#ranty pants

[you-get-to-exhale-now-cyrus]

sometimes i feel isolated even in my own group of friends. like everyone else has their pair in the group, and i’m just...here. existing. breathing. trying to be like “i’m here too!” but bleh

[entrenous88]

I’m unhappy and disconnected and I know it has a ton to do with the broken wrist. 

handwriting isn’t allowing me to lose myself in my writing as i’m used to doing and that in all honesty is a big blow, impacting everything else.  I’m can’t safely drive yet so I feel stuck and trapped, and I can’t get rides to the gym as often as /i would like so i’m tense from less exercise.  though I can hang out with people irl, i’m used to having lots of interactions online that I’m cut off from because I can’t type easily or quickly with one hand so chatting & emailing aren’t really an outlet.  there is also a discouraging family health situation that I can’t help but feel i’d be way better equipped for without all the hindrances and discouragements of this situation

tl;dr everything sucks rn.  I fully get that the scope of what I can do and have access to will improve when my wrist heals but for now it freaking bites

[tinknevertalks]

So, a follow up to the last post...

I was "encouraged" through hubs by them to go over to his parents house (he can guilt trip me just as much as I can guilt trip him - we're not always our best selves together, but then we're not always our worst selves either) so that way he wouldn't pick the wrong sofa.

(They're replacing theirs and giving us one because ours is dying a death and falling to pieces.) <--- This is the reason I feel bloody awkward about things. They're giving us a sofa, but not changing their behaviour. Ugh.

So we get there, I pick, and get told the other is better.

...

Guess I wasn't needed after all, my choice being the wrong one and all.

We had a cuppa then left to go shopping. So glad to get out of there, because they never criticise you to your face, but will tell every member of the family what a horrible person you are, how you're stopping things from happening, how you've trained your own daughter to say, "I don't like you," to people.

(Yup, supposedly I trained Charlie to say to her grammy, "I don't like you." I got a fucking apology for that one, considering Charlie was three nearing four at the time and saying it to everyone, including myself, Mark, and my parents. Where did she get it from? We haven't a clue!)

And yes, I realise the irony of me complaining on here about them, but ugh. They just get me so angry.

So, what have you lot been up to?

[theloversthedreamersandme82]

Seriously feeling so overwhelmed. I've got so much to do in the next 2 weeks. Why why WHY did I agree to organise a stupid concert for my work?! Right now I'd really rather prefer to curl up with the piggies and ignore the world until it goes away. Plus some less than flattering photos and videos have appeared, and some comments about my body and now my self confidence is at a huge low. Maybe I'll just stop eating full stop. Would that make people happy? Why do other people feel they have the right to comment on other people's appearance?

I've also got to make Christmas presents for people before Thursday, cook something to take for a dinner Tuesday before rehearsal and I can't find one of my work shirts.

So over it right now.

[entrenous88]

Turns out they’re doing work on the roof here for the rest of THIS ENTIRE WEEK and no one alerted us?  nope, the mister got an email but forgot to tell me.  The cats are freaked out and my shoulders are tensed up around my ears.  Let’s see if I can make it another hour without strangling someone!  

[entrenous88]

The fiery venomous hatred i have for Comcast will live in me always

[rinwellisathing]

I am straight up blocking people that use "woman" or "she/her" pronouns on general Durgetash headcanons because I'm so sick of the queer eraser from cishet women in this Fandom. If your post is about a headcanon that is not for your named, specific Durge, then there's no reason it can't be inclusive, especially since canon Durge is male. By pure canon basis, it is a male/male ship and you don't get to erase that as well as exclude everyone other than cis women because you're an entitled little princess who thinks everything revolves around you.

-a trans man who is done with you monopolizing fandom in general with your booktok tier garbage

[deadcatwithaflamethrower]

In the Ink: Do All Tattoo Pigments Use Mercury and Other Toxic Heavy Metals?

Besides infection from unsterile needles, exposure to mercury and other heavy metals is a risk to consider when getting a tattoo.

Put your ranting pants on, peeps, because oh BOY did this piss me off before I even had a first cuppa. The fact that Scientific American printed this bullshit in the first place is utterly disgusting.

This article, kids and folks, is a grand example of a Scare Tactic Baiting Article, one that is trying to scare you away from doing something the author doesn’t like.

Put heavy metals into tattoo ink? Really? In this lawsuit happy country? Are you kidding? These people want to remain in business!

First big hint that this is scare tactic bullshit? THEY MENTION NEEDLES NOT BEING PROPERLY CLEANED IN AN AUTOCLAVE.

No. Licensed. Tattoo. Artist. Reuses. Fucking. Needles.

Not. In. FUCKING. DECADES.

Re-using needles has been taboo since the fucking AIDS crisis. Tattoo artists and piercers have sharps boxes (those red biohazard boxes) around for a reason, and that reason is because every single needle they break open, even if it doesn’t get used, goes into that big red box to be disposed of. All of them.

You won’t see a re-used needle unless you’re getting a tat in jail or giving yourself a home tat. (Both of these are dangerous ideas, but given how utterly boring prison is when you’re not worried about someone else killing you or freaking out about the entire situation...yeah, no blame there. Just be as sterile as you can, and remember that black ink that can’t be washed away with water after it’s dried onto paper is your safer bet.)

They mention that the makers of tattoo inks in the USA have to attach heavy metal warnings to their ink bottles as of a 2007 ruling. Funnily enough, I bought USA-made tattoo ink in 2011/2012 that was made by one of those major manufacturers, and hey, whadya know, there were no such warnings. Because they’re entirely unnecessary, because nobody wants to poison their clientelle. Nobody wants to poison THEMSELVES, either, as many tat artists have tats themselves, and aren’t exactly hyped on the idea of inking themselves up with things that will fuck with their ability to do their job.

