home tattooing, round 13,879

http://resonanteye.net/2012/01/06/on-learning-to-tattoo/

 

Needlestick injuries, are also a consideration.

The risks associated with home tattooing start with minor Staph infections and end with septicemia (which can be fatal) and transmission of serious, life-threatening viruses. Also, using your home as a tattoo studio puts you and your family at extreme risk of infections and diseases. Simply put, this is not safe, and is most likely against the law.

Learning on your own will not allow you the ability to use modern techniques and equipment, since most retailers will not sell professional-grade equipment to amateurs. Despite what you may have read on the internet, there are NO books that will teach you everything you need to know to be a tattoo artist. These will only give you bits of information, and without good, working equipment and true, complete information, you just can’t tattoo all that well.

If you’re planning on doing this for fun, don’t bother. It is an actual, honest-to-god, real-life career, and should be approached as one.

the post office and I have a love-hate relationship.

Seriously.

They’ve twice now completely destroyed art I was shipping. They have lost a package by sending it to the wrong town. and yet-

The woman at the local PO helps me. I have no idea how to even guess what mailing things will cost, so I go in there, and I pick her brain. She’s always busy and yet she always explains everything to me.

I’ve become a lot more organized because of her.

Living in a small town has its advantages. I go to the store, they know both my cigarette brand and whether I got coffee or tea. They pet my dog, and say hello. I don’t live right in town so I don’t have anyone intruding on me or involved in my daily life, so I pretty much have it easy here.

Off to the post office site now to write a rave review for my shipping guru.

(pictured: naked mole rat sculpture I am making for a friend, stage one)

online selling, etsy, ethics.

Update: people are beginning to migrate from the (myspace )I mean – etsy. Here is a page attempting to list their new shops and venues. And other are protesting it all.

The place has always had resellers; people breaking the rules to pass off mass-produced stuff as handmade.
There’s a lot of money to be had from people who want to NOT support corporations, who want to buy local, handmade stuff. A lot of people don’t like buying things that were made for pennies by slave labor. Lots of companies know that, and will lie about how their stuff was made, to get that dollar.

The people who produce things with slave labor want that dollar, too.

“Former eBay and PayPal executive Stephanie Tilenius has joined the Board of Directors of Etsy, joining Etsy founder Rob Kalin, FlickR’s Caterina Fake, Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson, and Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer (also on Walmart.com.’s board) on the board. Tilenius left eBay last year and now heads Google’s commerce division.”

So they invaded etsy (and a few other places) and have been trying for a while now to find ways to successfully sell to people who don’t want to buy from them. Recently, an attempt to pass off furniture built in Bali as “handmade in CA” was busted. The thing is- etsy isn’t supposed to be a place to buy factory-made goods being resold. Its own mission statement says that buying direct from people who are making things by hand, not in factories, is the point.

I signed up there because of that but now…well, the fact that when confronted with a (GIANT SHITPILE OF) evidence, including an email from the man who actually makes the furniture, that the stuff is not produced in CA, and that the original seller is a fraud, etsy chose not to apologize, not to admit fault and remove the seller—but to close discussions about it and deny. (note- the fraudulent seller? is not only still open, but still in their list of “featured sellers”)
So, I’m in the process of migrating. (check out my home page– new links to my stuff for now! All my rocks, sticks, logs, and moss will stay on etsy- but anything I made, art, paintings and stuff- originals- has been moved. still debating whether to keep my prints there or not, my “production work”)

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no sopa no!

I am totally against SOPA, therefore I have contacted my government reps to shout about it. I suggest you do the same. I’ll be adding this little plea to all my images today—but I won’t black out.

Content is king- and if someone reading this happens to like my picture and read it, so much the better. SOPA would pretty much put me under. I post my original works to sites which sometimes include violating images- while my work doesn’t violate any copyright law, shutting those sites down because of other people’s sins would punish ME, an innocent bystander.

I also feel that there are enough and proper copyright laws right now to defend original works. If someone “steals” my image and uses it commercially, I can right now, without any additional laws, stop them. Legally. SOPA is good for huge conglomerates who don’t want competition, but would absolutely DESTROY the small, lone, artists, those of us who toil away in relative obscurity.

It will take away the venues we use to sell our original works, and it will destroy our ability to self-promote. It will make us vulnerable to any jerk that wants to take us down- and enable censorship by the few. If someone finds a work online offensive, right now, they can flag it or ignore it. Under SOPA, they could report it as a violation, and it would be immediately removed.

The burden of proof is on the person accused, not the accuser- and this is contrary to ALL previous law and statute in the US.

If you are not from the US, imagine all your US viewers GONE. Unable to see you. As well as the sites you use that are from the US- GONE.

For our sakes, and for your own, stand against this utterly stupid law. You can contact your representatives through this site:

https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173

and let them know how wrong they are about what the voters want.

banned on etsy: her roses

human arm bone articulation. banned on etsy!

Apparently, despite many other listings of legal human bones, THIS one is unwelcome on etsy.

