Monday, September 5, 2011
Lawrence: Strippers have rights, too, so sayeth a Massachuse...
Lawrence: Strippers have rights, too, so sayeth a Massachuse...: About the Author By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. This article absolutely requires a musical background, and I have just the piec...
Strippers have rights, too, so sayeth a Massachusetts superior court judge. It's about time!
About the Author
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's program note. This article absolutely requires a musical background, and I have just the piece for it: "You gotta get a gimmick." It's a song from one of the best Broadway shows ever, "Gypsy", which opened in 1959. Many ladies of the theatre have headlined as Rose, the ultimate stage mother, including Ethel Merman, Patti LuPone, Angela Lansbury.
"Gypsy", of course, is the story of perhaps America's best known stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee. The song "You gotta get a gimmick" is a clever number where the experienced strippers advise Gypsy on how to succeed in burlesque. It's bold, brassy, and belted out by the strippers who know a thing or two about their craft and exuberantly impart this intelligence to Gypsy, the ingenue.
You can find this song in any search engine. Go now. Then lock yourself in a room that's sound proof. Man, woman, or lubricious teen-age boy, this tune will get you up and into your own bump and grind. Trust me.
Full disclosure of your author's knowledge of strippers.
I first became aware of exotic dancers (which is what strippers now call themselves, the better to get the respect and professional treatment they today insist upon) from a story about my grandfather, Walt. It seems he made a particular point of attending the great Chicago exhibition of 1933, called A Century of Progress International Exposition. Reason? The most prominent exotic dancer of her era, Sally Rand (1904- 1979), was performing de'nude' and every red-blooded American male wanted to see if she did indeed cover the subject with her massive ostrich plumes -- and nothing else. How they longed for indiscretion and a glimpse of flesh... but Sally was a pro, expert in teasing, the consummate flirt, capable of admonishing any over-eager hand with a slap carefully calibrated to the infraction.
Grandpa Walt had, of course, spent his hard-earned money on Sally Rand souvenirs, including a viewfinder with the most provocative pictures the traffic (and Chicago's lax rules) would allow. All the boys in the family had seen these venerable artifacts; it was part of our "masculine" education. The girls were sternly warned away least they see an unacceptable vocation.
Grandpa Walt was as much teased on the matter of Sally Rand as Grandma Victoria was on the matter of her "Two Rudys," Valentino and Vallee. This teasing, these stories, and the arch looks the grandparents shot us never lost their flare or hilarity.
My maternal uncles went to Chicago on carefully planned excursions to the best burlesque (always called bur-lee-que by the aunts) house in the Windy City. Whatever the women of the family may have thought (and none was reticent) it was accepted that "boys will be boys" especially after they had fought their way across Europe in World War II.
What they did at the house of burlesque was never officially acknowledged, but the high secrets always leaked and became the more lurid with each telling.
As for me, I didn't see a stripper in the full glory of her embonpoint until Christmas vacation, 1967. It was my very first day in Paris. I was 21, I was free of teachers, rules and parents, I was in a city that was a byword for indulgence, decadence, and SEX. And I meant to live!
Thus we ended up on the Rue Pigalle at the Follies Bergere, home of plunging necklines, garish colors and oceans of feathers and beads. We must have been drinking, that too was a sure portent of liberation. And no doubt made too much noise as we stood in the back of the theatre. We were living and unmercifully scrutinizing les dames de Pigalle was a necessary part of our travels.
But all of a sudden, one of the ladies literally jumped off the stage and marched purposefully towards -- us. The general tenor of her remarks, delivered in high octane French, was, "Just what do you cockroaches think you're laughing at?" whereupon she dropped her feathers and stood before the titillated, reeling, astonished boys in all her natural allure.
Wow! Abashed and chagrined though we were, we all knew This Was Life. I haven't been back to the Rue Pigalle or the Follies Bergere, either.
Dark, furtive, pathetic, sad.
Whether it was from television or films (but not from actual visits) I picked up a firm impression about the milieux where the exotic dancers sport and preen. I thought of them, if I thought of them at all, as places not of excitement but of lonely people adrift, where simulated joy could not cover the fact there was no joy at all, and where men desert wives, families and pressing bills to shove dollar bills into g-strings, pathetic.
