Here's where the unpierced can stand up and be counted!

[Ulf_the_Unwashed]

@Inigo_Montoya

When my kids were young I used to tell them bedtime stories. Sometimes I’d read, sometimes I’d make them up on the fly, sometimes they were fun, sometimes they were harrowing (like, GoT 1.3 where Old Nan tells Bran about winter) and nobody got any sleep. My kids are grown now, and they still ask me for stories. It’s who I am to them. The Hobyahs is a fairytale that, skillfully told, can [del]scare the shit out of[/del] make a lasting impression on a child. Our matching ink is intended to be physical manifestation of the bond we share based on that and the other stories. It’s more sincere and more durable, more of a commitment than “I love you.”

My youngest daughter (a different one from the above) was a severe cutter. She was not chopping herself up to express her love for anyone else.

The Hobyahs? The story where the old man sequentially cuts the legs, tail, and head off little dog Turpie (because he “barks so”), and where the old man and the old woman are killed by the Hobyahs, who then carry off the little girl and put her in a bag?

Lasting impression, yeah, I get it. Manifestation of love? Well, okay, to each his or her own!

[Inigo_Montoya]

What can I say, my father figure read it to my brother and me when we were little, just as his did for him when he was a wee tyke. It’s a family tradition. And a bonding experience. And it’s got a happy ending, sort of. I mean, it could have a more grisly ending.