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I know this will get off topic for a bit, but
Deadparrot wrote:

I’ll say right up front that I typically consider tattoos to be a bad or silly idea.
I just don’t understand why someone would want to have some drawing permanently etched into their skin like that.

Tattooing has become an art form that I have grown a deep love and respect for recently. I personally am tattooless (but hopefully not for long) but I find plenty of reasons to find tattoos the opposite of silly. For one, a lot of people get a tattoo that will have some special meaning to them, whether symbolic or literal, such as getting a beautiful portrait of a close family member to always remind them of the strong, loving bond the two of them share, or getting a tattoo of a fictional character that taught you a great lesson about themselves and/or their perspective on life, or getting a tattoo of their passion like plushie collecting. Hell, some people get ridiculous tattoos to tell them not to take life too seriously. Beyond that, some people just want to get tattoos because they appreciate art and want a beautiful or awesome piece on them so they can be a walking art gallery. Tattoos are a person's way of saying a lot about them without words. Of course, there are millions upon millions of bad tattoos made every day, but I think we need to respect those that take tattooing seriously and have or make tattoos worth having.

God dammit, I wanna go to a con covered in temporary tattoos

Have some cute Rarity and Applejack

Sauce

@RandomMan
Reminds me of this picture.

Remember when everybody moved to Egypt and declared that it was Cadance or Skyla? Ah, the Twilicorn butthurt memories. I will always cherish them.

Can you get a shirt of Octavia, but have vinyl be involved in the process somehow?
Because the best shirts are meta shirts.
Always.

Man, all this talk of merchandise just makes me feel bad for swearing off MLP merchandise. Mainly because the kid in me is saying "TOYS TOYS TOYS TOYS" while the man in me is sitting here like "Dude, why would you spend all that money on toys? Come on lets go get target practice with your new $100 Airsoft gun".

And besides…..I already said if I ever buy ANY sort of Merchandise now it has to be that Rainbow Dash Backpack, not the weird deformed looking one from HotTopic, I'm talking about the one from welovefine that has no space for personal belongings but makes it look like Rainbow Dash is actually hugging you (or…..other things if you're one of the perverted Bronehs). That's all I really want…..or the Comics and the Series on Bluray (which for some reason has a little trouble getting released over here!)

Okay, we're talking about merch now? I have quite a few MLP stuff, ranging from Comics #1-7 (I read #8), three shirts (Trixie, Vinyl, and Luna), a Twilight blindbag, a Fluttershy McDonald's toy, a bunch of the cards (including the Pinkie, Vinyl, and Fluttershy boxes), and a Vinyl sticker which currently resides on the side of my computer tower, in a PODS somewhere in North Carolina.

And you know what, dawg? I take it all in stride. I've still yet to get any DVD's, but there's always piracy EHERM I MEAN Youtube.

Unrelated Fun Fact:

Well, how many of you use Firefox?
how many of you customize your browser?
I found a few mods you can do. Some of them work on Safari, Chrome, and Opera as well.

Lets share what we got.

I changed my browser to have a Luna theme
Firefox Themes MLP

you can find Google and Youtube downloads here

There are other Google designs you can find

I customized mine to be black

and this is what you can do to YouTube I customized mine with Luna

You mofos need to get on my browsing level.

Crimson Locks wrote:

God dammit, I wanna go to a con covered in temporary tattoos

Covered in only temporary tattoos.

@ RandomMan

Seriously, something's wrong with me and dirty jokes… I'm so strange instead of weird sometimes, it frightens me.

@Markhaox

>Implying that wasn't supposed to be a dirty joke.
>Implying I never make dirty jokes.

You can only wish to get on my level.

@RandomMan


The Dark Horse has risen from the darkness, mortal! Not even the Holy Sword Excalibur could handle me!

@Merch: The only MLP merch I have is the Fluttershy figurine from DeadParrot's giveaway a while ago, and the comics that I totally shamelessly pirated. I do plan on buying the comics, though. If only to admire that fantastic art style.

Markhaox wrote:

The Dark Horse has risen from the darkness, mortal! Not even the Holy Sword Excalibur could handle me!

Perhaps it's better to stop at this point on here, to avoid further derailment. If you wish to continue this feel free to redirect us to each others walls.

