"You should drop your underwear lower," the spousal unit said. "You aren't showing any crack."

Hello? Hellllloooooo?

Never, ever hand the man in your life a digital camera and begin divesting yourself of clothing.

They Get Ideas.

That's all I'm going to say about that.

So this gives you a rough idea of the tattoo. This is the worst it's going to look because it's now covered with a scaly, lizard-shaped scab in the tat colours.

Yes, you're basically looking at a very colourful scab on the buttal region of a 51-year-old woman.

Well.

I'm sure you'll be mentioning your gratitude for THAT in tonight's prayers, eh?

It's not quite as orange as it looks here and the camera just couldn't reproduce the lovely burgundy that was used for accents, but you get the general drift. Oh, and the goanna's upper arm and paw are a bit distorted because I was doing a mock flexdown, flaunting my emerging gymtastic back muscles for the spousal unit's benefit.

Oddly enough, he seemed more interested in the gluteus maximus.

Must be the tattoo.

In about two weeks I'll molt the scab and the tat itself will surface, a tone or two lighter than it is right now. Five years from now, if my wrist tat is any indication, it will have faded to half as bright as it is now, which will be just perfect.

If it doesn't fade, I will probably be forced by law to wear some sort of "Don't Look Directly At My Butt Because It Could Cause Retinal Damage" sign when I disrobe in public places such as my gym.

Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

---Marn

P.S.--If you're doing any of your Christmas shopping at Amazon this year, why not do it through Blue Sphere? Five per cent of what you spend will be donated by Amazon to Blue Sphere, and will be given to the Foster Parents Plan of Canada.

Yep, you get to make a large corporation cough up five per cent of its profits AND at no cost to yourself you get to help some poor kids out. What's not to love about that, eh?