#their time on voyages is literally bought by the captains

[megarywrites]

my book is making me so sad rn

[ltwilliammowett]

The Zong affair

J.M.W. Turner took up a serious incident in 1840 and expressed it in a painting. The incident was the so-called Zong Affair, which changed the attitude towards the British slave trade.

The Slave Ship, by J.M.W. Turner, 1840 (x) 

The Zong was until 1777 a Dutch slaver under the name Zorg and after her carpering she belonged to William Gregson and George Case, two well known merchants in the city of Liverpool and former mayors of the city. She sailed from the west coast of Africa on September 6, 1781 with 442 Africans bought as slaves on board, which made the ship completely overloaded and so she did not have sufficient supplies for such a large number of slaves. The poor people were chained in pairs, right leg and left leg, right hand and left hand, each of them having less space than a man in a coffin. The journey took nearly two months, and during that time most of the slaves were malnourished and suffering from disease. Captain Collingwood had lost his way in the Caribbean, which further prolonged the voyage. 60 slaves and 7 crew members had already died, and Collingwood knew that those who survived in poor condition would not fetch a high price on the slave market. He decided to use the lack of fresh water as an excuse to note that his "crew was endangered" to justify throwing 133 living slaves overboard. A reason that had a sinister background.

55 more were thrown overboard on November 29, and another 42 on November 30. A heavy rainstorm the following day provided fresh water, but another 26 slaves were thrown overboard that day, and another 10 jumped in to defy the captain, hugging each other as they sank. It was later claimed that the slaves were thrown overboard for the safety of the ship, as the ship did not have enough water to keep them alive for the rest of the voyage. This claim was later refuted as the ship still had 420 gallons (1910 liters) of water when it arrived in Jamaica on December 22. Let's move on to the reason why Captain Collingwood threw the people overboard alive. Behind it was an insurance policy. Because if a slave died on board, the insurers would not pay, seeing this as "poor cargo management." They would only pay the full sum insured if a slave went overboard alive. The owners demanded £30 per head from the insurers, which was disputed. The owners' lawyer argued, "These people are not charged with murder at all, there is not the slightest allegation”. After the insurers appealed, Lord Chief Justice Manfield upheld the shipowners: "The question left to the jury was whether it was necessary that the slaves should be thrown into the sea, for they had no doubt that the case of the slaves was the same as if horses had been thrown overboard." This ruling that removal was lawful led to a significant turning point in abolitionist campaigns.

The nondenominational Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in 1787. The following year, Parliament passed the first law regulating the slave trade, the Slave Trade Act of 1788, to limit the number of slaves per ship. In 1791, Parliament prohibited insurance companies from compensating shipowners when enslaved Africans were murdered by being thrown overboard. A monument to enslaved Africans murdered on Zong was erected in Black River, Jamaica.

[fearxtoxfreedom]

NAME : Alessio AGE : 19 GENDER : Male SEXUALITY : Bisexual ENERGY : Martial Arts HEIGHT : 183 см REGION : Sunset IDENTITY : Protector of the Outer City QUOTE : "I once forgot about the person behind the mask...Now I remember."

WORLD CONNECTIONS :

MILADY : Alessio lives in the liberal Outer City, and was only vaguely wary of the ruler in the Inner City. However, since Biron lost an arm in a run-in with Milady, she became one of Alessio's enemies. BIRON : They met over trying to save a cat, and became blood brothers. They always talk as if they don't like each other, but Alessio works very hard on Biron's mechanical arm, and Biron often accompanies Alessio on his voyages. MAYENE : An ally in the journey to find ol' Captain Red Hawk. It'd be nice if she could work a bit harder though. ALLAIN : Allain's new job is to keep an eye on the Red Hawk. What will happen between him, Mayene, and Alessio? The story continues. DOILA : "She snuck onto my ship and hid in a crate until she was discovered. Turns out that our stowaway is of the merfolk mentioned in the logs. Incredible!" MARCO POLO : Alessio encountered Marco Polo, an anomalic lordling, while investigating the Red Hawk, and learned more about the ship as well as the old Captain. HEINO : Alessio initially thought that since Heino's a member of an Arkana clan, power and profits would be the only thing on his mind. Much to his surprise, Heino's as passionate as Alessio when it comes to protecting Navenia, and even might have a hint of that Red Hawk spirit. LUNA : Alessio once saved a cat and befriended it. Later on, he found out that the cat, Bailey, belonged to the Moon Clan. Bailey often goes to Alessio for free food, and Alessio escorts Bailey home each time, and happened to meet its owner.

BIOGRAPHY :

Alessio, who lived in the Outer City of Navenia, was but an average individual, till in a life-changing moment, he took on the commission from the legendary Captain Red Hawk and started on a new path as a hero in disguise. The real legendary "Captain Red Hawk" had single-handedly protected the Outer City from pirates. Although Alessio had an ingenuity that provided him with a few tricks up his sleeve, he knew he was a far cry from Captain's fearsome reputation. To put on a perfect hero act, Alessio honed his skills tirelessly, doing his best to imitate the old Captain in every way possible, but he still fell short. That is, until one day, when his mask was shattered and his cover was blown. Only when the folks in the Outer City still accepted him despite not being the real thing, did he realize that a hero is recognized not by their name, but by their deeds. Today, folks in the Outer City continue to call him Captain Red Hawk. Though he had now officially inherited the name, he was no longer interested in trying to copy the original Captain. Instead, he began to accept himself and started exploring ways to become a unique Red Hawk. With his mask strapped to his waist, he continued to patrol the Outer City every day with his cannon on his shoulder, researching newfangled shells and unique combat methods in order to protect the peace. Anyone in a tight spot could be sure to rely on his kindness and determination, even if it meant confronting the powerful and ruthless Governess. And thus, in the sailors' shanty, a legendary new Captain Red Hawk was born... But deep down, Alessio continued to look forward to the day when he would see the old Captain again to tell him that he had not dishonored the Red Hawk name.

SHORT STORIES BENEATH CUT

IMPOSTER :

Alessio once chanced upon a counterfeit at a flea market.

It was a shell bearing the name Captain Red Hawk. It bore a high price tag, he bought it anyway, and it became his prized possession. Little did he know that he had gotten his hands on a ticking bomb—one that literally blew up half his room while he was asleep.

Half a room wasn't such a big deal, and even if it had blown up the entire room, there wasn't much that needed saving. But the shrapnel from the explosion was clearly engraved with "Property of the Arkana Navy," tying it to the powerful consul and her arsenal. This meant that it had nothing to do with Captain Red Hawk from the Outer City.

After that, he gathered his few remaining possessions and went to stay with his brother-in-arms, Biron. At that time, Biron hadn't yet lost an arm or earned the nickname "Steele."

This also gave Biron, always the butt of Alessio's jokes, the opportunity to poke fun at him instead.

"Well, well, since you've only got fragments of that ridiculously expensive cannon left, isn't it high time you let me have a look at your precious treasure?"

The words of gloating reached Alessio's ears as soon as he stepped foot inside. He hurled his possessions in an attempt to shut Biron up, then made a beeline for the bed, immediately making himself at home.

"Alright, so I got my hands on a lousy counterfeit."

"Just admit it—there's no difference between an impostor and a lousy counterfeit. They're both fakes."

"Of course there's a difference!"

Alessio took the shrapnel from around his neck and showed him that the words "Arkana Navy" had been sanded down, as if they had never existed.

"A great impostor always means business. If you're going to fake something, you might as well go all the way."

"Who cares what the truth is as long as it's buried deep enough?"

Alessio never thought he'd see the day when he'd become an impostor.

Dressed in a red coat and Captain Red Hawk's mask with a cannon tucked under his arm, he bore a striking resemblance to the man who had single-handedly repelled a fleet of pirates. Little did anyone know that under that familiar outfit was a complete nobody.

Threatening gangs, defeating pirates, and driving away ruffians... Getting started wasn't hard at all. Just the sight of Captain Red Hawk coming their way was enough to scare off troublemakers. Before, he'd jump right into the fray to defend the weak, but more often than not, he'd be the one getting beat up. Performing heroic deeds was much easier with this new hero getup. Every time he set out in his Captain Red Hawk mask, his disguise was foolproof, no matter who set eyes on him.

Only he knew just how much he lacked.

To truly impersonate a known hero like Captain Red Hawk, he needed the strength and skill associated with the name. This was Alessio's second task in becoming a great impostor.

He'd encountered the most ferocious predators in the waters, witnessed gladiators in the arena, seen every Sunset sunrise while honing his artillery skills, and even had his explosives blow up in his face. Through intense physical training, imitating all known mannerisms, lowering his voice, sharpening his artillery skills, and implementing any and every possible rumor... His muscles grew and he gained a few more scars. His good-humored smile disappeared beneath the mask, replaced instead by a tense and unsmiling mouth.

He grew accustomed to playing the part of Captain Red Hawk, so much so that Alessio became a distant memory.

"Where's the Red Hawk, Captain?"

"The crew took her out on an expedition. When they return, they'll come bearing a treasure that'll amaze the Outer City."

—He hoped that they would return with good news for the Outer City. And when that happened, he'd be able to return to his life before he took the Captain's name.

"Captain, fancy a drink?"

"Thanks, but I've got something to attend to. I'll be off."

