Chameleoncat Creations @chameleoncat - Tumblr Blog

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starlonging

I'm sorry but this made me snort. It reminded me so much of Neil "desperation was a valuable lubricant" Josten 😭

plaguedocboi

Can we bring this back

cool-jpgs-of-wizards-with-swords

monkey paw finger curls

jinbedreams

Tā moko and Blackbeard - PLEASE READ

Omg Blackbeard’s tattoo’s are so cool-

Wait a second …

WHOA WHOA WHOA HOLD ON A MINUTE THERE

That went from zero to 100 REAL quick lets get some education about tā moko up in here before we make these wild claims! Tatau or tattoos have been found all over the world in many civilisations, but it was absolutely the Age of Sail and the colonisation of the Pacific Islands that popularised it and spread it around the world. Tatau is a samoan word that means to strike, and many polynesian cultures have a rich history of tattooing with very specific meanings and connections. Western sailors visiting the islands got their own and soon brought tattoos back to white civilisation where we know and love it today as artistic body modifications. Western tattoos usually come with deep individual personal meaning as opposed to the widespread cultural meaning that occurs in polynesian tattoos. Tattooing has also had a big impact on the queer community too which makes the ofmd connections all the more interwoven (it’s about the intricate rituals)

Edward “Blackbeard“ Teach from Our Flag Means Death is played by Taika Waititi, a Māori and jewish man, and as part of his character design, Taika’s own tattoos were added upon to create the visuals of blackbeard! These tattoos are an essential part of the character and it makes sense that anyone drawing or especially cosplaying Blackbeard would want to make sure that these tattoos are included. Unfortunately there has already been a few (probably well-intentioned) call-out posts for doing so (see above), saying that cosplayers should not be drawing on tattoos that have specific cultural significance! Which is absolutely correct! The problem is these posts have also failed to recognise what is and isn’t Māori tā moko and what is literally just . . a regular tattoo 🙈 Here’s Taika and his tattoos:

The eagle on his chest, the little Rita Ora tattoo on his hip and yes, those black bands on his arms are all likely to have very personal meaning to Taika but they are not tā moko.

Tā moko is the practice of tattooing that is specific to the Māori people and a quick google search will show you just how recognisable tā moko is, a tradition that goes back hundreds of years.

Tā moko is usually the more traditional type reserved for the face and the more modern concept of tattoos as body art can be referred to as Kirituhi. Every piece is unique to the wearer, with koru (spirals) that represent family and the darker infilled parts using various symbolic patterns.

Here to give some input as Māori people themselves are my friends on twitter speaking about the specific tā moko that Taika has that you shouldn’t try to reproduce: The tā moko on his leg, the whare (meeting house) on his wrist, and the traditional imagery of rā the sun on his back (seen in the above photo of Taika also)

@neonbirb

@weylandyuutani

@ceylonthae

So to conclude: YES as a non Māori person you should avoid drawing on tā moko as part of a cosplay as there is very deep cultural and personal significance in those specific tattoos, and Māori people who see their culture misrepresented in a poor rendition of tā moko will likely take offense. but unless Taika himself has asked people not to there’s nothing wrong with drawing on the tattoo’s that aren’t tā moko, including the eagle on his chest and yes, those two black bands on his arms. BUT ALSO: do not erase tā moko from fanart of blackbeard, if you want to draw the whare on his wrist or the rā on his back, or the kirituhi on his leg - power to you!!! And don’t bloody whitewash the man either or I’ll set the kraken on you!!! ☠🐙 (Please go retweet and support my friends on twitter I have linked them all above their tweet screenshots!)

ocdnatural-deactivated20220809

richard -> dick so obviously we should start the charles -> cock process

lillie-garden

how the fuck do you get cock from charles

taran-wanderer

you ask him nicely

vrixie

The Richard-dick naming situation actually comes from a fad that existed back in I think it was the 17th or 18th century, can’t remember which. But the naming fad/convention of the time was for rhyming secondary nicknames for names that already had a 4 letter nickname. Ie: William-will-bill, Richard-rick-dick

loth-catgirl

so it’d be Charles-chuck-fuck

queerautism

I didn't feel it was appropriate for me to add to that last post but it's related so - Please, for the love of God, learn to manage your own emotional responses to media on your own.

Maybe it's because I started reading horror at a young age, but I learned pretty quickly that if a book is too heavy or graphic or whatever for you, it's alright to recognise those feelings, and either stop reading it entirely, or take a break. Do something that helps you calm down. Re-engage with comfort media. Give your pets a lil kiss.

It's not a moral failing on the author for a book to upset you. It's not a moral failing for you to be upset. It's just a fact of life we all have to learn to cope with.

madfishmonger

If you don’t know how to handle discomfort in a book you’re not going to enjoy Life™.

Maybe this sounds dismissive to you but stop for a moment and think about it. If you’re losing your mind at a minor inconvenience, a serious incident will destroy you. I had to learn to triage my emotions by severity, and it made my anxiety far more manageable and given the pile of shit life has handed me lately and I’m still here it seems to have worked.

rederiswrites

I don't know yet how to clearly express this but this is something I think about from a different angle: young children. Who, obviously, become adults, so it's still directly related.