The (very few) “studies” these asshats are getting this information from have the same goal: eliminating the popularity of tattoos, because they don’t like them. The other goal? Marketing. (More on that at the end.)

At least two of the anti-tattoo studies name titanium as a toxic heavy metal used in tattoo inks that is totally evil!

Titanium. Toxic. Right. The metal they use for surgical replacement parts inside the body, or for permanent internal bracing methods, because it remains stable and is completely harmless to humans. That’s one of their bits of “proof.”

Titanium Dioxide is another “culprit” but there is a reason why it’s okay to sell it as a (very effective) sunscreen: it’s only toxic and harmful if you’re breathing in the powdered form. That, like so many other irritants, can possibly cause lung cancer. But you can eat titanium dioxide by the fistful and it won’t hurt you. Your GI tract might hate you for a few days, but otherwise? Harmless. Skin irritation seems to only happen when the titanium dioxide has been mixed with other substances like, oh, certain sunscreens that use PABAs and other allergens.

“But red ink is full of mercury!”

It fucking well is not. Here’s an Actual Study specifically about red tattoo inks done by performing biopsies on red tattoos in order to determine what was causing allergic reactions. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6973263/  What they found was that three specific pigments were responsible for the reactions, even when they occasional found *minute traces* of chromium or nickel, both of which would’ve come from older tats...because they don’t fucking put heavy metals in tattoo ink anymore! Not everyone is sensitive to or allergic to chromium or nickel, but a wide range of people couldn’t handle the pigments PR 22, PR 170, or PR 210.

Here’s a handy tattoo ink pigment database (because red is one of the most common tattoo inks to react to, and it’s because of those three pigments mentioned above. Find yourself a red ink without those three pigments and you’re in business again for getting a red tat): http://www.artiscreation.com/red.html

If you hit Wikipedia, even they’re pulling this shit: one of their references is a study that includes titanium as evil and bad, along with aluminum (what.) and their OTHER source for INKS ARE BAAAAD! is from a study about ANCIENT TATTOOS ON MUMMIES.

That’s right, folks. That’s the entire problem right there! Modern tattoo inks are bad for you because ancient tattoo artists used heavy metal pigments in their inks, and obviously that hasn’t changed in thousands of years. Or something.

“Tattoos in MRI machines will hurt and burn because of heavy metals in the ink!” Funny, I had tats done in 1998 and 2009, both before and after that stupid-shit lawsuit, and neither of them gave a fuck that they were sitting in an active MRI machine. I wonder how very old these tattoos were that supposedly reacted to an MRI, because if they’re pulling that data from old sailors who got their tats on their own ships using questionable supplies and fuck knows what for ink? Gee, I wonder why that might’ve been an MRI issue, especially considering how easy it is for a liquid to be contaminated with metallic dust in a heavy industrial work environment--just like you’d find aboard a military vessel.

There are so many “legitimate” studies that just re-spout the same old bullshit, too, so much that it’s actually hard to FIND studies where people actually bothered to put some actual effort into things. “Oh, we tested all of these inks!” one site claims. Okay, great!

Where are those test results? Anyone? Beuller?

I can, however, find those same bullshit studies mentioned over and over again, all of them actually referencing just one study “performed” by a group that literally put it together in order to sue tattoo ink manufacturers because “young girls are now getting tattoos.”

(Yes, you’re reading between those lines correctly. Old people don’t want young girls to make themselves “ugly” with tattoos. It’s almost like these are the same people who believe they have the right to tell women what they can/can’t do with their own bodies.

OH WAIT.)

If you want the sources, just google: heavy metals in tattoo ink. You’ll be buried in the same terms from that study over and over again from multiple sources throughout the years, many of which should KNOW BETTER. The one NHS study that popped up using that algorithm WAS NOT EVEN A SCIENTIFIC STUDY. It was a fucking essay based on the same original sue-happy group’s “work” of how tattoo inks are evil. For shit’s sake, these people can’t even agree on whether carbon black is completely harmless, or if it’s the source of all evil. (Much like titanium dioxide, the problem isn’t with digestion or skin pigmentation; it is inhalation of carbon black dust that is proven to be cancerous.)

If you want a tattoo but you’re really worried about all these Evil Inks, there are organic tattoo inks out there. They’re complete shit, but they exist. There is also sandalwood ink, which makes me want to scratch at my arms just thinking about it, because that is far more likely to be an allergen, or to become an allergen, than pretty much ANY standard tattoo ink pigment! What’s even being used as the carrier for that sandalwood pigment, anyway? Sandalwood is a fucking tree; tattoo inks have to be applied in liquid form. I’ve seen the bottle of sandalwood-based ink, btw--there isn’t even a warning telling you that if you react to sandalwood applied in essential oil form, you will be allergic to that ink. WTF.

As for how shitty the “organic!” inks are: I have a tat done with organic ink next to a tat done with modern black “evil” ink. The new tat made from organic ink is ten years younger and looks twenty years older, and it aged that badly with practically zero sun exposure, no chlorine exposure, and no damage during healing. The older tattoo, which has definitely seen sun exposure, is still nice and dark. So is the one I got 22 years ago. But nope, it’s the Organic and Safe! tat that I’m going to have to get completely re-done. So, give that some thought before you jump onto the “safe alternatives!” train, because all of this evil tattoo ink shit might literally be designed not just to “protect our precious Girls Children from Evil Tattoos!” but also to market these many new and completely shit types of tattoo inks.

I love sandalwood, but I need to go get a brick and sand off a layer of skin just from thinking about that being used on me as a tattoo ink. I’ll take the evil tattoo pigments that manufacturers have been working on for decades to make them as hypoallergenic as possible, thanks.