—Alessio had never gotten drunk before, and the Captain's drinking capacity wasn't something he could fake... More importantly, it wasn't worth risking his disguise. He had to remain watchful.

"I recruited a lad with good mechanical skills and sent him on an expedition with the Red Hawk."

—No one had asked why the real Alessio seemed to have disappeared yet, but Biron and his mercenary buddies were bound to return at any time, so it didn't hurt to set some groundwork.

"Don't worry, Red Hawk is here!"

—Even if it was uttered by an impostor, it would still bring some measure of peace to the Outer City.

In the early morning on the pier, a determined figure leaped down into the crowd. Through the sudden haze, the ruffians had only time to make out a flash of red before being blinded by cannon fire. As soon as they came to and opened their eyes, they'd become sitting ducks in the water.

Though the haze still lingered on the now calm bay, Captain Red Hawk was long gone.

A great impostor, having been in disguise all day, will remain in disguise.

Before the old Captain returns, he'll keep playing his part to protect the Outer City. After all, did it really matter who was behind the mask?

This was something he had come to realize as an impostor.

THE REAL DEAL :

Alessio never expected that his cover would be blown, not by the pirates attacking the Outer City, or by his frequent shooting practice, but by his brother-in-arms.

After returning from his six-month stint, the mercenary must have read the farewell letter Alessio had left for him. He seemed to have bought the story, because he had gone around the Miracle Tavern bragging about having a "promising brother-in-arms who hung out with Captain Red Hawk."

After Alessio found an abandoned house by the seaside to live in, he never once returned to his old house or showed his face around his old neighborhood.

In order to perfectly imitate the old Captain's mannerisms, he even went to painstaking lengths to lower his voice. On time after a fight, even Biron joined the crowd in shouting "long live Captain Red Hawk!"

No matter which way you looked at it, his disguise was foolproof.

That was, until his brother-in-arms confronted the Governess Milady about the contamination.

When Alessio heard that Milady had hacked off the mercenary's arm, and that Biron, who hated mechcraft, had been fitted with a mechanical arm, Alessio saw red. In his rage, he forgot that he was still wearing Captain Red Hawk's mask. Without a word, he grabbed his cannon and prepared to bombard the tower of the inner city.

But when he opened the door, something blocked his path. It was a giant mechanical arm, unfamiliar to both him and its owner.

"Hey, steady there. Captain Red Hawk doesn't have a mercenary brother-in-arms, remember?"

From then on, Biron coined the name "Steele." With it and his new mechanical arm, he set off in search of the source of the contamination. Of course, there was no conceivable reason for the real Captain Red Hawk to send him off. Nonetheless, Alessio stayed up several nights studying the arm's technology, and finally, when the mercenary group arrived back at the pier, he pretended to approach them casually, dark circles around his eyes.

"Hey, I just found a copy of Maintenance Manual for Mechanical Arms. Is it yours?"

When Biron returned from the Sunset plain, Alessio had already lost his mask and had his cover blown in a confrontation with the Bullhead Shark pirates. He'd lost the Red Hawk Cannon left by the old captain, but he'd also found himself again. While playing the role of protector of the people, he in turn received their support as the new Captain Red Hawk.

The broken mask had been glued back together, and the small cannon, developed by the new Captain Red Hawk himself, leaned against the bed. With his leg in a cast and his hand tapping on the mechanical arm, Alessio couldn't resist asking:

"How on earth did you recognize me? What gave me away?"

The mercenary replied: "Look, there's cat hair on your coat. Who else could it be but you? No one ever mentioned the old Captain Red Hawk fancying cats."

He went on to excitedly recount his first meeting with Alessio: A young Alessio, wearing a crude mask, was curled up on the ground surrounded by a group of thugs, tightly holding a kitten in his arms. The kitten, struggling fearfully in his arms, had rubbed white hair all over him.

"If I hadn't jumped in to rescue you, you and Bailey would've been in for a whole new world of bullying!" Biron exclaimed proudly.

"Oh wow, I sure am extremely grateful for that..."

Alessio couldn't help but smile as he lamented the cat hair detail he had overlooked, and at the same time, another version of the story played in his mind:

At that time, he had curled up not out of defeat, but because he was buying time to think of the best way to protect Bailey and get away from the thugs. Just when he'd finally gotten his plan and managed to leave the crowd, he ran headlong into a big fellow who'd appeared out of nowhere. With no choice but to fight, he took several more punches from the big fellow.

Many years passed, and he'd been too lazy to tell him what actually happened. Plus, he didn't have the heart to ruin his brother-in-arms' memory of having saved the cat.

From outside the window, Biron heard the footsteps of Alessio's visitors. Looking at his half-finished sketch of a new cannon, he came to a conclusion.

The cat hair was but one giveaway. It was the stories circulating through the tavern that had led to his investigation. During the six months he was away, he'd heard that the pirate Blackbeard had been itching to duel Alessio and finally had his challenge accepted. Blackbeard set foot on shore only to have his ship blown to pieces. By springing a trap in the bay, Alessio had used its unique terrain to trap an entire fleet of pirates. Plus, he'd recently heard booms in the early morning, and it turned out to be Alessio practicing on the beach. It was definitely the sound of a cannon firing. Stephan had lost his cat the day before yesterday, and it was “Captain Red Hawk” who'd found it and given the thief a hard lesson...

Others couldn't understand, but Biron knew that Alessio only took the lowest paid commissions from the group. Not because he was lazy, but because the more mundane injustices were often ignored. He'd lost count of the times Alessio dived headlong into danger, thus gaining familiarity with all manner of escape routes and ambush spots. Eventually, he learned to come up with new ones on the go.

It wasn't until he saw Alessio intent on confronting Milady that his suspicions were finally confirmed.

"I'm not fixing you up again the next time you act recklessly, you tin can." Alessio tapped Biron's mechanical arm.

"What? Has the new Captain Red Hawk found a long-term funder for his shells?"

"Oh, please. The money you make is barely enough to cover your arm repairs."

"Come on, take me to the tied-up pirates. They seem to have fought the old captain, and their weapons look advanced. I'm sure they also have a base somewhere... And I need to pry something out of them before I empty their den."

The mask, the coat, the cannon, the name, the voice, and the dwelling; they all added to the finished act.

Though Biron had no absolute proof at the time, the courage to stand up for the smallest of troubles, the conviction to march into danger, and the ability to somehow win battles that seemed utterly lost—

Who could it be other than his brother-in-arms, Alessio?

This must certainly be the real deal. No doubt about it.

VOYAGE LOG SNIPPETS :

In the Red Hawk's captain's cabin, many maps and voyage logs could be found on the bookshelf. Even though much time had passed, records of the past were still kept in a neat and orderly manner. Among them was a row of logs organized in chronological order. Though some of the records were hardly legible, one could still learn much of the past through them.

Voyage Log #3

3 August

Finally, the Bullhead Sharks have been driven out... They're definitely the worst pirates I've ever come across.

But there are still too many troublesome factions in the Outer City...

6 October

I met an interesting kid today. He was just a little taller than my knees, yet he fought off some miscreants picking on younger kids he didn't even know.

Though bruised and battered, he refused to stay down and kicked them as he struggled.

He was wearing a mask that looked like mine, and even after I saved him, he refused to admit that he was pretending to be the Red Hawk... Looks like he wasn't an easy one to budge.

Voyage Log #6

4 August

I didn't expect to save a nobleman from the pirates. It was the world renowned Niccolo... If I hadn't heard Estella mention him before, I would have thrown him right off the ship.

5 August

Contamination, the Forgotten Scrolls, and the great shadow lurking beneath Sunset...

"If the source of the contamination is not found and resolved, then sooner or later, everyone in Navenia will suffer..." Looks like he was after something different from the power-hungry Arkanas.

If such a danger exists, then the Outer City, being right next to the ocean, will bear the brunt of it. I must do something...

8 August

Before parting, I accepted Niccolo's gift of gratitude, an oceangoing ship: the Red Hawk. It is fitted with Navenia's secret device and powered by fluorescent stones. In return, I promised to deliver a letter to his son.

All because I was in need of a sturdier ship.

2 December

As of today, 21 pirate strongholds have been eliminated. Therefore, I believe the people in the Outer City will not be troubled for the next six months.

I woke up this morning and found a transformation plan on the bow of the Red Hawk. I couldn't help but wonder who left it. Meanwhile, the mechsmith was overjoyed upon seeing it and jumped right to working on it.

Voyage Log #7

29 April

It's been four months since we set sail. Apart from eliminating a bunch of pirates and discovering a treasure, we've come up empty-handed.

20 May

We were heading back the way we had come when a strange colored mist obstructed our view, throwing us off course. I thought I saw something huge and glowing in the middle of the mist. It looked like coral...

Then a storm came upon us without warning. That was a strange one... Fortunately, by the power of the Red Hawk, we narrowly escaped the whirlpool...

When I opened my eyes again, the mist and the glowing coral were gone. The sun was shining brightly on the deck, and the ocean was calm as ever, as if it had been just a dream.

21 May

Things haven't been right... Recently, some of the crew have been hallucinating, and the mechsmith nearly smashed his head with a hammer... There's even a faint fluorescent blue coming from the veins under my skin... I must prevent this from happening to all of Navenia!

