The first was about a guy in California that held down his 7yr old son while another gang member tattooed a gang sign on the kid’s hip.  From my understanding, the guy could have faced a life sentence if the judge determined the tattoo was a permanent and painful disfigurement.  Instead he faces up to seven year in prison for cruel and inhumane treatment of a child.  The tattoo is now being removed. 

Then there is the couple in Georgia that were arrested for using a homemade tattoo gun which used a guitar string instead of a needle to tattoo little crosses on the hands of six of their seven children.  They were charged with cruelty to children, reckless conduct, and tattooing.

My tattoo artist also mentioned hearing about a guy who killed his kid by tattooing a body sleeve on the kid and his system went into shock.  But I haven’t been able to find anything on that so it may just be gossip/rumor.

I have read the arguement that it isn’t different than piercing your kids ears, but I tend to disagree a little.  For a lot of people, if you remove a piercing, the hole closes up.  Tattoos don’t just wash away.  You can have them removed, but I heard that is more painful than getting the tattoo in the first place.

My two biggest problems with these parents are 1) the kids aren’t old enough to decide if they want something permanent like that on their bodies and 2) the tattoos were not done professionally.  A homemade tattoo gun using a guitar string is not hygienic and adds unneeded health risks.  And in the case of the 7yr old, if the tattoo wasn’t removed, he would have had an association with a gang permanently inked into his skin which could cause issues with his life.  But that is why I think those parents are tattooing idiots.

Maybe this wouldn’t be as great as I initially thought.  If my mind wondered then so would the subject matter of what was being written.  My mind drifts too much.  Then I would be spending more time editting and rewriting.  And I am too lazy for that.

I should just find an artist to draw out my ideas as graphic novels or learn to draw myself.

Captain Heroic vs Professor Ubel

Original Tattoo

It was wasn’t boar that caused his current condition, but the fall off the cliff and into the thorn bushes while running away from the animal that he failed to kill and only pissed off that left him worse for wear.

Definitely fishing tomorrow, he thought. Fishing seemed more like the pirate thing to do anyways.

Here is a break down of some foods and how to increase bioavailability.

Green Tea – Green tea contains catechins which may be tied to the teas reported health benefits.  The problem is that catechins are not very stable in places like your guts.  By aing lemon to you tea, you increase the amount available for digestion.

Iron – There are haem iron and non-haem iron in foods.  Red meat contains haem iron which is easily absorbed.  Foods like spinach contain non-haem iron.  By drinking something like orange juice or another source of vitamin C with the meal, the non-haem iron are turned into haem iron.  Also calcium and phenols (found in tea and coffee) get in the way of iron absorption and should not be consumed with high iron foods if you want the iron.

Black Pepper – Black pepper contains piperine which acts an an anti-depressant, pain reliever, antacid, and can help with brain function and sleep.  It also helps increase bioavailability in foods. 

Tomatoes - Tomatoes contain lycopene which is another one of those help antioxidants.  But by cooking your tomatoes, the lycopene turns to large amounts of trans-lycopene which are absorbed more readily.  This also is the case with carrots and beta-carotene.  The one down side is the cooking process decreases the amoutn of vitamin C.

Source: http://www.wisebread.com/bioavailability-how-to-get-more-nutrients-from-your-food

First, I finally replaced my dead Toshiba laptop with an Acer netbook.  Not a bad little machine.  I replaced the 1GB RAM with 2GB and it is running XP.  I would love to see how it runs with Windows 7 on it though.  I am going to have to track down a copy.  It only have a 10” screen, but I believe netbooks are supposed to be smaller devices and not the size of a laptop.  It has build in wireless and Bluetooth and a slop for a 3G card if I wanted broadband access from someone like AT&T.  Overall, it does everything I want and need it to do.  Now to just get writing.  I was using not having something like a netbook to write on as my accuse for not writing.  Well, I fixed that problem.

Speaking of writing, I submitted my Super Hero vs Evil Doer story for magazine publication.  I have been rejected twice now.  The first one was a form letter reject which is fine with me, but it wasn’t even on a full sheet of paper.  I got reject on half a sheet of paper.  The second one was to a magazine in Australia and was electronic submission which saved me money.  I did get some feedback that second time.  They were too sure about the overly generic character names and title.  IT was supposed to be generic, but maybe that point was lost.  I will take a look at the story one last time and find someone else to submit it to for publication.  I don’t even want money for it; I just want it out there for people to read.  If rejected a third time, I will post it up on my site for everyone to read and comment on.  It will then go into the group of stories I will compile into a self published book which I will try and sell at the Emerald City Comicon on of these years.

I also still looking for some artists that may be interested in taking some of my stories and drawing them out in a graphic novel form.  If you are interested, let me know.