One more of the endless reasons why i don't watch tv - from the moronic, one-sided news reporting to the inane "hot topics" (seriously, I don't give a rats fuck in a wind tunnel who slept with who, why and how much weight they lost doing it) to the robotic parroting of the company line - it is all mind-numbingly predictable slop.
Its designed to make viewers feel a part of a majority social group, whose valuess are acceptable and widely held. It makes the viewer feel safe and comfortable because they don't have to step outside their own comfort zone to explore unfamiliar ideas and come to their own conclusions via that little-used process called "thinking".
Which is how we end up with talkshow hosts who can only string a sentence together when its typed on a screen infront of them.
I have tattoos and piercings and my hair has been corvette red, candy pink and will soon be taking a dip in grape purple soon. I don't do any of these things because I'm trying to get attention - what other people think of me is none of my business. I do it for the same reason I belonged to amateur theatre groups, indulged in paraflying, gliding and
skinny dipping. Its the same reason I've lived on a yacht, on a 70,000 hectare cattle property with no electricity and took a quick jaunt to the US (nobody knew where I was and I was reported missing).
I did, and do, all this for the same reason other people spend thousands on fashion accessories, or make up, or jewellery or whatever their "thing" is: for fun.
We do it for fun. It amuses me to look in the mirror and see hot pink hair. It amuses me to learn new things (I can weld, fight bushfires, ride horses, drive a forklift, touch type, manage an office, cook meals without a recipe)
My experiences make me who I am. Some of my experiences I have chosen to commemorate on my body - the death and birth of my daughter is tattooed over my heart, where I keep her always. The redback spider was a practical joke on my ex-husband, before we married. These life events have flavoured my ideas and views of the world. They are memories and rites of passage.
Only an ignorant, spiritually shallow person would brand these "ugly".
Only someone who fears the world and the future would think someone like me would regret my tattoos. Only a small mind would fail to appreciate the full beauty of who, and what, I am.
Their loss, Randi.
;) xo