Whether or not this is the source of the contamination, it must have something to do with the danger Niccolo spoke of.

We must be prepared before coming back.

10 September

Even after speeding up the return trip, we're still far behind schedule. In the meantime, the troublemakers were looking to cause trouble again, but fortunately the crew's symptoms were gone.

The nobles of the inner city never lifted a finger in all of this.

But it seems a masked young man trapped a group of pirates and even blew up one of their ships. Well done!

Voyage Log #8

25 December

From what I gather, we must have encountered the Misty Seas... None of the ships that went in ever returned. All that was found were glass bottles containing this name and the words "Storm," "Danger," "Hallucination," "Rampage," and "Turn Away." Seems that it wasn't just us who experienced these symptoms.

Looking at the unfading fluorescent blue in my veins... I seem to recall seeing a seabird with feathers of this color at the pier this morning.

Finally, the Red Hawk has been fully transformed. Now the crew and I have nothing to fear. We have to investigate this contamination, even if it means never returning.

But I still can't stop worrying about the Outer City.

If I don't make it back, can the Outer City defend itself without the Red Hawk?

3 January

I didn't expect the peace to be broken so quickly.

News of the Red Hawk's departure somehow reached the pirates' ears. On the eve of the Sea Opening Festival, while the crew was gathering florescent stones on the island, the Bullhead Sharks sprang an ambush.

I didn't expect anyone to turn back and save me. After all, the Captain Red Hawk everyone knew could take on a whole fleet of ships by himself.

The young man who should have retreated with everyone else will never know the importance of the bullet he had stopped. The enemy had come prepared, and I was at a disadvantage. If he hadn't appeared in front of me out of nowhere, I might have gotten killed without a chance to fire that decisive shot.

In all my years as a hero, it was the first time I was protected by someone. Perhaps I'm getting old.

When he turned around, I realized that he was the boy I had once saved.

He was almost as tall as me now, and still he still stood firm against the pirates, even though he was at a disadvantage. Looks like the tough talker never changed.

I guess if it were him, he could protect the Outer City well enough.

5 January

I met up with the crew and set off in secret.

After so many years, I was unaccustomed to going without my mask and leaving my weapons behind. The kid gave me a bunch of weapons he had developed for me. There were cannons, mortars, smoke grenades, flashbangs, a hammer, and even a lucky conch he had bought off the street.

Anyhow, I guess I should go destroy a pirate den and replenish our supplies. After all, the kid's weapons aren't half bad. The only thing they lacked was ammo capacity.

Most of the logs had been brought back to the tower by the Arkana Navy, so Alessio could only see the last remaining log. It had fallen, and most of the pages were soaked in the fluorescent blue seawater. Only the last few pages were barely legible.

Voyage Log #10

XXXX

The weather's even worse than the previous.......... the storm lasted three days and nights, and the hurricane.......... tornado.......... the mast nearly snapped and was temporarily restored to some semblance of functionality after emergency repairs. ..........

XXXX

.......... the rudder was completely out of order.......... ran aground.......... tornado.......... an island to land on.......... coral.......... fluorescent stones.......... I thought it would be best to abandon the ship..........

XXXX

.......... if I don't make it back.......... the Outer City.......... Little Red Hawk..........

I guess the next time I see that kid, I should probably ask him for his name.

Hopefully we'll meet again.

[sshbpodcast]

Top 3 Star Trek The Next Generation alien races

By Ames

Now that we’ve reminisced over our favorite minor characters and favorite villains from The Next Generation, A Star to Steer her By is rounding off our cruise on the Enterprise-D by thinking about our favorite alien races from the series. We did it before for The Original Series and found some deeply fascinating and outrageously campy aliens to highlight then, so what kind of aliens does one pick for The Next Generation? There are way more episodes to choose from and the aliens are more than just humans in a flashy jumpsuit, so let’s see them strut their stuff.

Sure, we see some of the staples that were introduced in the days of Kirk. The Klingons and Romulans both get significantly more development in culture in this slightly more modern show, and the occasional Vulcan still looks down their nose at you. But some of the best Trek races get their starts here in TNG and you’ll see those ones are going to fill our favorites lists. Check them all out below and listen to our discussion on this week’s podcast episode (discussion at 1:14:06) for all the extraterrestrial chatter. We sought out new lifeforms, and boy did we find ‘em!

[images © CBS/Paramount] 

Ames – More machine now than man

Borg

Exocomps

Bynars

I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for a good robot any day, whether they want to kill all humans, just develop their own agency, or just open a can. TNG introduces the Borg and it’s one of the best things they ever did, with impacts across other series galore. Plus they just look rad. We also meet the cute little Exocomps who have gained their own kind of sapience and who we’ll see more of in Lower Decks, wink wink. And finally the cybernetically enhanced Bynars are just too cool a concept to pass up, especially when they turn out to be benevolent in the end! Beep boop!

—

Jake – Allow me to introduce myself

Exocomps

Tamarians

Bajorans

Jake’s three top races just want to be respected as much as anyone else; you just need to put in a little extra effort to understand them. The Exocomps are making an appearance because of just how interesting it was discussing when a creature has rights like the rest of us. Sokath! His eyes uncovered! It was also worthwhile watching Picard learn how to communicate with Tamarians like Captain Dathon. And the whole Bajoran plight starts out so interesting when we meet Ensign Ro and ascertain what it means to wear that earring.

—

Chris – Power moves

Betazoids

Q Continuum

Satarrans

You’ve got to respect a race that rolls in and just takes charge whether they’re supposed to or not. We see it in the honest-to-a-fault Betazoids who always know what’s up because they can literally read your mind. We see it, of course, in the Q Continuum, our pick for most powerful species, for whom the whole galaxy is their table to put their feet up on. And we may only get a glimpse of it from the mysterious Satarrans in “Conundrum,” but their plan to infiltrate the Enterprise crew with an undercover MacDuff nearly gets another race destroyed!

—

Caitlin – Gimme a B!

Bajorans

Betazoids

Benzites

Any ABC book about Star Trek (and I’ve bought one before) is highly unfair to all of our favorite alien species who begin with B because there are just too many good ones! At least Caitlin has three opportunities to namedrop some great B species, from the Bajorans who get started off so well developed already in The Next Gen, to the Betazoids whose empathic powers help us all to remember to look inward once in a while, to the Benzites who had some of the best makeup and breathing apparatuses we get to see in Trek!

—

That’s it for our visit to The Next Generation for now! Back to full time assignment on the Voyager, where we’re still boldly going through the Delta Quadrant over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also read our minds over on Facebook and Twitter, and if you meet a species beginning with a B, consider befriending them immediately! Odds are good that they’ll be cool.

[vormirjumper]

Hello Loves! I’ve reached 1500 followers recently and I wanted to celebrate by honouring all my favourite gif makers. Gif Makers really do put a lot of effort into what they create and gif making is time consuming so let's give our gif makers a little more love everytime you see their creations! shower them with likes and reblogs they deserve ❤️All these people are super talented!!!

p.s. i’ve linked my top 5 favourite edits that they have made (in no particular order) so do reblog &/or like if you like them too :) 

@ptrbprkrs thank you for always looking out for me and helping me with my blog :) i think your gifs are great and your blog is lovely!!!

peter parker + rainbow 

peter parker + the grey t-shirt 

tom, your handsome is showing

tom holland’s wise advice on social media 

peter parker + facial expressions while preparing for his trip

@pterparkers (you have too many amazing gifs to choose from i died trying to choose 5)

I really like MJ, man, okay? She’s awesome, she’s super funny in a king of dark way and sometimes i catch her looking at me.

I only act like I know everything.

spider-man: far from home bloopers          

#same energy

we’re in the endgame now.

@stardustony U ARE THE QUEEN OF COLOURING OMG. you need to drop a colouring tutorial cause my gifs are trying to glow like that 

˗ˏˋ Somebody’s got to look out for the little guy, right? ˊˎ˗

There’s no title to this but i really liked this concept

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. ・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

THE TONY STARK LOOKBOOK | Iron Man 1 edition

THOR ODINSON ˗ˏˋ Point me in the direction of whoever’s ass I have to kick ˊˎ˗

@momentofmemory your creativity is insane and how you blend different elements (idk if i phrased that right) is just so pretty i really love it a lot hehe

og6 avengers + knowledge 

mj and peter, in the amazing spider-man vol. 5 #1, #5

5 times steve left people shook™ + 1 time he shook himself 

black widow #1 (2014)  i think i followed you because of this giftset. then i fell in love with you haha

og6 avengers + firsts and lasts

@schoflield you are an iconic gif maker for so many films!!!

THE DEPARTED (2006)

GIFTED (2017)

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA : THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (2010)

GONE GIRL (2014)

DUNKIRK (2017)

@robertdowneys your gifs never fail to be so aesthetically pleasing my eyes can’t handle them anymore

MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE + FAVORITE ONE-LINERS

IRON MAN 

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME

Arrival (2016) 

WONDER WOMAN / CAPTAIN MARVEL / HARLEY QUINN + values

@downey-junior I’m really doing you an injustice by picking 5 of your gifsets THEY ARE ALL SO GOOD LIKE HOW??? all so colourful and in high quality i love

READY OR NOT (2019)

infinity saga rewatch: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014) dir. James Gunn

ORIGINAL SIX AVENGERS + name etymology (insp.)