@RandomMan
OK… I will stop. Let me speak for the tattoos and merchandise then…

@Tattoos
Though I will most likely never get one, I love the look of tattoos. They're amazing works that you put on your canvas of a body. Such beautiful works of art… I always admire art, especially these since a risk is sort of involved that people are willing to take.

@Merchandise
The only things I own of MLP are the box from DP, a Rainbow Dash plushie from BaB, and the MLP game on iOS. I'm not as into the show as to collect everything about it, but I am enough to own at least one notable plushie.

@Merch
All I have is the Rainbow Dash figure from DeadParrot (thank you again), two comics, and MLP FiM Vol 1 (the first four comics in one book, I recommend it for those who don't have any of the comics). I want a brony T-shirt, but I don't know when I would ever wear it.

By the way, I have a chance to see Equestria Girls in theaters tomorrow. Is it worth it?

@Disturbed

@Merch
I have the first comic arc, that really bad sea pony book, the possibly season four spoilery Crystal Heart book, both season box sets, the Dr Hooves toy that Deadparrot gave me, and a Fluttershy trading card I got for free for filling out Enterplay's survey they had and sending them a self addressed stamped envelope.

@Shamelessly whoring myself out
I wrote a Rainbow Factory comedy fic.

@Merch
I have the comics (legally bought on iTunes because I'm not a filthy groundling), a piece of cardboard with a memory game on it that was given away free at a McDonalds and… nothing from DeadParrot.

Oh, wait, I do have those pictures, but those are of him, not from him.

@Tattoos – I have always planned to get tattoos. I would really like one on my wrist that would be a watch made of barbed wire, with the time being two minutes to midnight. Speaking of barbed wire, I'd like to get barbed wire tattoos across my arms. Kind of like The Sandman, but both arms.

But then again, are we talking about ponies or getting inked?

Comic Fun:

@Ponies in tattoos

I'm actually curious as to what the social attitude to body art would be in Equestria. I mean, they all basically get a tattoo on their ass when they hit puberty anyway, so you would think that one or two more wouldn't be considered a big deal. Yet, because it is le children's show, you don't see any. It's odd.

@Platus I think the first reactions of other ponies would exist out of calling it fake cutie marks or cutie pox.

Unless it doesn't resemble a cutie mark at all, like if a pony got a barbed wire tattoo wrapping around their torso.

@Tattoo Reactions
I think they would react the same way Rarity did with Zecora in Bridle Gossip (even though they weren't tattoos, but still patterns on her body).

I mean, if ponies have never seen it before, of course they'd be concerned, or possibly even frightened of strange and intricate patterns on a pony.

@ Jimmy
Dat comic…

@Master Stunt
If it's anything, I'll always serve you, Master!

Or maybe something more Tribal perhaps? Imagine a Pony Getting blackish Tattoos around their eyes that may very well remind you of this:

…Well… The Purple bits flowing around the eyes anyways.

Needless to say, Pony Tattoos probably don't really look like anything at all, and are probably just random geometric shapes that show off how they want others to see their body shape like.

Some will have some that look line Tron lines, mixing Straight Lines and Perfect Circles….

…Others will have some that look more like Gothic Architecture, all pointy and divergent from a central point…

…Some will just go with Simple Tiger Stripes and Leopard Spots…

Seriously, Just Google "Tribal Tattoos", you'll probably come up with a dozen that Ponies will be okay with.

Maybe ponies do have tattoos but they're not drawn to make it family friendly?

If ponies had tattoos, I'd imagine you wouldn't be able to see them.

Fur and all that jazz.

Although we can see them blush, so to hell with jazz!

Tattoo's? Got plenty. All down one side, in white courier text.

Thing about tattoo's is that they are really hard and really expensive when you have fur. You gotta permanently dye it down to the root. You know how hard it is to dye an image into fur that matches the same quality of a cutie mark? Damn near impossible. Only the best unicorns can pull it off without making any mistakes.

And lets not forget the stigma that comes with tattoo's. Ponyville citizens are a really conservative bunch. They are into their good wholesome family values and think tattoo'd ponies are potential criminals

So tattoo's are just not all that popular, at least not around Ponyville.

@2Dash: Well, if you can't see the tattoo there is no point in making one.

And I don't see tattoos being popular in pony culture, at least not in the flank area, so it doesn't get confused with a cutie mark. Well, somepony that haven't find it's special talent could use a tattoo to fake it.
In a side note, I can't see Scoots with a cutie mark, I can imagine Applebloom with an apple (obviously) or Sweetie Belle with sewing machine. But Scoots… I don't know, a scooter?