Into this equation,the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the person of Essex Superior Court Justice Maynard Kirpalani has now entered his finding, viz that four former exotic dancers at a Salisbury, Massachusetts establishment called Ten's Show Club were employees, not independent contractors. As such they are entitled to minimum wage and other benefits.
As a result of this ruling each of the aging and not quite so nimble Salomes -- Katherine Sandoval, Noel Van Wagner, Bonnie Griffin, and Amy Bloodgood -- are entitled to more than $40,000 in back pay... and not a moment too soon.
In 2009, Van Wagner told the (Boston) Globe that when she began dancing about 17 years ago, she typically received a modest wage or no salary at all. But she earned so much in tips, $300 to $800 per shift, that she did not mind paying the club between $10-$20 to dance each night.
But the economy severely cut into her tips in recent years. Coupled with higher performance fees and other charges, she said, dancers sometimes earned barely enough to make a shift worthwhile. After she and her colleagues filed suit in 2009, they either quit or were fired. The ladies, however, had been wronged...
Judge Kirpalani wrote in his ruling, "First, aside from keeping their regular customers informed of their performance schedules, there is no evidence that the plaintiffs engaged in any type of private marketing. (They) did not have personal websites, business cards, or professional photographs... They were required to comply with numerous rules and policies established by the club."
But the news for the ladies who now have rights once stripped from them, gets even better. Kirpalani separately granted class certification status to the plaintiffs. This means about 80 current and former dancers can claim damages.
Where will the money come from to pay these damages? I suggest the owners buy jock straps, learn to pose, posture, and work that pole. If they get a good gimmick, they might just pull it off.
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is also a historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
So now that you have Read this
What’s your opinion on this?
DID YOU READ THIS????????
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
YOU Can have for yourself over 278 Articles on YOUR Blog
Call me at
310-618-8107
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's program note. This article absolutely requires a musical background, and I have just the piece for it: "You gotta get a gimmick." It's a song from one of the best Broadway shows ever, "Gypsy", which opened in 1959. Many ladies of the theatre have headlined as Rose, the ultimate stage mother, including Ethel Merman, Patti LuPone, Angela Lansbury.
"Gypsy", of course, is the story of perhaps America's best known stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee. The song "You gotta get a gimmick" is a clever number where the experienced strippers advise Gypsy on how to succeed in burlesque. It's bold, brassy, and belted out by the strippers who know a thing or two about their craft and exuberantly impart this intelligence to Gypsy, the ingenue.
You can find this song in any search engine. Go now. Then lock yourself in a room that's sound proof. Man, woman, or lubricious teen-age boy, this tune will get you up and into your own bump and grind. Trust me.
Full disclosure of your author's knowledge of strippers.
I first became aware of exotic dancers (which is what strippers now call themselves, the better to get the respect and professional treatment they today insist upon) from a story about my grandfather, Walt. It seems he made a particular point of attending the great Chicago exhibition of 1933, called A Century of Progress International Exposition. Reason? The most prominent exotic dancer of her era, Sally Rand (1904- 1979), was performing de'nude' and every red-blooded American male wanted to see if she did indeed cover the subject with her massive ostrich plumes -- and nothing else. How they longed for indiscretion and a glimpse of flesh... but Sally was a pro, expert in teasing, the consummate flirt, capable of admonishing any over-eager hand with a slap carefully calibrated to the infraction.
Grandpa Walt had, of course, spent his hard-earned money on Sally Rand souvenirs, including a viewfinder with the most provocative pictures the traffic (and Chicago's lax rules) would allow. All the boys in the family had seen these venerable artifacts; it was part of our "masculine" education. The girls were sternly warned away least they see an unacceptable vocation.
Grandpa Walt was as much teased on the matter of Sally Rand as Grandma Victoria was on the matter of her "Two Rudys," Valentino and Vallee. This teasing, these stories, and the arch looks the grandparents shot us never lost their flare or hilarity.
My maternal uncles went to Chicago on carefully planned excursions to the best burlesque (always called bur-lee-que by the aunts) house in the Windy City. Whatever the women of the family may have thought (and none was reticent) it was accepted that "boys will be boys" especially after they had fought their way across Europe in World War II.
What they did at the house of burlesque was never officially acknowledged, but the high secrets always leaked and became the more lurid with each telling.