WANDA MAXIMOFF in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (2018)

THOR: RAGNAROK (2017)

@bobnorley the most popular searches gif will always be one my favourites of yours!

Natasha Romanoff + Most popular searches

Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers (MCU 2011-2019)

All of Natasha’s Scenes: 270/?

The Perfect Score (2004) x The Winter Soldier (2014)

Most of the time the people we like don’t like us back

@heybinary you are literally one of the reasons why i make gifs now!!! i’m so thankful for you and your gif skills are unmatched!!!

Black Panther + Details

you know, baby, you know...

Fight like a GIRL.

“ Tell me about the shooter. ”

“Black Widow (2020) ”

@natashasromanofff your blog was one of the very first accounts that i followed when i started tumblr about 3 years ago and i’ve always loved all your gifs!! your colouring is really just so pretty!

Marriage Story (2019)

Marvel’s Black Widow Prelude (2020) #2 

We Bought a Zoo (2011)

Marvel’s Black Widow Prelude (2020) #3 (these gifs are my favourite!!!)

Avengers Endgame (2019)

@chrisheavans​ i love your blog!!!

Chris Evans as Andy Barber in Defending Jacob - Episode 4

Andy Barber in Defending Jacob - Episode 2

Chris Evans for Esquire

Let’s…name the time and place.

entitled little shit

@forchrisevans HOW DO U MAKE ALL YOUR GIFS SO CRISP I LOVE IT

Chris Evans as Andy Barber in Defending Jacob - Episode 8

of course he don’t need doors😏

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) (dir. Joe and Anthony Russo)

Chris Evans as Andy Barber in Defending Jacob - Episode 5

ok husband! (ﾟ∇^*)

[adamwatchesmovies]

Stowaway (2021)

Seeing Stowaway on a small screen is a shame. Even at home, there’s a sequence that creates such intense vertigo it’ll make your legs wobble. In the cinema? It would've been amazing. This is a smart sci-fi movie that focuses on relevant ideas. It’ll have you wondering what you would do in the characters’ shoes.

After the launch of the MTS-42, commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) discover an unconscious support engineer aboard. What is Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson) doing here? How will they manage the two-year voyage to Mars when there are only enough resources for three people?

At the film's core is a moral dilemma. There are four people. Only three can survive. What do you do? Scramble to find a solution? That costs resources, time, and energy. There's only so much to spare before a call must be made. Once every solution has been exhausted… then what? Draw straws? If only it were that simple. Firstly, why is Michael aboard? To sabotage the mission? Even if he isn’t, who’s to say he won’t freak out when he realizes he’s the expendable stowaway? Once the orders from Earth come in, which members of the MTS-42 will follow?

This conundrum would be easier to solve if the people were one-dimensional, but they’re well-written. You understand everyone’s point of view and the actors are charismatic (particularly Anna Kendrick, who you might not have bought as an astronaut but you do as a medical researcher traveling to space under a captain). Sometimes people make decisions that make you wince but only because it's cranked up the uncertainty. Stowaway is missing a little something to push it up to the next level where someone death would make you burst into tears but it’s solid overall.

The best scene concerns a desperate gambit to ensure everyone’s survival. It’s a blend of the Burj Khalifa scene from Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Gravity. One false step and you’re falling into a literal bottomless pit. Losing your grip would mean a horrible, lonely death through oxygen deprivation. You might as well take off your helmet and make it quick. There’s so much riding on that scene you’ll be vibrating with anxiety and excitement. The longer it goes on, the more intense it gets because it’ll be harder for them to go back and the obstacles they notice keep adding up. Even if the movie were just ok, it would be worth seeing just for that.

Writers Ryan Morrison and Joe Penna (who also directs) have made all the right choices with this script. Stowaway resists making things easy by having villains or simple solutions. There's nothing simple about the moral dilemma explored here. Watch it on the biggest screen you can with all the lights turned off. Preferably, with someone else holding your hand so you can feel how tightly they squeeze it when it gets at its most intense. (May 6, 2021)

[thelastgherkin]

All toys released as part of War for Cybertron: Siege feature an individualised military insignia, denoting each character’s position in their respective army’s command structure.  The three part insignia, delineated by Hasbro here, reveals the character’s Division (Land, Air, Sea, Space), Unit (Infantry, Intelligence, Medic, Engineering, Special Ops, Artillery, Transport), and Rank (General, Major, Captain, Sergeant, Private).  Above is a diagram listing the command structure of all Siege toys, constructed from original research and using my own photos where possible.

EDIT 22/6/2020: This chart has been updated to use all my own photography, no longer relying on Hasbro stock photography!  It has also been updated to include Takara’s Nemesis Prime (see below).

Larger versions of these charts are available here.

Some things to note:

The aforementioned Hasbro page lists an insignia for the Sea Division, which has not yet appeared on any toy packaging owing to a lack of seafaring characters.  The Recon Unit listed on the same page also appears to be unused: the above Autobot characters listed in the Intelligence Unit are only there due to supposition, and could just as easily fit in the Recon Unit; no Decepticon characters are known to be in the Recon Unit.

The Hasbro page also notes that the Decepticons give their Units more sinister names than the Autobots.  The following Units are directly corresponding pairs: Intelligence and Espionage, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Special Ops and Black Ops, and Artillery and Air Force Weapons.

In general, toys released under the Generations Selects banner did not receive insignias of their own.  The two exceptions to this are Combat Megatron and Galactic Man Shockwave, both of which share their insignia with their Siege mainline counterparts.

The further exception to this rule is Generations Selects Smokescreen, who did not receive a rank on his packaging or instructions, but DID receive a rank in the related card game.

The card game seems to list all Decepticon Privates as having the rank of “Raider” instead.

The Autobot Micromaster Countdown did not receive an individual rank of his own, so he is listed here alongside his larger partner, Omega Supreme.

Jetfire, a toy with a faction-swapping play gimmick, only received an insignia for the Autobot command structure.

Character variants usually occupy the same Unit and Rank (e.g. Optimus Prime, Mirage and Holo Mirage), or at the very least just the Rank (e.g. Sideswipe and Covert Clone Sideswipe), but Soundblaster’s deviation in both Unit and Rank from Soundwave implies a divergence between the two Decepticons.

Impactor, in swapping his faction from the Decepticons to the Autobots, appears to have found his true calling, going higher up the chain of command and leading a more specialised Unit.

As of 22/6/2020, this chart now includes Takara’s Voyager Nemesis Prime.  This release reuses almost all of Voyager Optimus Prime’s graphic design, including his insignia and box art.  As a result, despite the figure’s Decepticon faction, Nemesis Prime has been placed in the Autobot command structure.  I wouldn’t read anything into this other than a lazy graphic designer.

As of 30/1/2021, this chart has been updated to reflect additional information discovered on instructions sheets.  Bluestreak is now added as an Infantry Major, the same rank as Prowl, probably owing to a copy/paste error.  Nightflight and Slyhopper’s ranks have been discovered to be swapped on the instruction sheet.  In all three cases, the box should take precedent, owing to a similar error on War for Cybertron Trilogy Voyager Hotlink’s sheet.  But that is a story for another time.  EDIT: characters with misprinted or incorrect ranks have been altered in opacity so as to remove ambiguity.

UPDATE 15/8/2021: While doing research for a TFwiki article, I stumbled into a rabbit hole with Ratchet right at its centre.  Having bought Ratchet loose, I only had the instructions and photos of the box to go by when placing him as a Ground Engineering Private.  From the page on War for Cybertron insignias, I learned that Ratchet actually received a different symbol: the inner card of his packaging actually gives him a unique rank, that the Siege tie-in website calls “Ground Engineering Specialist”.  Ratchet is literally the only “Specialist” in all of War for Cybertron, so I’ve placed him just outside of the heirarchy, keeping him as a Private as an alternative rank that fits into the established structure.  In the real life US Army, Specialist is a rank that exists above Private and below Sergeant.

...However, the text on the website that describes Ratchet as a Ground Engineering Specialist is erroneously paired with the insignia of the previous character in sequence – Mirage – alleging that Ratchet is a Ground Special Ops Sergeant.  This has a knock-on effect, as the next character in sequence, Omega Supreme, receives Ratchet’s Ground Engineering Specialist insignia, even though his text description reinforces that he should be a Space Transport Captain!  While scrutinising the website, I also found that Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime is paired with a symbol meaning Space Special Ops General – contradicting the text description that calls him a Space Infantry General.

These insignias continue to be used in further War for Cybertron toylines, and I intend to keep you updated as time goes on.  On my blog, charts like this will be tagged with #WFC rank project.

[ccorinnef]

Tattoo Art: Living Galleries Through History

Tattoos have existed for millennia. Currently, the oldest known tattoos are from the Alps mountains on Ötzi which date from 3250BC and the oldest known decorative tattoos are from Egypt dating to 3351 - 3017BCE. They existed as a form of magic or medicine or branding for slaves and criminals, before becoming a form of identity, expression and artwork. Since around the 1800's, though, tattoos have been increasing in sophistication, design, artform and popularity. Tattoos are now incredibly popular and probably every city in the world has at least one, if not many more, tattoo shops and artists. Tattooing was by no means 'discovered' by white people but since the practice had been through phases of popularity in Europe, they were quick to forget and quick to become fascinated by tattoos. Following the age of colonialism and ideas of European superiority, tattoos were often labelled as barbaric or primitive and were used as a way to further discriminate against people in 'discovered' lands. A really surprising fact that I discovered while researching this topic was that in Latin the word used to refer to tattoos was 'stigmata' which is also the root word for stigmatise, tattoos often literally were symbols of stigmas.

