Tattoo Sleeves, 47 Cents and One Sweet Ride

I had quite the fun filled weekend. Laura flew out from Nebraska to see me and we packed as many activities into an LA weekend as humanly possible. For those who don't know, Laura is the girl who was kind enough to let me smooch her on New Year's Eve, as photographically documented in my previous post. Lucky me, she let me smooch her some more on this visit.

Dinner and comedy at the Friar's Club, sun and fun (sans the sun) at the beach in Santa Monica, another Midnight Ride through streets of LA, an art/fashion/rock show to celbrate Bike Winter in LA, the Hollywood walk of fame... I'm still recovering.

A few things I've pondered from this weekend:

TATTOO SLEEVES
Tattoos are trendy. You can't deny it. From counter-culture hipsters to middle-aged Harley owners, everyone seems to be getting inked to display their coolness. And while I've often thought about getting one (or more) myself, I've somehow avoided it. I'm more of an individual among my peers for NOT having a tattoo.

It's almost a cliche to see someone sporting a "unique" tattoo. It was around twelve years ago the first time I noticed a woman with a tattoo on her lower back. I thought it was pretty sexy then. Now you're just as likely to see some sort of tattoo creeping up from the back of a pair of low-riders as you are to see the top of a thong. My favorite tattoo of this type belonged to a former girlfriend of a buddy of mine. She had the Nike Swoosh tattoo'd on her lowerback, giving new meaning to the slogan, "Just Do It."

I've noticed more and more people are getting full-coverage tattoos, often the full sleeve. This is when all the skin on your arm is tattoo'd leaving no un-colored skin and giving the appearance of a "sleeve" of tattoos. Since moving to the suburban hell known as Valencia I've noticed many people with these sleeves. People who have spent a lot of money and time and experienced a lot of pain to cultivate an image that differs from their actual lifestyle. Driving a $30,000 suv and living in a $300,000 condo doesn't make you a bad-ass. Carefully coiffed hair and trendy clothes that are pre-aged for a premium price don't make you cool. I'm guessing that most of the people I see with these tattoos have never worked for minimum wage, much less scraped by paycheck to paycheck. Presumptuous on my part, but that's how I see it. These people are posers. And that's probably the real reason why I don't get a tattoo. I know I'm just not "that" cool.

In contrast, I know a guy, Mike, who is the lead singer for the band Ruin the Ending. He's got a bunch of tattoos, but let's look at his life. He's close to my age and moved to LA for the opportunities it provided his band. He slaves as a bike mechanic for what is likely a less-than-modest wage. Until recently he was living in a closet. Seriously, his bedroom was a closet in a bedroom. AND he fronts a rock band. A loud, no excuses, no synthisizers and no pussies rock band. It doesn't irritate me that he has tattoos. I figure he's earned them.

So take note, if you spend your day as a car salesman or a cpa or an IT guy, you probably should think twice before you tat' up.

47 CENTS
While walking the Walk of Fame in Hollywood with Laura we were approached by a scruffy girl of about 20 years of age. She had dredded locks and was wearing dirty clothes and carrying what was probably all of her belongings with her. She said she needed 47 cents and asked if we could help her out. Laura flipped her a couple quarters and as I was handing her fifty more cents I inquired why she needed exactly 47 cents. She stammered a response that she just needed some cash and never mentioned anything specific. A little while later we saw her walking with an equally scruffy looking friend. We overheard the friend ask a stranger for 47 cents. What a hook!

If you think about it, it's perfect. Saying you NEED 47 cents creates the sense that a specific purpose is intended for the money, it isn't just a hand-out. Is it a phone call? A sandwich? A forty-ouncer? Whatever it is, the needy individual is a mere 47 cents away from achieving their monetary goal. And 47 cents isn't much. Less than two quarters. Pocket change.

This had to be one of the best pan-handling queries I've experienced. I commend those two yound ladies. I'm sure they didn't think of it, but they certainly were working it. My only criticism was that they had no response to my question. I figure either lie, tell me you're going to buy a pack of cigarettes, or come clean and just say you're fishing for change.

ONE SWEET RIDE
Laura and I spotted this van on the way home Saturday night. Words really can't describe how crazy and cool it was.