As for me, I didn't see a stripper in the full glory of her embonpoint until Christmas vacation, 1967. It was my very first day in Paris. I was 21, I was free of teachers, rules and parents, I was in a city that was a byword for indulgence, decadence, and SEX. And I meant to live!
Thus we ended up on the Rue Pigalle at the Follies Bergere, home of plunging necklines, garish colors and oceans of feathers and beads. We must have been drinking, that too was a sure portent of liberation. And no doubt made too much noise as we stood in the back of the theatre. We were living and unmercifully scrutinizing les dames de Pigalle was a necessary part of our travels.
But all of a sudden, one of the ladies literally jumped off the stage and marched purposefully towards -- us. The general tenor of her remarks, delivered in high octane French, was, "Just what do you cockroaches think you're laughing at?" whereupon she dropped her feathers and stood before the titillated, reeling, astonished boys in all her natural allure.
Wow! Abashed and chagrined though we were, we all knew This Was Life. I haven't been back to the Rue Pigalle or the Follies Bergere, either.
Dark, furtive, pathetic, sad.
Whether it was from television or films (but not from actual visits) I picked up a firm impression about the milieux where the exotic dancers sport and preen. I thought of them, if I thought of them at all, as places not of excitement but of lonely people adrift, where simulated joy could not cover the fact there was no joy at all, and where men desert wives, families and pressing bills to shove dollar bills into g-strings, pathetic.
Into this equation,the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the person of Essex Superior Court Justice Maynard Kirpalani has now entered his finding, viz that four former exotic dancers at a Salisbury, Massachusetts establishment called Ten's Show Club were employees, not independent contractors. As such they are entitled to minimum wage and other benefits.
As a result of this ruling each of the aging and not quite so nimble Salomes -- Katherine Sandoval, Noel Van Wagner, Bonnie Griffin, and Amy Bloodgood -- are entitled to more than $40,000 in back pay... and not a moment too soon.
In 2009, Van Wagner told the (Boston) Globe that when she began dancing about 17 years ago, she typically received a modest wage or no salary at all. But she earned so much in tips, $300 to $800 per shift, that she did not mind paying the club between $10-$20 to dance each night.
But the economy severely cut into her tips in recent years. Coupled with higher performance fees and other charges, she said, dancers sometimes earned barely enough to make a shift worthwhile. After she and her colleagues filed suit in 2009, they either quit or were fired. The ladies, however, had been wronged...
Judge Kirpalani wrote in his ruling, "First, aside from keeping their regular customers informed of their performance schedules, there is no evidence that the plaintiffs engaged in any type of private marketing. (They) did not have personal websites, business cards, or professional photographs... They were required to comply with numerous rules and policies established by the club."
But the news for the ladies who now have rights once stripped from them, gets even better. Kirpalani separately granted class certification status to the plaintiffs. This means about 80 current and former dancers can claim damages.
Where will the money come from to pay these damages? I suggest the owners buy jock straps, learn to pose, posture, and work that pole. If they get a good gimmick, they might just pull it off.
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is also a historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
So now that you have Read this
What’s your opinion on this?
DID YOU READ THIS????????
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
YOU Can have for yourself over 278 Articles on YOUR Blog
Call me at
310-618-8107
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Lawrence: The pen is mightier than the sword. Vietnam's Comm...
Lawrence: The pen is mightier than the sword. Vietnam's Comm...: By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
If you're using the Internet to build your business and don't yet have a blog, you're making a very serious error. Bl...
If you're using the Internet to build your business and don't yet have a blog, you're making a very serious error. Bl...
The pen is mightier than the sword. Vietnam's Communist government imprisonspro-democracy blogster... and immediately shows how powerful a blog can be
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
If you're using the Internet to build your business and don't yet have a blog, you're making a very serious error. Blogs are crucial for running a business, including helping grow organizations with a message for the world. To see just how important a blog can be, consider the case of Pham Minh Hoang, 56, a French-Vietnamese math professor. August 10, 2011 he was sentenced to three years in prison. His crime? Belonging to a banned pro-democracy group and publishing an anti-Communist blog.
The facts.