Tattoos Through Ancient History

One of the most common misconceptions in the history of tattooing is that tattoos were brought back to the UK and the West on the Cook voyages of the 1790s. As can be seen from tattooed mummies across the globe and dating from across almost the entire history of humanity, tattooing as a practice has been recurrent. Whatever the context or purpose of the tattoo, whether for identity, medicine, status, religion, or whatever tattoos have been used across many cultures and times. The cook voyages simply brought back the word tattoo - from the Polynesian tatau or tatu. Before Cook's journeys introduced this word tattooing was known as 'painting' 'scarring' 'staining' stitching' and a host of other words were used to describe the practice. Tattoos have been used as a means of identifying people and animals, along with branding, for centuries: facial tattoos to denote punishment for crimes or to indicate status as a slave were used in the Chinese Zhou and Roman Empire time periods - until Emperor Constantine banned the practice of facial tattoos in AD330 and the Second Council of Nicaea banned all tattooing as 'pagan' in AD787. Runaway slaves were commonly tattooed on their face with 'FUG' for fugitive. In ancient Egypt there is evidence of medical tattooing first 'discovered' by Daniel Fouquet in 1898. He found mummies with tattoos and scarification which didn't appear to be decorative and speculated that they were "an established treatment for a condition of the pelvis, very probably chronic pelvic peritonitis."

The negative European influence on the Maori population of New Zealand first started with trading for moko tattoos, which were acquired by Maori people hunting and decapitating each other, and later by imposed Christian values by missionaries who discouraged and disliked the tattooing practice, something that has been repeated the world over. Tattooing was practiced widely in the Austronesian region, thought to have been developed before 1500BCE. 'Needles' were commonly made from Citrus thorns, fish bone, bone and oyster shells. Other ethnolinguistic groups who observed a practice of tattooing include the Ainu of Japan, some Austroasians of Indochina, Berber women of Tamazgha, Yoruba, Fulani and Hausa of Nigeria, Pre-Columbian Native Americans, and Iron Age British Picts.

Throughout history from around the 1500s to 1900s many many people were kidnapped or tricked into travelling back to Europe by early explorers and were often presented at the royal court or put on display as 'curiosities' to be gawked at, especially if they had tattoos across their bodies. Many of these are terribly sad stories of exploitation by white Europeans and often end in death by being exposed to illnesses their immune systems could not handle. "In 1565, French sailors abducted from Canada an Inuit woman with facial tattoos and her daughter. They put them on public display in Antwerp, the Netherlands, drawing crowds for money. Sir Martin Frobisher, an English privateer, also abducted an Inuit man from Baffin Island, putting him on display in London before he died from European diseases. Frobisher returned to Baffin Island and abducted a man, a woman, and a child, also taking them back to London for public display. They also died from illness shortly afterwards." William Dampier, a member and financier of Captain Cook's famous voyages bought a slave called Jeoly from Miangas Island in 1690. Jeoly, nicknamed the 'painted prince' was put on display across Europe and Dampier described his tattoos as covering most of his body with a 'great variety of lines, flourishes, chequered-work, &c.'

Tattoos Through Cultural Context

The methods of tattooing are varied and extensive, but they all involve puncturing the skin to insert a pigment into the epidermis where it remains trapped as the body heals the wound. Some cultures created tattoos by fashioning 'needles' out of shell or bone and creating lines by joining punctured dots of pigment together. Some cultures cut the design into the skin first and then rubbed the pigment into the wound. Today, the tattoo machine is most commonly used to insert pigment into the skin which utilises modern hygiene methods to reduce the risk of infection.

Among men of Austronesian societies, such as the Ifugao and Dayak, tattooing was an integral part of head-hunting culture where they served as a record of the number of kills a warrior had done in battle. Tattoos were also used in initiation rites into adulthood across Austronesia. A warrior's status was inscribed into his skin; the design, placement and number of tattoos indicated prowess and success in battle. Among Austronesian women, facial tattoos denoted status, skill and beauty and were often used as a symbol that a girl had reached marriageable age. Among Visayans of the Phillipines, tattoos were worn by nobility and warriors as records success in mangayaw raids.

Tattoos were also commonly used across the globe as magical wards against dangerous spirits or illnesses. Among the Ainu of Japan, who have mythology of tattooing practice coming from the sister of the creator god, Turesh Machi, and who faced much persecution by the Japanese authorities for continuing this culturally significant practice, tattoos were believed to stop evil spirits from entering the body and causing illness or misfortune. They also had specific tattoos placed around the body to serve as charms against illness and disease. Tattoos were used by Ancient Egyptians to depict dedication to a God and protection from evils. As Vanishing Tattoo states, "Largely administered by holy monks, sagacious tribal elders, and layman tattooists, the esoteric art was not only believed to provide its wearers with indelible protection from a variety of misfortunes, but also the mystical power to influence other peoples’ behaviour, carry the deceased safely into the afterlife, or simply increase a person’s 'luck.'" It could also be argued that the Catholic Croats in Bosnia tattooed women and children to protect them against a perceived 'evil', that of conversion to Islam during the Ottoman rule.

Native Americans, such as Seminole, Cherokee, Cree, Yurok, Tolowa, Hupa, Chimariko and Creek, used tattooing as a form of identity and belonging to their tribe. Obviously there is a huge range of cultural differences between each Native American community: the Cree had men covered entirely with tattoos while restricting women to only three or four lines on the face; for the Yurok tattooing was more popular among the women than the men, where a woman's age would be indicated by a line tattooed on the chin roughly every five years. Some communities even had tattooed size guides for seashells which were used as a form of currency. The Yuma used tattoos to denote status and community as well as to decorate warriors to appear more fierce - "they believed access to the afterlife would be denied to those who wore no tattoos."

Because tattoos were used to mark criminals and slaves, tattoos themselves, and by extension the people who have them, often face stigma and discrimination - the ink in their skin being culturally associated with criminality and deviance for centuries. In many cases, tattoos are considered an integral part of gang and mafia culture - often specific images and words are used to indicate membership and allegiance. Since the 60s and 70s tattoos have also been associated with social outcast groups such as bikers and prisoners, which has further played into the stereotypes of people with tattoos. Many prison inmates still tattoo themselves today, using whatever materials they can get their hands on. In China, tattoos are still considered taboo. The association between criminals and tattoos was a huge influence on this. Criminals were often tattooed to mark them and ostracise them from society. In Japan, tattoos were outlawed in the 19th Century by the Meiji Government - this wasn't repealed until 1948. In the city of Osaka employees are forbidden from getting new tattoos and all pre-existing tattoos are required to be covered completely, or removed. There is a strong and prevailing cultural link in Japan between tattoos and organised crime, yakuza. A project by Fukushi Masaichi's tattoo association was undertaken to collect and preserve the tattooed skins of dead Japanese people. A similar project to promote the art of tattoos was an exhibition by the Museum of Croydon called Beyond Skin.

Tattoos are often used symbolically to represent everything from a loved one, to a favourite sport, to prison sentences. For example, the teardrop tattoo has been said to represent murders committed or the death of a friend. US military personnel have an equally symbolic use of tattoos to mark identity, membership of particular regiments, battles participated in, murders and loved ones. Many companies now are trying to promote diversity and inclusion in employees, and many people are seeing less discrimination based on tattoos and their negative stereotypes.

Many different religions have expressed as many different viewpoints and levels of acceptance or tolerance towards tattoos - some completely prohibit their followers from getting tattoos, such as some Jewish traditions and Sunni Islam, while others, such as Hinduism and Neopaganism, show acceptance. Others still, such as Christianity remain undecided and some religions like Buddhism incorporate tattoos into their spiritual practice, known as sak yant.

Tattoos Through the 19th and 20th Centuries

Tattoos have been used administratively as a very literal form of identity. In 18th Century Thailand, tattoos were used to denote administrative identity - army officers, couriers, grass cutters, slaves and criminals all had distinctly unique tattoo designs and placements to denote their profession and to distinguish themselves from other departments. There were even different tattoos for corvée exemption due to illness or old age. As is commonly known, tattoos were used by the Nazi's in Auschwitz to identify registered prisoners with a complex numerical system. Many people alive today still bear this mark of their horror and trauma from life under the Nazi's. The SS were also tattooed with their blood group in WW2 to aid in any necessary medical treatment. Many SS members later shot themselves in the arm so as to remove the very identifying symbol of their Nazi involvement.

