Those who follow tattoo news may have heard about the Belgian girl who claims she asked for three stars to be tattooed on her face, then fell asleep and woke up to find 56 stars there instead, and wanted to sue the tattoo artist:

Now, it turns out she made the whole thing up to placate her father, who was, perhaps understandably, upset at her new facial adornment:

[S]he told Dutch TV this week, “I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious.”

The tattoo artist also said [she] had agreed to 56 stars.

“She agreed, but when her father saw it, the trouble started,” Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws quoted the man as saying.

I think the moral here is to always get informed consent, and maybe to be a little leery of 18 year-olds wanting their faces covered in tattoos. Kudos to the tattoo artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, for seeing the real lessons here:

Toumaniantz, who is covered from head to toe in tattoo artistry, said the only thing he was disappointed in was having an unhappy client.

“I don’t regret it. To tell you the truth, this has given me some publicity,” Toumanaintz told The Telegraph.

He will now require written consent from clients before any procedure, he said.

I had always thought the catastrophic pain associated with getting a tattoo was contract enough–who would do that on accident?–but the man is wise. He didn’t do anything wrong, but it would be good for him to have a better way to prove that.

In the meantime, a pretty 18 year-old Belgian girl has a face intentionally covered in 56 stars. Maybe there’s a broader issue there than informed consent–just sayin’.

I have been terribly busy of late, which explains my absence from blogging for the past three weeks. I’m sure this has caused much dismay for my reader(s).

There are many matters on which I could opine, but for now here is a totally fake but effectively creepy video from Singapore depicting an “elevator ghost“:

I was expecting it to be a trick of light or something. Turns out it’s just viral marketing. There’s a video explaining how they did it (SPOILER: It’s computer editing), but it’s not in English (possibly Singlish–I’m not too familiar with the languages of Singapore).

To get an idea of how effective something like this can be amongst the public, check this out:

I can’t not share this story from AP (excerpted because it’s really gross):

NESS CITY, Kan. – Deputies said a woman in western Kansas sat on her boyfriend’s toilet for two years, and they’re investigating whether she was mistreated.

 

Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said a man called his office last month to report that something was wrong with his girlfriend.

 

Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman’s skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

 

“We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital,” Whipple said. “The hospital removed it.”

 

***

 

“She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body,” Whipple said. “It is hard to imagine. … I still have a hard time imagining it myself.”

 

He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.

 

“And her reply would be, ‘Maybe tomorrow,”’ Whipple said. “According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom.”

 

The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that “there was something wrong with his girlfriend,” Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call.

This may turn out to have been a serious case of abuse or neglect, in which case I’ll probably feel bad for making fun of the situation.

But still…

TWO YEARS???

Didn’t I see something like this on TV once?

That was a little different (woman spending three years on a sofa, not two years on a toilet).

The real question (that I know you’re wondering about) is whether the boyfriend’s place has more than one bathroom. And if it doesn’t…

Actually, let’s not go there. Let’s not go any further with this. I’m out.

UPDATE: More info from AP. Apparently the woman has a phobia about leaving the bathroom.

For your next holiday dinner party, pass on the turkey or roast beef.

Instead, treat your guests to fluffy mackerel pudding, thanks to Weight Watchers circa 1974.

I would hotlink the picture, but it’s just too frightening.

You’ve seen something cute, now see something strange: a donkey toting a pouch full of lambs.