So many parents I've encountered, when discussing what media they show their children, have this standard: if it upsets the child, they weren't ready for it. Ah, they cried watching the Lion King, so I should have waited until they were older. It's SO STRANGE to me and I'm at a loss to know when we got like this. You are supposed to cry watching the Lion King. I do.

One Crazy Summer is supposed to upset you and challenge you, shock you and make you angry. When we were reading it, and the kids needed extra time to process something, we'd just pause and either discuss it or just wait until we could all collect ourselves again, and then continue. My son struggled with the subject of anti-black racism for weeks afterwards. I took that as a sign that he HAD been old enough to grapple with the themes of the book, and connected well.

I think the cultural tendency to shield children from any painful emotion a piece of media might create leads pretty obviously and directly to the stuff discussed above. The ability to process, discuss, and analyze media, or just to sit with your pain and then collect yourself and move past it, is a skill and must be practiced.

queerautism

I think that makes a ton of sense, thank you for sharing this perspective.

ohsalome

Me, aged 14, reading Tolkien: Hobbits are considered chuldren until they are 30? How funky! Fantasy worldbuilding! This is so different from us humans!

Me, aged 25: Oh i get it now

thebaconsandwichofregret

JRR Tolkien looking upon a quad of Oxford post-graduate students: “Children, all of them children.”

babyanimalgifs

higherstatesof

Are you kidding me this is the best video I’ve ever seen

luidilovins

those are wood ducks! they tend to lay their eggs inside tree hollows away from predators and when their ducklings hatch they sort of plop down. The parents usually only nest about as high as their young can handle which can be up to 50 feet up!

this momma had the misfortune of making her nest over concrete so it sgood that she had assistance.

mapleandgingeroatmeal

@is-the-owl-vid-cute, I’m curious about your take here. Is this guy genuinely saving their lives, or would touching the babies be more help than harm in this situation?

is-the-owl-vid-cute

Touching them does not do any harm. Unless the thing touching them is concrete at a high velocity. That would do harm.

bunjywunjy

pekingopera

merry christmas eve to this post only

arathergrimreaper

I just need everyone to know that when I type 'i am looking' or just '👀' i am actually thinking about this

verypowerfulwitch

my entire political stance basically boils down to "I care about other people" and MAN does it make people MAD

princessbubblegumandjustice

Just because someone is providing you a service doesn’t mean you need to accept whatever you’re given.

This whole “Don’t be a Karen thing” has gotten annoying, to the point where I’m overhearing people being shamed because they dared to ask for what they paid for and that’s “being a Karen.”

If your food is wrong and you ask politely for your correct order that is not being a Karen.

If you don’t like the color on your nails after your nail tech does one finger and you ask politely for a different one that is not being a Karen.

If you order something online and it’s damaged and you politely ask customer service for a refund that is not being a Karen.

If you hire a contractor and he did bad work so you ask him politely to fix it that’s not being a Karen.

Like what is it with people thinking that the only way to be a good customer is to just smile and accept anything? It’s not. If you paid for something then you deserve what you paid for, nothing more and nothing less.

If you demand more, you’re an entitled Karen. If you accept anything and everything less because “it’s rude” to ask for what you paid for then you’re a doormat Susan.

mintedwitcher

The difference is in HOW you react to getting the wrong thing. It doesn’t take much effort to just take a breath and politely ask for what you paid for.

Going out of your way to cause a scene and acting all arrogant and entitled over any tiny thing that’s easily fixed? Thats a Karen.

tikkunolamorgtfo

Also, I’m just going to throw out there that when it come to disabled people getting medical help from bureaucratic institutions, sometimes you have to break down crying or pull the whole “how is this considered acceptable?” schtick on the phone, because it’s literally the only way to get anybody to deal with your problem. I hate it, but there are disabled people who would actually be dead right now if they hadn’t cried or yelled while talking to an hospital system, referral team, insurance company, etc., and I don’t think that should fall into “Karen” territory, because like… a disabled person does this to have quality of life. A “Karen” does it to get a free Strawberry Daiquiri at TGI Friday’s.

ethanrayne

I wouldn’t say being “rude” (especially given how many people think anything more assertive than a meek and deferential request is “rude”) makes you a “Karen”, so much as that asking for unreasonable things or behaving unreasonably does. Like, if you’re trying to get shit for free, or if you’re being aggressive to someone who is doing their best and being decent to you, that’s Karen behavior.

But sometimes you DO have to be assertive with people, because there are people who will try and screw you over out there. Don’t swear at them, don’t yell unless they won’t stop talking over you (and that DOES happen, and once they let you speak you should return to a normal volume, but like… I’ve seen a car salesman pull this shit with my mother, where she had a question but he wouldn’t let her talk), but like… this whole “don’t be a Karen” movement looks an awful lot like “don’t ever stick up for yourself, even if someone in a business is harming you somehow, be a doormat or you’re the same as those entitled people who try to get a free burger for having to wait five minutes”. Which is bullshit.

wntw-virtuemoir-edition

shoeboxgoblin

Rejection sensitive dysphoria is wild. Someone will be like “hey just so you know the thing you did was a little bit loud/uncomfortable/insensitive but it’s ok I know you didn’t mean it” and my brain will instantly translate “you should be shot”

ajani

The fun other side of this too is when you are afraid of making other people feel that way so you just let shit go 90% of the time even when it’s reasonable and valid to make a comment/critique/etc