In Britain the first person to define their profession as 'tattoo artist' was Sutherland MacDonald in London in 1894. Prior to the 1870s tattoos were still very much associated with the 'lower classes' i.e. criminals and sailors, however the practice was soon coveted by the wealthy upper classes of Britain. Many of the royal family sported tattoos as a symbol of their wealth and style - since tattooing in the late 1800s was still a very time consuming and expensive practice. The invention in 1891 by Samuel O'Reilly of the tattoo machine, an adaptation of Thomas Edison's electric pen machine, meant that tattoos became cheaper and easier to produce so the practice dropped out of fashion among wealthier citizens. Tattoo art didn't really become considered as a legitimate career choice until the 1980s. More than 5000 people declared 'tattoo artist' as their professional title when in 1975 there had only been 40. In Australia, Fred Harris was considered the only tattoo artist in Sydney between 1916 and 1943. Throughout Harris' career, he tattooed mostly sailors but he also saw a trend of women getting their legs tattooed so the designs could be seen through their stockings. Throughout the 20th Century there is evidence of women getting tattoos, often ones that could be hidden well under clothing. There are even records of a female tattoo artist from the 1920s called Jessie Knight. An interesting exhibition which really put her work and career on display was held in Cornwall in the Maritime Museum.

The use of tattoos as a distinguishing identification feature was established in the 1800s as part of the 'protection papers' as a way for American sailors to avoid being impressed to the British royal navy. Prior to the use of tattoos as identification in the papers, the descriptions of the named individuals were too generic and often not accepted by British Captains. "In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, tattoos were as much about self-expression as they were about having a unique way to identify a sailor's body should he be lost at sea or impressed by the British navy." Until the onset of World War One there was a huge demand by sailors, usually British and American, for tattoo artists in ports across the world. This demand was addressed by the the first recorded professional tattoo artist German born Martin Hildebrandt who opened a shop in New York City in 1846. His career mostly consisted of travelling between camps of soldiers in the American Civil War. Following the 1960s and 70s there was a marked increase in bikers' groups and tattooing became a strong marker of identity for these groups - similar to other groups like gangs and prisoners.

Tattoos Today

In 2006 the results of a survey by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that 36% of Americans aged 18-29, 24% of 30-40 year olds and 15% of Americans who were 41-51 had a tattoo. A similar survey by the Pew Research Centre found that 40% of Americans aged 26-40 had a tattoo. "They concluded that Generation X and Millennials express themselves through their appearance, and tattoos are a popular form of self-expression." Tattoos have even been used as the basis for, and advertisement of, logo designs. For example, Macy's logo is based off of a tattoo that the founder had on his hand. The practice of "skinvertising" has been used by brands such as HBO, Red Bull, ASOS and Sailor Jerry's.

Growing popularity can be seen for permanent makeup tattoos and for artistic tattoos to be used to cover up scars, such as from mastectomy, and perceived imperfections, like stretch marks. There is also high popularity for tattooing nipples after breast reconstruction following mastectomy. Permanent makeup includes tattooing pigment on eyebrows, lips and eyes - usually done with very natural colour shades to enhance a persons appearance. More recently, there has been a marked increase in the trend of 'stick and poke' or 'DIY' tattoos - with a few companies even offering complete kits to ensure hygienic practice. There is a motive for girls and women with low self-esteem and negative body feelings to get tattoos as a way to reclaim control of their bodies and search for their own identities. The increase of women getting tattoos, especially visible tattoos, is helping to change the stereotypes and stigmas associated with tattoos. Beverly Yuen Thompson interviewed many women across America in 'Covered in Ink' to look at the interaction between reactions to tattooed women in the general public and within families. She found that younger generations tend to be more accepting and generally unbothered by other's tattoos as compared to their older counterparts. Within family units, the reactions that women faced after getting a tattoo ranged from acceptance to disowning. Thompson noticed a correlation between the existing familial relationship and the post-tattoo reaction - those that were emotionally accepting of their female relatives were able to maintain close relationships despite a personal dislike to inked art.

In 2006 the results of a survey by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that 36% of Americans aged 18-29, 24% of 30-40 year olds and 15% of Americans who were 41-51 had a tattoo. A similar survey by the Pew Research Centre found that 40% of Americans aged 26-40 had a tattoo. "They concluded that Generation X and Millennials express themselves through their appearance, and tattoos are a popular form of self-expression." (wiki/tattoo) Tattoos have even been used as the basis for, and advertisement of, logo designs. For example, Macy's logo is based off of a tattoo that the founder had on his hand. The practice of "skinvertising" has been used by brands such as HBO, Red Bull, ASOS and Sailor Jerry's.

Further Reading and References

Tattoos

Tattooing Among the Ainu

Tattoos in Indochina

Berber Womens Tattoos

Last Batok Artist in the Philipines

Lady of Cao

Ta Moko of New Zealand

Tattoos in the Arctic Circle

Tattooing History

Permanent Makeup

Medical Tattoos

Religious Perspectives

Tattoos in Papua New Guinea

Cook Tattoo Myth

Nazi Prisoner Tattoos

Mastectomy Tattoos

Nipple Reconstruction Tattoos

Tattooed Mummy

Otzi’s Tattoos

Egyptian Mummy Tattoos

Indian King’s Tattoos

Religious Opinions

Tattoo Gallery

Psychology of Tattoos

Why Do People Get Tattoos

Jessie Knight - Britain’s First Female Tattoo Artist

Native American Tattoos

[typespatial]

Site Analysis

The Story of Wellington Harbour Maori Discovery & Settlement

Whairepo Lagoon is a small man-made lagoon on Wellington’s waterfront, connected to Lambton Harbour and adjacent to Frank Kitts Park.It  is an open public area at the centre of Wellington, New Zealand. It is a small lagoon filled with sea water and connected to Wellington Harbour through a narrow channel. It is surrounded by The Boat Shed, City-to-Sea bridge, and the Wellington Rowing and Star Boating Club buildings.

Name Change

On 17 December 2015 the lagoon was officially named Whairepo Lagoon, as it previously had no official name. The lagoon was previously referred to as Frank Kitts Lagoon, Frank Kitts Park Lagoon, The Lagoon and Aotea Lagoon.

At its meeting on 29 April 2015 the NZGB considered a proposal jointly submitted by Wellington City Council (WCC) and Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust (PNBST) to assign a new name ‘Whai Repo Lagoon’ to a man-made lagoon on the Wellington waterfront.

The NZGB resolved to notify a proposal to assign Whairepo Lagoon, with Whairepo as one word to prevent literal translations if it was two separate words.

The lagoon is informally known by a variety of names including ‘Frank Kitts Lagoon’ (being adjacent to Frank Kitts Park), Aotea Lagoon, the Boatshed Lagoon (being adjacent to the historic building), etc.

During the consultation period from 28 May 2015 to 28 August 2015 the Board received 16 supporting and two objecting submissions.

The supporting submissions follow two main themes: -  that the new name acknowledges the partnership between mana whenua and WCC, and -  that the name would highlight the biodiversity of Wellington Harbour and draw further attention to the lagoon as a summer tourist attraction.

Of the two objecting submissions, the first requests that the status quo be maintained with ‘Frank Kitts Lagoon’ formalised as an official name, with an alternative of Star Boating Lagoon offered. The second objection addressed the use of ‘superstition’ in the NZGB’s naming practices.

The reasons provided in the objections are not considered to outweigh the reasons provided in the original proposal to assign the name Whairepo Lagoon. The objecting submissions are addressed in the report.

Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK) advised the Secretariat that Ngāti Toa wished to be consulted on the proposal. Ngāti Toa advised that they would make a submission during the public consultation period, however this was not received.

Site History, before the lagoon

According to Maori legend, the demigod Maui is said to have fished up the North Island of New Zealand, Te Ika o Maui, from his great canoe (the South Island). Maui and his brothers struggled with the large fish, beating and slashing it so that it writhed in agony creating the hills and the valleys. When the fish died it became a great land where previously there had been nothing but ocean. The southern part of the North Island is said to be the head of the fish, Te Upoko o te Ika, and Wellington Harbour the mouth of the fish, Te Waha o te Ika.

The explorer Kupe is credited with the discovery of the land and harbour on which Wellington is now situated. Kupe sailed his canoe to New Zealand around 950AD, stopping at various points around the new country including what is now Wellington Harbour.

Over the next 950 years a succession of Maori people from different tribes arrived and occupied the area including Tara and Tautoke, sons of Whatonga from the Mahia peninsula. Tara was sent by his father to inspect the lower North Island in the twelfth century. He returned after a year, declaring that the best place he had seen was ‘at the very nostrils of the island’. It was Tara whose name was given to the harbour, still in use today – Te Whanganui a Tara, meaning ‘the Great Harbour of Tara’.

European settlement

Neither Abel Tasman or Captain Cook entered Wellington harbour, and it wasn’t until the New Zealand Company arrived that European settlement began in earnest. In 1839, led by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the Company bought from Te Atiawa chief Te Wharepouri, 90 percent of the land in Te Whanganui a Tara, around 160,000 acres, in a deal known as The Port Nicholson Purchase (Wellington being so-named at that time, after an Australian harbour master). The remaining 10 percent, to be known as the Wellington Tenths, was to be set aside for Maori.

European settlement was underway. The harbour was named ‘Lambton’ after the Earl of Durham, then Governor of the New Zealand Company (Lambton was his surname).

The first anniversary of Wellington was celebrated in 1841, one year after the arrival of the settler ship Aurora, which arrived on 22 January 1840 with 150 settlers after a four-month voyage from England. Other early settler ships included the Tory, Cuba, Oriental, Roxburgh, Adelaide, Glenbervie, Bolton and Coromandel – all remembered in Wellington street names.

