like that octopus made the list. That's pretty awesome.

Things I Love Thursday

I love when I unintentionally make my pets look creepy in photos. I also love...

---

This is what Madeline did. In her words: I shot a little video every day of 2011 on my Canon Powershot, then I edited it all down to a little over a second each. It’s interesting to be able to look back on my year and remember these little moments. I love living in LA. I love the friends I’ve made. And I love seeing how much has changed over just one year being here. Sure, I guess now that I see it, I got sick and worked a lot this year (lots of driving, running around doing errands all day). But oh well, it’s motivation for 2012.

---

Raving in the Black Sea - Kazantip sounds like Burning Man but way more hardcore.

Murder in Cambodia.

Photographs of weird Russian prisons by Michal Chelbin. 

Tips on gaining twitter followers. 

This movie, The Woman In Black, looks so creepy!

Are crime scene photos art?

What books will become. 

Hannah, the 'famous person dork' hahaha. This girl's vlogs are some of my favorites.

These 'rescued paper' notebooks. 

100 cameras.

How to avoid becoming one of those couples.

Just in case you all live under a rock and don't read Kaylah's blog, I couldn't let anybody not see this cat GIF website.

Do not watch this video. 

Moorea's arrowhead rings.  HINT HINT EVERYBODY

Okay I'll admit it, I want these fake tattoos. These too.

---

The Empathetic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin.

(found via my friend Cody)

---

I can't wait for Jenny's book to come out! It's gonna be hilarious. 

I love improv everywhere, help them reach their goal if you can!

The new birthday tradition around our house. Should I do it for my 30th in October? 

This video of our friends at Government Street tattoo.  Jamer, the guy at the beginning of the video and the one drawing and stuff is the guy I was writing about earlier this week. And the other guy tattooing, Chris David? You can tell his tattoos a mile away, he's so good!

Lessons learned from 12 hours of forced focus.

The amount of work these girls put in to dressing like characters from Beauty and the Beast. 

Seven things  you learn about yourself while traveling solo.

Suzy and Barclay's traveling style. 

Elly's description of what a camel looks like when it's standing up.

These re-scanned photos that were taken with a Hasselblad from early space exploration, light leaks and all.

What Carly, an autistic teenager, had to say once she figured out how to communicate.

I got to do a what I wore post over at Batzy Rockshop...and she made an illustrated me! :)

Amazing places to experience around the globe, part one, part two and part three.

Ask a mortician, episode five! I love these videos. 

And last but not least, I was going to repost some of the links from Gala's latest carousel post but there are too many good ones. Promise me, if you're still in the mood for getting sent all over the internet, go there next.  And watch the video on dealing with slow walkers.

SOPA AND PIPA

If you don't know about this, especially if you live in the USA, check it out.