Dressing Like an Artist

A couple of weeks ago my friend Lori Greenberg posted an interesting Wikihow article on how to dress like an artist. I never consider myself an artist, but I certainly have a artsy-farsty side that I spend alot of time indulging. From time to time I've contemplated the "dressing like an artist" issue. I'm a little schizo about my dress. On one hand I'm not the type to want to call attention to myself, and on the other hand I do like cool, fun interesting clothes. But heck, I work as a lab tech, a mostly jeans and t-shirt sort of world which suits me as I'm all about comfortable clothes. But deep down I really like the idea of dressing like an artist.

So how do I measure up to the Wikihow article? Apparently something should be different about my hair. Does the big gray streak fit the bill? I bet that's not what they have in mind! Accessories are good. Does wearing my lampwork jewelery count? Anthropologie is suggested as a great place to shop... I do love to shop there, but I never buy anything. Same for thrift and vintage shops, where I shop with my daughter, but never for myself. My favorite place to buy artsy clothes is the huge flea market where my mom lives in Florida. Many of my favorite artsy skirts have come from the flea market. I also love tye-dye. Does that make me artsy?

The one spot were I may actually pass the arty test is piercings. Apparently artist are supposed to have piercings. To be honest, I've never really been into piercings. I have nothing against them, I did let my daughter pierce her nose, but other than the standard ear piercings I've never been interested in having any others. That is, until a little over a year ago, when I needed to consult a divorce lawyer. She had an unusual piercing that caught my eye. A gentle loop that seemed to be inside her ear. I asked her about it and she told me if was called a daith. Fast forward a few months. I'm at the piercing salon with my daughter, who needed to buy a new nose ring, when I spied the black rubber sample ear that shows piercing possibilities. As I looked it over, my daughter said "Come on Mom, you know you want to", and she was right and so I did it, a single daith piercing in my left ear. I really like it!

People say that piercing is addicting. Maybe it is. A few months after my daith I notice my daughter is sporting a new piercing, one way up high on her earlobe. It turns out she did it herself. I probably should have been mad at her for self piercing, but to be honest it looked so darn cute on her I couldn't get mad. Instead I decided I needed one too, after all, she and I have the same shaped ear. So a couple months later (I wanted to wait until after my bwach vacation) I went to the piercing salon and voile, I sport another new piercing.

So now I have both ears pierced the ordinary way, and my left ear has my "divorce piercing", the daith, and my "Bond with my daughter", piercing, the upper lobe. So does this mean I can now dress like an artist?