The organization Viet Tan is a US-based advocate of democracy. Pham Minh Hoang is a member. Their goal is a democratic Vietnam. Obviously the in-control Communists take a dim view of people who want to make decisions for themselves and enjoy the basic freedoms and human rights we take for granted. Anyone opposing the government and its rigid system of personal and mind control is immediately dubbed a "terrorist" and imprisoned, or worse.
But the profound desire to live for oneself, to think for oneself, to be able to go where one wants, when one wants... is irresistible. And so the number of anti-government, pro-democracy "terrorists" continues to grow in Vietnam, even as the government engages in acts that prove just how necessary the pro-democracy forces are, with their sublime goal of liberty for all!
The advent of the blog has proven of the utmost usefulness to pro-democracy forces. For the cost of an Internet connection they can get their message out to the world. That message will be exactly as they write it and want it... going out whenever they want. On this basis, Ho Chi Minh City-based Hoang started a blog and published at least 33 articles against Vietnam's one-party Communist system.
It was a bold action... a brave action... a gallant action that put his very life on the line as he lived his principles -- until the totalitarian forces of the government found and arrested him.
Let us be clear: though Hoang was arrested and tried for his "crimes", he was lucky. He does not appear to have been tortured, though perhaps he must endure that, too, in due course.
His trial and defense.
The government's case was this: that Hoang had conspired to overturn the government, first, through his various blog posts; that he held membership in the Viet Tan, a recognized terrorist organization, and that he recruited others to join and subvert the government. These were the same arguments the government put forward in its second high-profile dissident trial in just over a week.
Hoang told the court during his half-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City that he joined Viet Tan, which he insisted was not a terrorist organization, in France where it is not banned. He insisted that he did not at anytime do anything to oppose the government.
Hoang, who was teaching mathematics at a Ho Chi Minh City university at the time of his arrest, said he returned to Vietnam in 2000 to contribute to his country and care for his aged parents.
Viet Tan confirmed Hoang's testimony and reaffirmed that it is an advocate of democracy and peaceful change. The government's attorneys strongly disagreed, saying Hoang had attended a Viet Tan-organized course in Malaysia and was helping recruit new Vietnamese members. And there the matter of Pham Minh Hoang rests --- for the moment.
What all blogsters can learn from this situation:
1) Whether you are running a profit- or not-for-profit organization, you must establish your blog at once.
Remember, a blog enables you to say exactly what you want and disseminate your important message to your designated lists whenever you want without being censured or interferred with by anyone.
2) The more interesting and valuable your blog copy, the more frequently you can publish your blog and the more advertisements you can include.
Smart Internet marketers know that you cannot just email your lists nothing but ad copy every single day, no matter how worthwhile what you offer. The people on your list will quite simply not tolerate this and will signify their strong disapproval by unsubscribing.
Blogs solve this problem by providing your subscribers with excellent copy that is timely, substantial, and of demonstrated interest. Thus, you are able to blog to your list daily -- and publish far more ads, thereby reaping additional profits while simultaneously ensuring long-term readers and relationships.
3) Blogs should be personal, always writing directly to and always for your subscribers.
The best blogs give you the opportunity to establish ongoing interactive communications with your readers. This leads to essential long-term relationships; you know your readers/customers and they know you.Thus, when you say something, they pay close attention, including the products you recommend and sell. People accept and act on your recommendations, because they know you, and trust you.
4) As a blog publisher you have influence that grows with the quality of your information and the number of your subscribers.
Once you've established your blog you are no longer "just" an-emailer. You are a card- carrying member of the most influential group of people on earth, publishers. Act like it!
Your job is to motivate, enthuse, urge, educate, train, excite, and support through the articles, information and, yes, even the ads you publish.
Last words.
We are now in the earliest days of blog creation, maintenance and development. Smart blogsters, and there are thousands of them, are doing today the steps which will guarantee them a lifetime of profit (for for-profit organizations), donations (for not-for-profit organizations), and influence for all.
These days for the blog are like the early days of the settlement of the Western United States and Canada. There determined pioneers saw nothing but opportunity and regarded the necessary work of achieving it as nothing more than what was essential for profits and success. They felt exhilaration, excitement, and privileged to be in that position and so grew their empires with a song in their hearts.
You do the same.