Anyway, what are cutie marks? They are fur with a different color? A mark in the skin? A magical thingy? Who knows?

In a side note, I can't see Scootaloo with a cutie mark. I can imagine Applebloom with an apple (obviously) or Sweetie Belle with sewing machine. But Scoots… I don't know, a scooter?

@Bruno

They are fur with a different color? A mark in the skin? A magical thingy?

In my headcanon…all of them

They are patches fur that magically had their pigments altered and the colors of the individual strands are arranged (magically) into a distinct shape. The skin pigment underneath is also changed to match the shape seen in the fur.

@ Cutie Mark and Tattoo Explanations…

Seriously, on a show of talking ponies who can fly and perform tricks, there really doesn't have to be an explanation for anything anymore. But if I had to explain… with a gun to my forehead…

You're smoked…

I think I'm under thinking it, but whatever. I honestly couldn't be able to explain it.

Just magic? C'mon, this thread can do better than that.

This thread used to have discussions what went on for pages about how pegasi preen their feathers, how ponies breed, what happened to all the humans and what kind of flavors pony meat tastes like.

Did we just chalk it all up to magic back in Pony General 4? Hell no, we over analyzed the crap out of that shit.

Use more imagination! Get scientific! Theorize down the the tiniest detail. You can do this people!

@Cutie Mark Explanation – I think, personally, that the cutie mark permanently changes the color of that particular patch of fur. I think a couple of ponies (maybe Snips and Snails) had their flanks shaved in one episode, and the cutie mark dissapeared. That pretty much proves it.

But then again, it's a fucking cartoon.

@ Preening Wings
Oh! That I can go into detail about! I refer to preening as… uh… the Pegasi version of… uh… oral play… because of wingboners.

Yes… I have this headcannon… I'm shameful… but it's not crazy! It's normal! Normal!

@cutiemarks

We saw Snips and Snails get their butts shaved in one episode and we couldn't see their cutiemarks, so that means that they are only visible on the fur.

Dude BSoD, this is a cartoon where Magic is the greatest power. This is literally one of the few chances we can get for using

When asking any question involving the show! Hell Magic is in the title, any other explanation for something going on in this show would be an insult.

Remember when I said I was gonna see Equestria Girls today?

Looks like I have to wait till it's out on DVD I guess.

I just realized something while looking at the Pony Image Gallery……the "Share" button for Facebook……who the fuck would share the Pony Image Gallery on Facebook (where you may have family or co-workers added) with all the Spaghetti pictures and of course the incredibly saucy borderline fetish artwork there?!………….But then I look at the number next to the button, over 100 people shared the gallery. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!

This is the Internet. Stranger things have happened!

Cutie Mark Physics 101:

Discussion 1: Symbolo-genetics

There could be said to be a complex interplay at work between a Pony's sense of Symbolism and what their Cutie Mark looks like.

Cheeriliee for example has blooming flowers that represent nurturing children's potential, which although doesn't directly show any correlation in symbolism to her job as teacher, it does a pretty good job of representing how she sees her job, or perhaps the special talent behind it (Maternal Instincts).

However, despite her more esoteric symbolism of her cutie mark, there are many more ponies with much more obvious messages. Hourglass for Time, Apples for Apple farming, Balloons for Partying.

The only clear cut way of predicting the appearance of a pony's cutie mark from their talent alone seems to be based on their own visual language and perception. To the point its probable that in a Hypothetical tribe of ponies that use Pictograms, their set of cutie marks may look remarkably similar to other with similar talents, and may look reminiscent of said Pictograms.

…In further analysis, one may ask the question of how the cutie mark forms, or how it gains the mentioned symbolism from its owner. Which the simple answer may involve either the pony's mind or soul containing the magical charge which creates the cutie mark, so there isn't an excuse.

…Slightly more complex analysis may invoke the possibility that as the Cutie mark forms, then perhaps the pony's mind and/or soul has become "ignited" with some form of passion which essentially starts off the magical reactions throughout their being from a simple spark. Essentially being created from the awakening of their magical potential while also creating a focus for it to be utilized from a top down imprint of their identity and experiences thus far.

For our next topic, we may want to discuss various hypothetical scenarios, such as if in the rare case that the souls or minds of two or more ponies are intertwined somehow via shenanigans, would their cutie marks begin to share certain traits between them? And if said intertwining begins to loosen for whatever reason, would the shared traits begin to be replaced with ones more suited to the individual?