Settlers were allocated two property lots: an acre in the township, and a back-country block worth £1 per acre. Some settlers were a little surprised when they discovered their estate, purchased sight-unseen, wasn’t exactly ‘flat section, all day sun’!

Wellington began as a settlement with very little flat land, but the 1855 earthquake raised more flat land, stimulating more reclamations. By 1900 Lambton Quay, ‘the beach’ in 1840, was a long way back from the water’s edge of the bustling port town.

In the early 1980s, earthquake code requirements led to the demolition of many of the city centre’s Victorian/Edwardian buildings. Not all their replacements were good and in the recession many tower blocks opened with ‘to let’ signs in the windows.

The consolidation of the working port around Aotea Quay freed up much of the old waterfront for redevelopment. Frank Kitts Park got a major makeover in the late 1980s, but reaction to some of the new buildings on Queen’s Wharf led to closer public scrutiny of waterfront development, which has since continued at a more restrained pace.

In the 1990s apartment living became popular with many, further fuelling the burgeoning culture. The government conserved some key icons such as Parliament Buildings, the wooden Government Buildings and the Old Bank Arcade, but sadly, unsightly additions and alterations to many more were permitted.

As more large scale buildings and occupation/living sites were created the waterfront quickly became full, more buildings meant more people and an ever growing community continued. In amongst the building and planning, Whairepo Lagoon land was left out of building plans and development (unintentionally) and eventually filled up with water from the harbour - naturally creaing a lagoon that has been there ever since.

[followingsite-blog]

Olaudah Equiano - Gustavus Vassa - His Experiences From His Enslavement Stimulating Black Literature

New Post has been published on http://followingsite.com/2018/03/06/olaudah-equiano-gustavus-vassa-his-experiences-from-his-enslavement-stimulating-black-literature/

Olaudah Equiano - Gustavus Vassa - His Experiences From His Enslavement Stimulating Black Literature

Olaudah Equiano’s early life began about 1745 in the village «Essaka» near the River Niger, an Igbo-speaking region of present-day Nigeria where his father was a chief who settled disputes amongst the tribesmen. Equiano the youngest son lived with six bothers and sisters one being younger than him, as part of a large family. At the early age of eleven, Equiano and his sister were kidnapped and forced into slavery in a neighboring village.

He changed hands a few times before he was sold to white slave traders and transported by ship across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados in the West Indies..

Equiano was kept just a few days not exceeding a fortnight at Barbados before he was put aboard «a sloop for North America,» and eventually «landed up a river a good way from the sea, about Virginia county «. The kind of work that this newly arrived boy to America was put to, weeding grass and gathering field stones, and then fanning his bedridden master, was consonant with his age (probably under ten years). Equiano having been carried from Barbados on a ship other than the Nancy then, would most likely have been taken to a part of «Virginia county» where few Igbo were taken, and thus buiding in him his sense of isolation.

At the slave plantation in Virginia where Equiano was taken to and engaged, he observed with horror the treatment of fellow slaves inside the house. He was horrified at the use of an «iron muzzle» around their mouth to keep them quiet thus rendering them barely able to speak or eat. The objects inside the house amazed and frightened him considerably. He even thought the pictures hanging on the wall followed him wherever he went, and a clock hanging from the chimney would tell his master about anything he would do wrong.

Whilst there he was seen and bought by Michael Pascal, a captain in the Royal Navy. Pascal renamed him Gustavus Vassa after King Gustav I of Sweden. Though Equiano at first detested the name, he later on used it in most of his writings and became known by it.

Being Pascal’s personal servant, he was afforded naval training which enabled him to travel extensively and contribute in times of battle. He often served as a seaman. His duties included hauling gunpowder to the gun decks. He was at the Seven Years War of England with France and at the siege of Fort Louisburg in Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.

He later sent to Pascal’s female friends, to attend school and learn to read in England. The other servants had already warned Equiano that if he wasn’t baptized he wouldn’t be able to go to Heaven. So his master allowed him to be baptized. This was done in St. Margaret’s church, Westminster, in February 1759. His honesty and trustworthiness won him friendship and support from many English people.

Equiano soon got disappointed. Despite the special treatment Pascal had been according Equiano, after the war was won, he didn’t receive his share of the prize money awarded to the other sailors, nor did he get his freedom. He was greatly disappointed as it seemed that he had been deceived as well as betrayed.

Later, to his greatest dismay he found himself been put back on the market But his many ship skills made him too valuable for plantation labour. His knowledge in hairdressing, wine making, arithmetic and his becoming fully literate in the English Language made him less desirable to some slave traders. He was too well educated for some and the fact that he knew how to navigate a ship scared many away from him. So it took some time before he could be bought

He was eventually acquired by Robert King, a Quaker merchant from Philadelphia who carried on much of his business in the Caribbean, often trading in ‘live cargos’. From much of what he saw made him grateful to his Quaker master’s treatment of him. Though that did not for a moment give him any illusions about what the loss of freedom entailed. He saw the ugliest side of American life in both the North and South. Even in Philadelphia, a city built on the promise of brotherly love he observed freed blacks being treated with profound contempt, and being ‘plundered’ and ‘universally insulted’ with no possibility of redress.

King, soon, set Equiano to work on his shipping routes and in his stores, promising him in 1765, that for forty pounds, the price King had paid for Equiano, he could buy his freedom. King taught him to read and write more fluently, educated him in the Christian faith, and allowed him to engage in his own profitable trading as well as on his master’s behalf, thus enabling him to come by the forty pounds honestly. As a result, Equiano in his early twenties succeeded in buying his freedom. Once having gained his freedom through saving forty pounds earned through his own instincts for enterprise, carrying on his own business while managing King’s — he pledged never again to set foot on American soil.

This was despite King’s urging him to stay on as a business partner. For Equiano, it was dangerous and limiting to remain in the British American colonies as a freed black. For while loading a ship in Georgia, he was almost kidnapped back into slavery. He was only released when the level of his education was made apparent. It now resolved to settle in London for the rest of his life. This he did in 1769. He was making his living there as a free servant as well as a hair dresser for affluent Londoners. But his skill as a seaman and his always remarkable curiosity made him restless for new adventures. But before that he had learnt to play the French horn which he kept playing onto mastering it to the level of an accomplished musician. He went on even on to expanding his study of Mathematics.

Equiano through his story of enslavement, transportation, maritime slavery in a time of European war, kidnapping a second time into slavery (from London to Montserrat), his travels, and his freedom, winding up back in London in 1767, when he was about twenty-two years old. his adventures at sea through the 1773 Arctic Expedition on the royal navy ship the Racehorse, and his rebirth as an ardent Anglican, which ironically was followed by participating in a scheme to create a slave-based plantation on the Miskito Coast (Caribbean Central America). In the end, Equiano (universally still known as Vassa) turned to anti-slave trade agitation,living as he did in England in the mid-1780s, which led to his official service in the 1786-87 effort to «repatriate» (perhaps better thought of as to deport) Africans in Britain to Sierra Leone, a royal service that made him a controversial public figure. Equiano clearly was inspired by his activism to write and publish and popularize the «interesting narrative» of his life, a powerful story though one with many internal contradictions and inconsistencies. , a work as much of politicized memory as of personal history..

Equiano remained at sea for several years even after buying his freedom. He voyaged to the Arctic as a surgeon’s assistant and to the Mediterranean as a gentleman’s valet, and lived for a time among the Makito Indians of Nicaragua. He then returned to England, where after Somerset’s Case of 1772 it was proclaimed that no person could be a slave in England itself.

Back in London Equiano became involved in the abolitionist movement. The movement had been particularly strong amongst Quakers, but was by now non-denominational. Equiano himself was broadly Methodist, having been influenced by George Whitefield’s evangelism in the New World which seemed to be taking the nation as a storm.

Equiano proved to be a popular speaker himself and was introduced to many senior and influential people, who encouraged him to write and publish his life story. He was supported financially by philanthropic abolitionists and religious benefactors who promoted his lectures and helped him in the preparation for the book. They were amongst others, Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon.

This prototype of the slave narrative, a form of autobiography that in the nineteenth century gained a wide international readership due to its compelling firsthand testimony against slavery in bulky two volumes, tells a richly detailed story of seagoing adventure, spiritual enlightenment, and economic success in England and the Americas. in this impressive publication, Equiano’s espouses the highest ideals of his era in the language of the ordinary man and woman. His account surprised many with the quality of its imagery, its vivid description, its mature literary style, as well as its lively narrative which profoundly shamed those who had not joined the abolition effort. Entitled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, when first published in 1789 made a hit sold well and rapidly went through several editions.- 36 editions between 1789 and 1857 and was translated into Dutch and German. It is said to have been one of the earliest known examples of published writing by an African writer. It was the first influential slave autobiography. Its first-hand account of the horrors of slavery and of the experiences of an 18th-century black immigrant caused a sensation, fuelling a growing anti-slavery movement in England.

After its publication Equiano travelled extensively in England and Ireland promoting it.

Largely forgotten for 150 years, and then rediscovered in the 1960s, Equiano’s Interesting Narrative today is central to the canonof early modern Atlantic literature and history. It is taught in university courses and area studies as widely varying as African, African American, American, Caribbean, and World history/literature, and similar courses in allied disciplines. Equiano today is regarded as the most famous African, and certainly the most famous self-identified (Igbo), in the early modern Atlantic world, or,at the least, in the era of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery. According to Henry Louis Gates Jr. Equiano is «the most important black man in the eighteenth century.»

