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Do tattoos make you feel different? Most people say they do not feel any different, but some people do.
The results of a survey in 2008 showed:
· 31% of people said they felt sexier with a tattoo
· 36% said they felt more rebellious
· 19% felt attractive and strong
How will feel when you get your first tattoo? There is a one in three chance you will feel sexier and around the same degree of chance you will feel more rebellious. You might fall into all groups and feel sexier, more rebellious, stronger and attractive - a powerful combination. If that could be guaranteed then more people would be lining up to get inked.
Angelina Jolie seems to be one person who embodies all groups. She is seen as sexy, strong and attractive. She is rebellious to the extent she does not let convention dictate the way she lives. So, do her tattoos make her feel this way or are they simply a sign of her personality, her persona? Maybe it is a mixture of both.
Some people simply feel good about their tattoo. Scarlett Johansson has a brightly coloured picture of a sunrise over water painted on her arm. She says it makes her feel happy. Lara Bingle, Australian model, has "Wish you were here" tattooed on the inside of her wrist, in remembrance of her father. No doubt she derives a sense of affection and comfort when she looks at those words. Others have done similar things - Kate Cassidy, singer and actress, has the year her grandmother was born written on her hip. This is certainly a way to remember loved ones and to feel their presence, which, in turn, makes you feel good. It could also be a source of strength during difficult times.
Do you care what others think? Do you want to be regarded as a bit of a rebel? Over half the people without a tattoo regard people with tattoos as more rebellious while just under half think people with tattoos are less attractive. You want to be sexier? 39% of people without tattoos say people with tattoos are less sexy but then we have already found about a third of people with tattoos feel sexier. If you are too concerned about others' opinions you may decide not to tattoo.
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Scarlett Johansson inadvertently made herself the unofficial STD testing Los Angeles spokesperson when she offered her opinion on how frequently people should be checked for HIV. In an interview, Scarlett spoke of how she considered it 'disgusting' and 'irresponsible' that people neglect to get checked for STDs.
For a short time, the actress and top-earning Hollywood star brought the media spotlight onto the social issue of regular STD testing. Los Angeles resident, Johansson told an interviewer that she gets tested for HIV every six months. Furthermore, she stated how she thinks poorly of people who don't try or care to know about their sexual health, saying that to get a regular STD test "is part of being a decent human".
Getting tested twice a year might seem exceptionally frequent to some people. Could being motivated to get tested so often indicate that the safe sex practices in Hollywood are otherwise lax or inadequate? Knowing the reputation for fast-and-loose living that Hollywood has, Scarlett was quick to point out that she is far from promiscuous, saying "[people] are mistaken for thinking I'm sexually available in some way."
Lifestyles and speculation aside, Johansson has raised the profile and reduced the stigma of STD testing in Los Angeles and beyond. The actress's comments motivated the British press to print statistics from the National AIDS Trust, which stated that there were as many as seven thousand new cases of HIV diagnosed in the UK in 2006. "Diseases will continue to spread unless we stop stigmatizing" said a spokesperson, adding that responsible behavior is the proper use of condoms and getting an STD test whenever you put yourself at risk.
L.A. Charities and Projects
Back on this side of the Atlantic, citizens can now find free STD testing in Los Angeles County.
APLA (which stands for Aids Project Los Angeles) is a disease prevention and advocacy service whose statistics show that there are between 42,400 - 46,600 people living with the knowledge and burden of a positive HIV test in LA.
This alarming figure is taken from the "Program of HIV Epidemiology and STD testing" by Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, an official study conducted two years ago, in 2008. Worryingly, the same study suggests that there is a significant portion of the local population (about 15,000) that does not know that they are carrying the virus.
Both APLA and the UK's National AIDS Trust agree that the issue of undiagnosed carrier is partly because of the shame, reluctance, apathy and stigma surrounding getting an STD test. In Los Angeles, APLA launched the 'What you don't know CAN kill you' in 1991 to try to encourage testing uptake.
American Testing
Looking further back, a 1985 country-wide poll placed 72% of American in favor of obligatory STD testing, which sounds encouraging. However, the same survey also suggested that half of our nation agree with quarantine for HIV carriers. Still more alarming is that 15 percent of Americans consider it a good idea to tattoo people who have the disease.
One of the fastest changing trends over time is a woman's eyebrows. Thick eyebrows used to look manly, unkempt, and unclean. Lately, however, they have made a comeback. All of a sudden, women everywhere are growing out their over plucked brows in an attempt to reclaim their full and beautiful shape. Thick eyebrows are splashed all over the pages of Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair, Lucky, and Cosmopolitan. Stars such as Penelope Cruz, Selma Hayek, Allison Lohman, and Scarlett Johansson embody the look, and women who are without can't figure out a way to achieve the same effect.
Luckily, as with most things, a little bit of patience, time, and care are all it takes to achieve the look that has become so popular.
First, only tweeze the hair below your eyebrows when shaping. If you try and tweeze the hairs on top, you often end up looking imbalanced and unaligned.
Remember that most people do not need extensive reshaping. The more you tweeze, the more you make it so that you have to tweeze daily. Try to look at tweezing as a way to enhance and define, not a way to remove and redo.
Tweeze immediately after a hot shower or bath. That is when your follicles are the most loose, and it will help keep the event as painless as possible.
Sometimes you will accidentally create gaps in your eyebrows by tweezing. Also, when growing your eyebrows, you will inevitably notice odd patches where the hair is still coming in. Find a shade of color that matches your eyebrows exactly, and use that to fill in your problem areas.
Many women swear by clear or colored eyebrow gels that can be used to keep your brows in place. The brush looks similar to a mascara brush, and is used to comb your eyebrows in one direction.
To create your best shape, see a professional esthetician. They can sculpt your first look for you, which leaves you with the job of maintaining that shape with tweezers over time. It is not suggested to attempt to shape on your own, as that often leads to mishaps and disasters.
When dying your hair, consider that brows should often be several shades darker than your hair color. To best compliment your coloring, consider the best shades of eyeliner and eye shadow as well. Brown brows often look best with green and soft pinks for shadow, and grey and browns for eyeliner. Black brows look best with grey and charcoal for shadow, and black for eyeliner. Blond brows look best with very little makeup-perhaps lights shades of brown and blue for shadow, and little to no eyeliner.
