I don't tan, I burn

Sorry I've been so absent here. I've been finishing some commissions for a friend that took me longer than anticipated. It was really great to be pushed out of my comfort zone though and I'm pretty happy with how they came out ^_^

Moving on, it's getting into summer now and I'm again being made painfully aware that I was born for much colder climates.. Antarctica perhaps... So to celebrate the completion of my first major commission and to welcome summer (even if its somewhat begrudgingly) I whipped this one up for you guys tonight. 

I'm white. I mean, I'm really white. When taking photos I need to be constantly aware of the skin tones around me in order to ensure I don't freak out the camera's white meter settings. 

Fact - when told that 15+ is better than nothing, I'm forced to respond with - It IS nothing.

Dark people don't understand. After a spell in the UV rays that ball of burning gasses above emits they merely frown at their darker complexion, frustrated at their "unsightly" tan lines. Meanwhile I'm being rushed to hospital with second degree burns and sun stroke, needing help later to remove the sheets of skin slowly peeling away from my body. 

Your a classic beauty, my mum would try reassuring me as I'd look enviously on my sister frolicking merrily in her Olive skin and bikini while I sat in the sand covered in sea shoes, boardies, a rashie, sun hat with a flap on the back and bright pink zinc stripes down my nose and cheeks resembling a sort of weird girly war paint. 

Classic beauty, you mean from the time they would put poison on their face to strip away layers of skin to reveal the pasty complexion expected of people that are too wealthy to ever venture into the sun. 

Thanks mum. 

Don't get me wrong, I've grown to like my colouring, and years of constant burning and peeling has yielded a slightly jaundice colour I fondly refer to as my 23 year tan. There's also been times of amusement. At about 6 or 7 mum had decided to start buying us nighties instead of the flannel we'd been picking from Target. Well, on more than one occasion when asking mum for a glass of water in the middle of the night I'd scare the living shit out of her as I floated silently into the room glowing white with my white laced nightie blowing eerily in the breeze. (not surprisingly it was back the the flannel the next year).

And although I'm still not entirely sure how I came to be the white sheep of the family in a collection of Mediterranean looking people I wouldn't want it any different. After all with the threat of Skin Cancer, the popularity of the milkybar kid and the invention of 90+ suncream.. White skin is on its way back in ^_^

Well, I can dream can't I 

*Note

Boardie - Board Shorts

Rashie - a water proof shirt