Surprisingly, given his importance, Equiano has attracted only a handful of serious biographers. One work, a literary biography by Angelo Costanza,Surprising Narrative: Olaudah Equiano and the Beginnings of Black Autobiography (1987), was published two decades ago, and another, a rather uncritical but still useful historical biography by James Walvin, An African’s Life: The Life and Times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745-1797, was published in 1998. And, the Narrative has been endlessly excerpted and anthologized.

Equiano is essentially seen as a «self-made man.» comparable to that most famous of contemporary self-made men, Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), whose posthumous autobiography was published in 1793, «rather than considering Equiano an African American Franklin we would more accurately call Franklin an Anglo-American Equiano» Indeed,in Equiano’s own account, there was a moment in his life, in early 1759, when he first felt, not satirically but earnestly, «almost an Englishman.» or «almost an Atlantic creole»

Further Readings:

Gates, Louis, Jr and Mckay Nellie Y., l (eds) The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 1997 New York

AFRICANA Arts and Letters. An A-Z Reference of Writers, Musicians and Artists of the African American Experiences

Paul Edwards, ed., Equiano’s Travels (Oxford: Heinemann, 1967);

Olaudah Equiano, _The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,Written by Himself_, ed. Robert J. Allison (Boston: Bedford Books,1995).

For the history of the Narrative’ s publication,

James Green, «The Publishing History of Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative_,» _Slavery and Abolition_ 16, no. 3 (1995): 362-375.

The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings, ed. Vincent Carretta (1995), 77.

«Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa? New Light on anEighteenth-Century Question of Identity,» _Slavery and Abolition_ 20, no. 3 (1999): 96-105.

Paul E. Lovejoy, in extended review essay, «Autobiography and Memory: Gustavus Vassa, alias Olaudah Equiano, the African,» _Slavery and Abolition_ 27, no. 3 (2006):317-347.

See also the testy exchange between the two that followed:

Carretta, «Response to Paul Lovejoy’s ‘Autobiography and Memory:Gustavus Vassa, alias Olaudah Equiano, the African’,» _Slavery and

Abolition_ 28, no. 1 (2007): 115-119; and Lovejoy, «Issues of Motivation— Vassa/Equiano and Carretta’s Critique of the Evidence,»

_Slavery and Abolition_ 28, no. 1 (2007): 121-125

Alexander X. Byrd, «Eboe, Country, Nation, and Gustavus Vassa’s _Interesting Narrative,»William and Mary Quarterly_ 63, no. 1 (2006): 123-148.

. Carretta, «Response to Paul Lovejoy,» 115.

Benjamin Ajak, Alephonsion Deng, and Benson Deng, _They Poured Fired on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan_ (New York: Public Affairs, 2005).

_Interesting Narrative_, ed. Carretta, 62.

James Walvin, _An African’s Life: The Life and Times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745-1797_ (London: Continum, 1998), 162, 164.

[geralddeslandes]

Paradise Lost

For the last couple of years, I have offered a study day of three talks about the representation of the South of France by artists from Cézanne to Picasso. One aspect of this is the way in which painters transposed an image of Edenic innocence and sensuality from the South Seas to Provence. The story begins with the astonished delight of De Bougainville’s sailors at the ease with which Tahitian women regarded their own nudity. It continues with Diderot’s response to De Bougainville’s memoirs in which the critic contradicts the Biblical associations of ‘naked and ashamed’ with the assertion that ‘obscenity is not a naked Venus but a Venus with her skirts tucked up’. The link between the exoticism of such 18th century thinkers and the paintings of Gauguin and Matisse is the poetry of Baudelaire who visited Mauritius and Réunion in 1841 on a voyage whose influence lingered on into the Fleurs du Mal.

I was thus delighted to have the opportunity to visit both islands as a speaker on a pre-Christmas cruise to the Indian Ocean where I gave a series of talks about the history of maritime exploration from the Vikings to Captain Scott. One of the three talks, which I am now offering as a study day, was about artists and plant collectors in the South Seas and their influence on the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

The talk included a reference to the botanical gardens in Mauritius, which were established in 1770 and which are the oldest in the southern hemisphere. They contain a plaque with a quotation from Bernadin de Saint-Pierre, the author of Paul et Virginie of 1788. This steamy Rousseauesque novel is about two small children who are brought up by slaves in the Mauritian forest and fall in love in a plot that has much in common with that of The Blue Lagoon. ‘The discovery of a useful plant’ claims the plaque in words that might have been written by Saint-Pierre’s British counterparts, Daniel Solander on the Endeavour or Flinders’ botanical illustrator Ferdinand Bauer, ‘is more valuable than a gold mine and worthier of praise than the excavation of a pyramid’.

Through a chance meeting with Emmanuel Richon, the curator of the island’s Blue Penny Museum, I discovered that Baudelaire met a sugar planter, Autard de Bragard, in the botanical gardens that had been planted by Pierre Poivre. His wife, Emmeline, inspired one of his most beautiful poems La Dame Créole. She in turn employed a wet nurse whom Richon argues was La Belle Dorothée, the Malabaraise with whom the twenty-year-old poet had an ‘affair’.  Baudelaire in an image reminiscent of Gauguin described the skin of his mistress as smelling of coconut, vanilla, benjamin and spice:  scents that appear frequently in poems such as Parfum exotique and that one is still encouraged to smell in the botanic gardens. 

In early editions of La Malabaraise, Baudelaire includes the word ‘Esclave’ in its title. Richon points out that if the ‘affair’ occurred on Réunion, as has often been suggested, the relationship would literally have been that of master and slave since the practice was not abolished on the French colony until 1848. However, if it occurred in the then British colony of Mauritius, Dorothée was probably one of the first indentured labourers who were brought to the island, mainly from India, after Britain’s abolition of the ownership of slaves in its colonies in 1834.

 I saw an interesting exhibition about indentured labour at the Aapravasi Ghat, World Heritage site where new arrivals underwent a medical inspection and had their identity photographs taken.  Michel Foucault described such photographs as the stereotypical invention of the industrial revolution since they enabled employers to divide and categorise workers in a pseudo-scientific way. In 1834 the British Secretary of State described indentured labour on Mauritius as ‘the great experiment’ and certainly there is something chillingly mechanical about the way in which the workers were cheated of their wages, forced to spend a fifth of their earnings on their return passage at the end of their five-year contract and charged high prices by their employers for the essentials that they needed.  It was only when the young Ghandi visited the islands on his way back from South Africa in 1897, that a campaign was launched that led to the end of the system in 1910.

Although there is little doubt that Baudelaire’s relationship with La Belle Dorothée was exploitative, its exact nature is still in question. Baudelaire describes her sauntering along the beach with her naked feet leading her wherever they pleased. Yet elsewhere he writes that newly freed slaves tended to buy shoes as a mark of their liberty, implying that she might have still been a slave. Such distinctions are important given that 70% of the population of Mauritius is now descended from the 240,000 indentured labourers that were brought to the island.

By chance, while I was there the immigration sheds at the Aapravasi Ghat were being used to house an international festival of environmental art. It struck me that it might well have appealed to Bernadin de Saint Pierre since it addressed many of the challenges now facing the islands. Among the pieces were digitized versions  of botanical art and a piece by a local artist about the displacement of so-called ‘boat people’ through international conflicts and global warming. I talked to a French artist, Naziha Mestaoui, who had created an installation, which encouraged visitors to plant a virtual tree on a screen. She has done similar pieces in other parts of the world and explained to me that an international bank had undertaken to plant a real tree on the island for every visitor who took part in the installation and to keep them up to date about its progress if they left their email address.

The immense wealth that sugar brought to the islands through the introduction first of slavery and then of indentured labour created a surprisingly sophisticated colonial art market.  Tristan Bréville, a photographer and the curator of the Museum of Photography on Mauritius, told me that around 1840 a German resident planter, Ferdinand Whohritz, bought one of Daguerre’s first cameras and encouraged the establishment of a photographic studio two years before another one was established in the southern hemisphere. He even claimed that its proprietor, Chambay, may have photographed Baudelaire at the time of his visit.

Such assertions are, of course, difficult to prove. What is more certain, however, is that the portraitists such as Arthur Grimaud were active on Réunion in the 1840s and that landscape artists such as Adolphe Le Roy were trying to make sense of its misty, vertiginous interior as early as the 1880s. It is quite possible that Le Roy may have met Ambroise Vollard, who moved from Réunion to Paris in 1885 and whose collection - including works by Picasso, Gauguin and Van Gogh - is now at the Musée Leon Dierx on the island.  It is extraordinary to think that the purchaser of Gauguin’s Masque Sauvage of 1894-95, one of the earliest examples of ‘primitivism’ by a European artist, should have grown up in the landscape that helped to inspire Baudelaire. Perhaps, the art dealer, who sold a highly influential Cézanne bather to Matisse in 1897, had a particular affinity with the poet��s celebration of ‘luxe, calme et volupté’.  If so, he might have been amused when the artist borrowed the poet’s words for the title of his own definition of the good life of Provence.