And as for Pham Minh Hoang, my heart and prayers go out to you, a true hero of our often selfish, vulgar, scam-ridden Internet age. You are using this great technology for a worthy cause, the betterment of your nation and its storm-tossed people. We hope for your prompt release and continued dedication to the great cause and what you have already given for it.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is also a historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
So now that you have Read this
What’s your opinion on this?
DID YOU READ THIS????????
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
YOU Can have for yourself over 278 Articles on YOUR Blog
Call me at
310-618-8107
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
If you're using the Internet to build your business and don't yet have a blog, you're making a very serious error. Blogs are crucial for running a business, including helping grow organizations with a message for the world. To see just how important a blog can be, consider the case of Pham Minh Hoang, 56, a French-Vietnamese math professor. August 10, 2011 he was sentenced to three years in prison. His crime? Belonging to a banned pro-democracy group and publishing an anti-Communist blog.
The facts.
The organization Viet Tan is a US-based advocate of democracy. Pham Minh Hoang is a member. Their goal is a democratic Vietnam. Obviously the in-control Communists take a dim view of people who want to make decisions for themselves and enjoy the basic freedoms and human rights we take for granted. Anyone opposing the government and its rigid system of personal and mind control is immediately dubbed a "terrorist" and imprisoned, or worse.
But the profound desire to live for oneself, to think for oneself, to be able to go where one wants, when one wants... is irresistible. And so the number of anti-government, pro-democracy "terrorists" continues to grow in Vietnam, even as the government engages in acts that prove just how necessary the pro-democracy forces are, with their sublime goal of liberty for all!
The advent of the blog has proven of the utmost usefulness to pro-democracy forces. For the cost of an Internet connection they can get their message out to the world. That message will be exactly as they write it and want it... going out whenever they want. On this basis, Ho Chi Minh City-based Hoang started a blog and published at least 33 articles against Vietnam's one-party Communist system.
It was a bold action... a brave action... a gallant action that put his very life on the line as he lived his principles -- until the totalitarian forces of the government found and arrested him.
Let us be clear: though Hoang was arrested and tried for his "crimes", he was lucky. He does not appear to have been tortured, though perhaps he must endure that, too, in due course.
His trial and defense.
The government's case was this: that Hoang had conspired to overturn the government, first, through his various blog posts; that he held membership in the Viet Tan, a recognized terrorist organization, and that he recruited others to join and subvert the government. These were the same arguments the government put forward in its second high-profile dissident trial in just over a week.
Hoang told the court during his half-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City that he joined Viet Tan, which he insisted was not a terrorist organization, in France where it is not banned. He insisted that he did not at anytime do anything to oppose the government.
Hoang, who was teaching mathematics at a Ho Chi Minh City university at the time of his arrest, said he returned to Vietnam in 2000 to contribute to his country and care for his aged parents.
Viet Tan confirmed Hoang's testimony and reaffirmed that it is an advocate of democracy and peaceful change. The government's attorneys strongly disagreed, saying Hoang had attended a Viet Tan-organized course in Malaysia and was helping recruit new Vietnamese members. And there the matter of Pham Minh Hoang rests --- for the moment.
What all blogsters can learn from this situation:
1) Whether you are running a profit- or not-for-profit organization, you must establish your blog at once.
Remember, a blog enables you to say exactly what you want and disseminate your important message to your designated lists whenever you want without being censured or interferred with by anyone.
2) The more interesting and valuable your blog copy, the more frequently you can publish your blog and the more advertisements you can include.
Smart Internet marketers know that you cannot just email your lists nothing but ad copy every single day, no matter how worthwhile what you offer. The people on your list will quite simply not tolerate this and will signify their strong disapproval by unsubscribing.
Blogs solve this problem by providing your subscribers with excellent copy that is timely, substantial, and of demonstrated interest. Thus, you are able to blog to your list daily -- and publish far more ads, thereby reaping additional profits while simultaneously ensuring long-term readers and relationships.
3) Blogs should be personal, always writing directly to and always for your subscribers.
The best blogs give you the opportunity to establish ongoing interactive communications with your readers. This leads to essential long-term relationships; you know your readers/customers and they know you.Thus, when you say something, they pay close attention, including the products you recommend and sell. People accept and act on your recommendations, because they know you, and trust you.
4) As a blog publisher you have influence that grows with the quality of your information and the number of your subscribers.