Their explanation? “Despite the fact that it is legal in your locale, etsy considers it to fall under the “illegal animal parts” clause of the TOS.”

In other words, the law is what etsy says it is.

Moving on.

 

Update: etsy has now included human parts as forbidden items, along with any thing  that has “health claims”.

skinny women are evil, fat women are lazy. (or, SEA CREATURES UNITE!)

I don't care if you're skinny and covered in shag rug. I love you anyway.

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of stuff addressing the lack of larger or fat women in advertising, as symbols of beauty. It’s good in a way to see more of this, because the focus on one body type in media can be really disturbing. The implications that anyone bigger than the models is sick, lazy, or unhealthy; that fat women are all ugly, these aren’t right and need changing. I really think it’s good to raise awareness about body image, and to show women of all different sizes as beautiful and feminine.

That said, I also find it disturbing that many of these essays portray thin women as “anorexic” “unreal” and “nonexistent”. Look, I do know that the use of photoshop and the like has made images of impossible women pretty damn common. And yes, a lot of celebrities have eating disorders. But this isn’t always the case. By portraying thin women as unhealthy, sick, or unreal, you are continuing body shame. You are doing the exact same thing to other women that media has done to you, and it’s just as rotten.You’re continuing the cycle of abuse. Yes, you. You were hurt, so now, you’ll hurt others. For shame?

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Childfree Stay-Home-from-Work Day

April 26, 2012.

Quote fromthe event’s page:

“April 26, ’12 is the next “bring-your-child-to-work” day. If you do NOT have or want children, and your workplace participates in this; if you are tired of co-workers who chose to reproduce leaving early, taking extra time off, and generally being slack because of their own life choices; if you think maternity leave should be mirrored by sabbaticals given in equal time to nonparents; if you are sick of your insurance rates being driven skyward by rampant breeding among your employer’s policyholders; in short, if you find it offensive that an entire workday is sacrificed because of the personal choices of others…

bring your child to work in a jar day

Take the day off.
Do your co-workers bring the kids in and then spend the day “teaching” them, so that you end up doing more work on their behalf? Do they abandon the precious creatures in the office, forcing childfree colleagues to entertain or supervise them? Do they wreak havoc at the workplace, and find it adorable?Does your boss think this is a great idea?

Do you wish you could spend an entire day being paid to do no real work?

(made & posted for a dear friend.)

corneal abrasions

everywhere it’s glowing was scraped up. the doctor said “like steel wool, some of the worst corneal abrasions I’vve seen.”

I’m already feeling much better, apparently eyes heal quickly. I’m down for a few days though, til they heal up.

The ER here in Phoenix took good care of me- I hate doctors but the one I had for this was really good. So unusual for me to get a doctor (esp at the ER) that does just the right thing,

And the irony is that I never saw her- I was blinded-and have no idea what she looked like.

ETA: They gave me antibiotic ointment goo which sucks and makes my eyes stick shut. they told me no drops- but today I’ve been using plain saline eyedrops and it is helping a lot. also told me no ice packs but until I used one yesterday my eyes were so swollen I couldn’t open them- I’ve been using ice packs anyway because it’s helping.

I sometimes wonder if hospital staff don’t recommend anything that reduces pain, when I come in, just to be dicks. Or because they just don’t care about the pain level? I mean they did give me some percocet but that just makes me calmer- the pain stays the same. Topical stuff is making more difference than that did.

I can read and write today and keep my eyes open longer than yesterday. So, NOT following instructions has helped way more than following them.

I have something to say about my android.

I will never, ever purchase anything from blockbuster, or use any software installed that I cannot remove from my phone.

I will purposely NEVER pay any money to a business that forces itself down my throat this way. This is why businesses like AoL are laughingstocks. Dear, sweet google: please get this shit out of my face, before I start drinking the Apple Kool-aid.

You’re being fucking evil. And it makes me mistrust you.

This is officially the resonanteye post containing the most corporate trademarks, ever.

Jim Thorpe, and the march of time

This used to be the most awesome crawlupon ruin in the county- just beautiful and so interesting. Well, now they’ve fenced it off. No trespassing-so they can renovate it…for the tourists.

I am currently a tourist.

I would NOT pay to see this rebuilt. It’s just not interesting at all renovated. The beauty of these ruins is in the freedom to roam them, to go where you want and see the decay of the stone…a tour guide? Pfft. Why bother?

I mean- I may be out of line but, I prefer to lay my hands on history, gently. Not see it from ten feet away…also, rebuilding a site which is famous and amazing because it is ruined and abandoned? that’s just stupid.

I am probably wrong in my feelings about this subject but restoration of abandoned places irks me. I like the decay and abandonment. I like it. I don’t want them to rebuild it and repaint it and put some lady in a period costume in there for minimum wage to explain crap to me. That’s just me.

There are still abandoned places here and everywhere- let’s hope they are allowed to rest in peace instead of being dolled up and paraded around for money.

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