Whatever the case, the fact that Twilight said of the swapped cutie mark incident that she had messed with their very identity is somewhat illuminating.

Bruno the Rustler said:

Anyway, what are cutie marks? They are fur with a different color? A mark in the skin? A magical thingy? Who knows?

Canon does…

My conclusion is that their genes change when they earn their cutie mark, making their fur the correct colors.

You're in the wrong neighborhood, motherfucker.

Then please show me where the right one is

I wonder if the cutiemarks work similarly to how the Sorting Hat in harry potter works: it takes into account your personality and what you're good at, but also what you want to become. So, then, the CMC haven't gotten their marks yet because they have not discovered what it is that they want to be – they have talents (as we've seen), but being good at something and wanting to do something are very different things. This would also allow for more abstract marks like Cheerilee's – since the mark represents not only what she is good at, but also how she understands her talent in relation to her goals in life and her desires. Finally, in Magical Mystery Cure, we saw that when the marks changed they made the ponies go and do what the talents were, but they were all miserable while it happened – that is because the mark is supposed to indicate what they are good at AND what they find fulfillment doing, and so having the mark dictate their actions leaves them unfulfilled and miserable because of the conflict between skill and desire.

P.S. It leads to Molestia's lair.

yes and no, as far as can be determined from the show- it seems to be that the common thread with Cutie Marks is that the pony involved realises they could do this forever- Fluttershy got her mar when she relaised she could communicate with anmals better than other ponies (for both meanings of the phrase, as it happens) Twilight got hers when she realised she could actually perform magic well (I suspect she had some form of mental block before- basically, she was trying too hard. Which is why when she was distracted- the egg hatched) Rainbow Dash got hers when she realised she liked racing. Pinkie got hers whne she realised she liked the reaction she got from her parties. Applejack got hers when she realised she liked working on the farm.

The CMC haven't got theirs, because they are trying the wrong things- Thye actually came damn close to getting them whne thye did the talent show. ( each Crusader did the wrong thing. Sweetie's talent is actually likely to be singing.( sure, when she was singing a lullaby she was rubbish, but she may be a rock singer or similar) Apple Bloom's talent is construction- her restoration of the Crusader Clubhouse speaks for itself. Scootaloo? I'm not sure)

Mostly with you there, Platus.
Cutie marks definitely go a step beyond simple 'talent' and only really appear when that talent is coupled with 'passion.'
A pony has to be good at something and really want to do it for their mark to be earned.
For the Crusaders, they each have very clear talents, but seem to lack the passion for one reason or another.
Sweetie Belle can sing but seems to have stage fright to some degree (so she can't sing as her special talent because she doesn't want others to hear), Scootaloo considers her scooter skills 'just something she does' (so she hasn't realized that it really is what makes her special), and Apple Bloom seems almost unaware of her talent for construction (to the point that she considers it 'nothing,' similar to Scoots, I guess).

In MMC, 'talent' was definitely not transferred (since they all sucked at their new jobs), so it seemed more like the cutie marks were giving semi-conscious suggestions toward certain activities.
Maybe like a little whisper in the back of their minds saying, "Hey, Butterfly-butt, your talent is tending to animals. You should probably do that."
Obviously when they tried to follow through with these suggestions, things went haywire because they weren't actually interested in or good at what was being suggested by their marks.
In other words, I don't see it as the cutie marks dictating their actions so much as the marks creating a kind of cognitive dissonance that just messes with their heads.

In general terms, I guess I'd consider a cutie mark (when working properly) to be a bit like a feedback loop.
It's there as a constant reminder of a pony's talent (both as a visual aid and some kind of magical subconscious influence) to helps to continuously reaffirm their life's ambition.
They just have to actually discover their abition in the first place to get the ball rolling.

                                                                     Off Topic

Hasbro just filed a Cease and Desist letter to Shapeways and Hashbrony over his sandstone prints.

If you were wanting one, buy it NOW. Unlikely you'll be able to get another one like them for some time, if ever.

Click image to go to respective product page.

I never really was a person of ordering fandom stuff. But I just checked the site and they seem to be stationed in the Netherlands, which means no extreme shipping costs or issues with payments like I normally have to face.

This opportunity is too beatiful to let pass. But I'm really doubting.