Once you've established your blog you are no longer "just" an-emailer. You are a card- carrying member of the most influential group of people on earth, publishers. Act like it!
Your job is to motivate, enthuse, urge, educate, train, excite, and support through the articles, information and, yes, even the ads you publish.
Last words.
We are now in the earliest days of blog creation, maintenance and development. Smart blogsters, and there are thousands of them, are doing today the steps which will guarantee them a lifetime of profit (for for-profit organizations), donations (for not-for-profit organizations), and influence for all.
These days for the blog are like the early days of the settlement of the Western United States and Canada. There determined pioneers saw nothing but opportunity and regarded the necessary work of achieving it as nothing more than what was essential for profits and success. They felt exhilaration, excitement, and privileged to be in that position and so grew their empires with a song in their hearts.
You do the same.
And as for Pham Minh Hoang, my heart and prayers go out to you, a true hero of our often selfish, vulgar, scam-ridden Internet age. You are using this great technology for a worthy cause, the betterment of your nation and its storm-tossed people. We hope for your prompt release and continued dedication to the great cause and what you have already given for it.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is also a historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
So now that you have Read this
What’s your opinion on this?
DID YOU READ THIS????????
Please leave a comment!
I hope you Enjoyed this article.
Lawrence Rinke
YOU Can have for yourself over 278 Articles on YOUR Blog
Call me at
310-618-8107
http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Takes the time to check out what Worldprofit offers. You not only learn extensively how to market your business, but how to market yourself as well.
For Leaving a comment you will get
When YOU click and fill the form on the next page.
100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website
http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=uv82n09j
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Lawrence: On the getting, and the getting rid of, tattoos.
Lawrence: On the getting, and the getting rid of, tattoos.: By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I want you to know, right from the start: I am tattoo- phobic, have been my whole life. I'm not, and I mean ever, goi...
I want you to know, right from the start: I am tattoo- phobic, have been my whole life. I'm not, and I mean ever, goi...
On the getting, and the getting rid of, tattoos.
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I want you to know, right from the start: I am tattoo- phobic, have been my whole life. I'm not, and I mean ever, going to give some total stranger with a needle the chance to "improve" upon what God gave me, and so amply. No way.
I wish further to impart this intelligence: I have never been in or (so far as I know) near any tattoo "parlor" or have suffered from even a fleeting moment of belief that I would be better off with such decoration. Tattoos and I don't get along.
Still I am forced to admit that millions of my fellow earth travelers do not agree with me... up to and including having the most grotesque and meretricious designs and colors injected into the skin of any and every body part.
We've all seen such people; indeed, nearly every friend I've got has at least one colorful outrage. This perhaps isn't too surprising. You see, I'm a vintage Baby Boomer and here, as elsewhere, it was Boomers (starting in about 2000) who challenged the status quo and removed tattooing oneself from the odd and outre to the mainstream. It's something we Boomers do.
Eric.
I have an acquaintance named Eric who pops up in my life every few years. Every time he shows up (as he did the other evening) he wants to show me, indeed insists on showing me, his latest tattoos. I demur, but not even a court order with cease and desist all over it could get him to stop, refrain, and cover up. That just ain't gonna happen.
Anyway, Eric arrives, announces his colorful new acquisitions, and strips right then and there... and he does this whether I'm alone or whether Her Majesty the Queen is present. Like I told you, nothing interferes with his presentation, as carefully organized -- and eye-catching -- as that by any Parisian couturier.
Eric's body is a journey through the infrequent ups and often roller-coaster downs of a tumultuous, hard-drinking, self-abusing life. Indeed, his body reads like the plot outlines for a dozen soap operas.
The name of every girl he's "loved" is there, including "Rosetta" his first and so far only wife. It's telling that her name has the smallest print, the blackest color (black being the easiest color to erase, orange and yellow being the most difficult), and the worst location; (I talk like I know, but I'm only guessing that the back of the left leg is not a position of honor. I'm sure some aficionado will correct me if I'm wrong. Perhaps she left him disgruntled that he hadn't given her a better position on the body she was deserting.)
By now, of course, Eric has shown off his tattoos so often to so many he has an established tour of his body. You can get either the short, medium, or full-fledged, see everything, learn everything version. Forced to choose, I always opt for the shortest option; he hasn't, I think, noticed this is my usual selection. I'm thus in for a rough quarter hour, I can tell you... but I grin and bear it; it could, after all, have been longer and worse.
