Frequently Asked Questions about Zefram's fingernails
new, improved version - with answers!
(This is now very out of date. Read the full story.)
Yes.
I just let them grow. I never got into the habit of cutting them, after I gave up biting them (in 1998).
All too frequently. The most recent breakages of each nail were:
No. If I could control the shape that the nails grow, I'd choose a different one to be the claw.
Update! The claw is no more - it broke, losing half of its original length.
They get in the way of a lot of things. They help some things too. Here's a partial list:
they hinder...
|
they help...
|
The colours vary from time to time. Right now my usual set is:
left | right | |
---|---|---|
17 "Pure Colour" Snowdrop |
little finger | 17 "Advanced Wear" Nightshade |
CoverGirl "Nailslicks" 67 Rich Rust |
ring finger | CoverGirl "Nailslicks" 117 Galactic Green |
CoverGirl "Nailslicks" 115 Moonglow |
middle finger | L'Oreal "LaquiResist" 228 Chic |
Maybelline "Express Finish" Lime Aluminum |
index finger | CoverGirl "Nailslicks" 114 Cosmic Blue |
L'Oreal "Jet-Set" 235 Zoom |
thumb | 17 "Pure Colour" Atlantis |
All of these are available at Boots.
At a goth event, there's a 50% chance that I'll just be wearing black and white ("Nightshade" and "Snowdrop" in the above list).
I pierce them myself, using a hot needle. Specifically, I use a standard domestic darning needle, heated to yellow-hot in a miniature blow torch. The process is completely painless, except when I accidentally pierce my fingertips along with the nails.
I pierce them whenever I want to put a ring where there is currently no hole. I don't actively maintain any set of piercings, and indeed I have sometimes changed the set of fingernails in which I habitually wear rings.
Hypothetically, if I were to maintain a piercing in one nail, then presuming that the nail breaks as much as it grows (which in the long run it must), and presuming that I always pierce at my usual 5mm from the end of the nail, I would have to re-pierce it on the average every ten weeks. (My fingernails each grow about half a millimetre per week.) To maintain a piercing in each nail, I would have to perform an average of one piercing a week. In fact, I do much less than this: I currently have only eight nail piercings (seven different nails are pierced), and the nails do not break as much as they grow (they haven't had time to reach equilibrium).
I haven't decided what else I want pierced. For career reasons, it'll have to be something that's not visible when I'm wearing a business suit, but obviously has to be something I can expose at a goth event. I've considered a Prince Albert, but on the whole I'm leaning towards nipple piercings.
It seemed like a good idea, when I thought of it. Even now that I know just how much of a nuisance it is, I still like the idea. It's one of those cases of "never mind whether it works in practice, does it work in theory?"
Yes. Especially if I'm wearing tights. A few other things:
it hinders...
|
it helps...
|
Astoundingly, this is not frequently asked.