You guys are all named after flowers? Nice.
I might get the Japanese kanji for light somewhere. MIGHT. Reason why is my name means "light".

Oh, that's cool. My older sister is named Azure, but her middle name is Rose, hence the blue rose. So we all have flowers in our names at least.

Nice. I really like painting Japanese kanji...partially because of Yu-Gi-Oh :XD I got into it because of the attributes being in Japanese.
I can be such a dork sometimes.

Japanese kanji looks so elegant. I have a calligraphy set actually. I should break it out sometime.

Some of the international students from Japan (and their friends) were having a donation drive where if someone gave a donation, they could pick either an origami swan or having their name written in Japanese calligraphy. I chose my name in calligraphy when I donated. It's nice. ^^

Oh, that's nice. For the tsunami/earthquake relief, I guess?

Yep. It felt nice to help out. :)

And you got neat calligraphy! Bonus.

You have a very pretty name, Fairy!

Those of you who are getting tattoos, just remember that you will have it for the rest of your life. Just be very careful.

Oh, I know. I don't think I'll ever actually get one. Besides, I think my Mom would freak out and possibly have a heart attack.

My parents said I could get a tattoo if I 1) paid for it with my own money and 2) were willing to have it with me for the rest of my life.

That sounds reasonable. My Mom doesn't even want me to get my ears pierced. Just a regular piercing, not even cartilage. She has a long list of excuses. "You'll scar! What about infection? Your ears are so beautiful! What if you ruin them? You should get an acupuncturist to do it so you don't interrupt your energy lines!"

However... I'm going off to new College in the Spring. And I *might* just come back with some new holes.

Your mom sounds a little like my aunt :) She flipped out when my cousin showed her that he had an earring on his ear. Turns out it was just a practical joke. The earring was a clip-on :XD

If you do decide to get earrings, I advise that you routinely clean your piercing with antiseptic :yes: I'm not sure if it's the same for all piercing specialists (don't know if that's what they're called :XP), but the ones I've been to always give me a bottle of antiseptic solution. I was bad and didn't clean my earring holes regularly like I was told to and they ended up getting infected, lol :lol: In the end, I had to remove my earrings and the hole started closing up in less than a day. $40 bucks down the drain :sweat:

Wow, that's quick to close up. Yeah, I'm definitely going to make sure they don't get infected. That wouldn't be nice.

My father did not believe in ear piercings.
So I had to wait until I went to college to get mine done.

A friend did it, and they did get infected.

To this day I have to be very careful with them.

What kind of earrings did you first get, Granny? :)

I've heard you're supposed to get stainless steel, or similar.

I always use gold earrings.
Then I do not get infections.

@ Waifey: Do NOT get your ears pierced at Wal-Mart. They do it for cheap, but that doesn't mean it's done well. That's how I got my ears pierced the first time for ten bucks. It went well, I was taking care of my piercings, and when the time was up I could change my earrings. Well, one day a few hairs got wrapped around the earrings I was wearing at the time and the piercing got infected, so I had to take those earrings out and replace them with the ones that were used for the piercing. Well, not only did my one hole not heal, the infection got worse. And then the OTHER hole got infected as well, so I had to take the earrings out completely and let the holes heal up. Turns out not only did they not use surgical steel, they were gold-plated. The earrings themselves were only surgical steel GRADE, which is different from surgical steel. They weren't sterile, which is part of why the infection in the one ear was worse, and the other ear got infected anyway.

Second time I got it done RIGHT at a tattoo/body piercing parlor, where they're trained and licensed to do it. Thankfully the holes had been closed long enough so that he could put the new piercing where the old one was. I felt a little lightheaded right after, but if I believe correctly that's normal for a lot of people. So, yeah, word of wisdom: don't EVER get your ears pierced at Wal-Mart.

Yeah, wasn't planning on it. I never go to WalMart anyways if I can help it. They creep me out.

Not a bad policy on your part. And everything's cheap as hell.
One time I literally bought a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards there that were in SPANISH. And the package was in ENGLISH.
And the last laptop cooler I had was from there...and it didn't last a month.

Oh, I shop at WalMart all the time.
I have found that things are made cheaply in general these days, so I may as well pay less for them. This works well for things like clothes.

I never put a pair of earrings in without soaking them first in alcohol.
That seems to keep the infections down.

Hm, I'll have to try that one.

When it comes to tech I avoid Wal-Mart at all costs. I'll go to Staples before I go to anywhere else. If not Staples, then Best Buy. And if all else fails, Radio Shack. Overall I prefer to go to Staples though; they generally know what they're talking about.

For tech items, we tend to shop at Best Buy.

We used to go to CompUSA, but they went under.

Our TV we bought at that tech place that was comparable to Best Buy (my memory is so terrible), and we bought an extended warranty.
Unfortunately, that business went bankrupt, and when we needed to use the warranty, they were gone!

The Walmarts I've been to don't deal with returns well and the staff were very rude...also, the place creeps me out. It has this feeling of empty desperation...