First, as stated, Eric has all the outmoded "love" tattoos.
Most people tattooing their bodies believe that a tattoo of their beloved's name is a) proof of that love and b) a sure sign that love will last, the tattoo a symbol of true and enduring affection. Thus, a visit to the tattoo establishment is a "must" date for lovers of any age; indeed, not beautifying your body so could be construed as a sign the relationship will be fleeting and must certainly give grounds for serious doubts and reservations. What's a poor boy -- or girl -- to do, and so the course of least resistance occurs, fortified by alcohol and hope, a very dangerous combination.
Tattoo in haste, regret at leisure.
Frequent practitioners add one tattoo after another, despite the fact that most are afflicted by the tattoos of long departed lovers who have made the lovey-dovey image a thing of profound (and embittered) irony. Those who tattoo are optimists by nature. They believe
1) tattoos make one more attractive, even irresistible.
2) the feelings they possess today, they will possess tomorrow.
3) in all powerful, love ever lasting and the contentment that comes from telling the world, gloriously if garishly about it in this way.
4) more of the above is necessarily better.
Oh, yes, they are optimists, indeed, every single one of them.
They also believe they can improve upon the most glorious of God's glorious creations, the human body. Thus, they tattoo themselves with human words of great meaning and designs of no meaning whatsoever. They try different colors and different locations. They select classical images and motifs and images and motifs which are new, provocative, and so they think, seductive, erotic. In short, the number of tattoos is limited only by the number of people succumbing to them. And that number is now at least 45,000,000 in the United States alone. Mercy!
But what happens when love dies, you and your best friend quarrel and your favorite cat Fluffy is superceded by another, more winning, more desirable? In short what happens when you wish to banish and erase the now embarrassing (and erroneous) effusion? Aye, there's the rub.
Millions once happily in, now want immediately (and completely) out.
A Harris Interactive Poll puts the tattoo remorse rate at 16 percent in 2008. In 2009, members of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery performed an estimated 61,535 tattoo removal procedures. In short, a whole new industry associated with tattoos is growing, the tattoo removal business. It's booming.
Now hear this: stubborn tattoos can take up to 15 or even more sessions to remove. And it can cost thousands of dollars, a sad fate for something that usually costs under $100 and is meant to showcase your good and loving heart.
But consider this: as arduous as today's removal process is, it used to be worse. Prior to selective tattoo-ink targeting lasers, the options for removal included surgical excision or dermabrasion and ablative lasers. Both physically removed the entire skin where the tattoo was placed and replaced the tattoos with scars and obvious discolorations.
But surely this will never be the fate of Eric and his colorful painted body, or at least I used to think so. However, on his recent visit, he confided a distaste for one of his tattoos; it wasn't for Rosetta, but for a dog named Chipper, who had bit him and run away. Unrequited love is the main reason for total erasure with all its pains and costs. Eric is looking at several expedients, including good honest work to raise the funds. I'm glad to hear it, but I won't believe it until I don't see it anymore.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.
Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
I want you to know, right from the start: I am tattoo- phobic, have been my whole life. I'm not, and I mean ever, going to give some total stranger with a needle the chance to "improve" upon what God gave me, and so amply. No way.
I wish further to impart this intelligence: I have never been in or (so far as I know) near any tattoo "parlor" or have suffered from even a fleeting moment of belief that I would be better off with such decoration. Tattoos and I don't get along.
Still I am forced to admit that millions of my fellow earth travelers do not agree with me... up to and including having the most grotesque and meretricious designs and colors injected into the skin of any and every body part.
We've all seen such people; indeed, nearly every friend I've got has at least one colorful outrage. This perhaps isn't too surprising. You see, I'm a vintage Baby Boomer and here, as elsewhere, it was Boomers (starting in about 2000) who challenged the status quo and removed tattooing oneself from the odd and outre to the mainstream. It's something we Boomers do.
Eric.
I have an acquaintance named Eric who pops up in my life every few years. Every time he shows up (as he did the other evening) he wants to show me, indeed insists on showing me, his latest tattoos. I demur, but not even a court order with cease and desist all over it could get him to stop, refrain, and cover up. That just ain't gonna happen.
Anyway, Eric arrives, announces his colorful new acquisitions, and strips right then and there... and he does this whether I'm alone or whether Her Majesty the Queen is present. Like I told you, nothing interferes with his presentation, as carefully organized -- and eye-catching -- as that by any Parisian couturier.
Eric's body is a journey through the infrequent ups and often roller-coaster downs of a tumultuous, hard-drinking, self-abusing life. Indeed, his body reads like the plot outlines for a dozen soap operas.
The name of every girl he's "loved" is there, including "Rosetta" his first and so far only wife. It's telling that her name has the smallest print, the blackest color (black being the easiest color to erase, orange and yellow being the most difficult), and the worst location; (I talk like I know, but I'm only guessing that the back of the left leg is not a position of honor. I'm sure some aficionado will correct me if I'm wrong. Perhaps she left him disgruntled that he hadn't given her a better position on the body she was deserting.)
By now, of course, Eric has shown off his tattoos so often to so many he has an established tour of his body. You can get either the short, medium, or full-fledged, see everything, learn everything version. Forced to choose, I always opt for the shortest option; he hasn't, I think, noticed this is my usual selection. I'm thus in for a rough quarter hour, I can tell you... but I grin and bear it; it could, after all, have been longer and worse.
First, as stated, Eric has all the outmoded "love" tattoos.
Most people tattooing their bodies believe that a tattoo of their beloved's name is a) proof of that love and b) a sure sign that love will last, the tattoo a symbol of true and enduring affection. Thus, a visit to the tattoo establishment is a "must" date for lovers of any age; indeed, not beautifying your body so could be construed as a sign the relationship will be fleeting and must certainly give grounds for serious doubts and reservations. What's a poor boy -- or girl -- to do, and so the course of least resistance occurs, fortified by alcohol and hope, a very dangerous combination.
Tattoo in haste, regret at leisure.
Frequent practitioners add one tattoo after another, despite the fact that most are afflicted by the tattoos of long departed lovers who have made the lovey-dovey image a thing of profound (and embittered) irony. Those who tattoo are optimists by nature. They believe
1) tattoos make one more attractive, even irresistible.
2) the feelings they possess today, they will possess tomorrow.
3) in all powerful, love ever lasting and the contentment that comes from telling the world, gloriously if garishly about it in this way.
4) more of the above is necessarily better.
Oh, yes, they are optimists, indeed, every single one of them.
They also believe they can improve upon the most glorious of God's glorious creations, the human body. Thus, they tattoo themselves with human words of great meaning and designs of no meaning whatsoever. They try different colors and different locations. They select classical images and motifs and images and motifs which are new, provocative, and so they think, seductive, erotic. In short, the number of tattoos is limited only by the number of people succumbing to them. And that number is now at least 45,000,000 in the United States alone. Mercy!
But what happens when love dies, you and your best friend quarrel and your favorite cat Fluffy is superceded by another, more winning, more desirable? In short what happens when you wish to banish and erase the now embarrassing (and erroneous) effusion? Aye, there's the rub.
Millions once happily in, now want immediately (and completely) out.
A Harris Interactive Poll puts the tattoo remorse rate at 16 percent in 2008. In 2009, members of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery performed an estimated 61,535 tattoo removal procedures. In short, a whole new industry associated with tattoos is growing, the tattoo removal business. It's booming.
Now hear this: stubborn tattoos can take up to 15 or even more sessions to remove. And it can cost thousands of dollars, a sad fate for something that usually costs under $100 and is meant to showcase your good and loving heart.
But consider this: as arduous as today's removal process is, it used to be worse. Prior to selective tattoo-ink targeting lasers, the options for removal included surgical excision or dermabrasion and ablative lasers. Both physically removed the entire skin where the tattoo was placed and replaced the tattoos with scars and obvious discolorations.
But surely this will never be the fate of Eric and his colorful painted body, or at least I used to think so. However, on his recent visit, he confided a distaste for one of his tattoos; it wasn't for Rosetta, but for a dog named Chipper, who had bit him and run away. Unrequited love is the main reason for total erasure with all its pains and costs. Eric is looking at several expedients, including good honest work to raise the funds. I'm glad to hear it, but I won't believe it until I don't see it anymore.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.
Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Friday, September 2, 2011
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