Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Die-Hard Fan Covers Her Body in Twilight-Related Tattoos

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 03:59 AM PST

Remember Cathy Ward, the woman who made the news back in 2011 for getting a full-back Twilight tattoo honoring the popular vampire movie which had helped her lose weight? Well, the avid fan of the Twilight trilogy didn’t stop there, and now her upper body is almost completely covered with Twilight tattoos.

51-year-old Cathy Ward, from Reading, England, got her first Twilight tattoo as a way to show her appreciation for the movie that helped her lose six dress sizes, in 2008. The supermarket worker says she started watching the movies and reading the books, which provided a distraction from eating. Then she started exercising on her cross trainer while watching the vampire flick, and soon she was back in shape. But the tattoos didn’t stop with the weight loss. After the full-back tattoo featuring Bella, Edward and Jacob, the woman moved on to her arms, which are now covered with portraits of Carlisle Cullen, Jasper Hale and Renesmee Cullen, as well as a quote from Taylor Lautner’s werewolf character, Jacob, from Eclipse: “it would be as easy as breathing with me”. She also has the Cullen crest tattooed across her chest. So far, Cathy has spent around 83 hours and £7,000 ($10,900) on tattoos, and doesn’t plan on stopping until she is covered head to toe in Twilight ink, except for her face and hands.

Photo: GetReading.co.uk

"The tattoos are because it means a lot to me and they're a good reason to keep the weight off,” Mrs. Ward told English website Get Reading. "I'm still continuing with them. We've got plans and designs for my legs next year – the aim is to cover my whole body.” She reckons the desired Twilight body-suit will set her back between £15,000 - £20,000 and will take another three, four years to complete. Apparently, her obsession with the Twilight universe has caused her brother to disown her, but her father still accepts her the way she is, and her husband has gone from complaining about her inking habits to saying “show me” every time she comes back from the tattoo shop.

Photo: GetReading.co.uk

Right now, Cathy is taking a break from tattooing for a few months, to save some money, but apparently she’s “having a blast”, and already has plans for future artworks.

Die-Hard Fan Covers Her Body in Twilight-Related Tattoos was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Chocolate High-Heels – Probably the Best Valentine’s Day Gift for Women

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 02:55 AM PST

Combining two of women’s favorite things in the world, chocolate and shoes, Texas chocolatier Andrea Pedrazza creates what can only be considered the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for the ladies – chocolate high-heels.

The two weeks before Valentine’s Day is the busiest time of the year for Dallas-based chocolate shop CocoAndre. I’m sure there are other great places to buy tasty chocolate in D-Town, but only here can men find the most delicious designer shoes at a fraction of the price. Master chocolatier Andrea Pedrazza pours the brown goodness into plastic high-heel molds and decorates them with gourmet ingredients to make them look as realistic as possible. Unsurprisingly, her most popular creations are chocolate Christian Louboutin shoes which sell for $35. To recreate the designer’s signature red soles, the food artist uses red ganache. Available styles include simple colors, zebra or cheetah print and polka dots, so men wanting to gift their wives with their favorite shoes for cheap are bound to find something they like.

While her products may be aimed at women in love with Louboutin high-heels, it’s the men that make up the bulk of Pedrazza’s clientele. ”They come here at the last minute, they get this beautiful shoe in a box ready to be given away as a gift,” she told the Associated Press. These days she has so many orders that as soon as a chocolate shoe is finished, it goes out the door. You have to admit, it beats spending $1,500 on a pair of real Louboutins.

 

 

 

Photos: CocoAndre/Facebook

via Telegraph.co.uk

Chocolate High-Heels – Probably the Best Valentine’s Day Gift for Women was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Women-Only Sleeping Cafe Opens in Tokyo

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 01:42 AM PST

Power naps – those short periods of sleep during the day – have been known to boost brain activity and increase productivity at the work place. Now a sleeping cafe in Tokyo’s Akasaka business district is offering hard-working Japanese women the chance to enjoy the benefits of the power nap, for a fee.

Stress and fatigue at the office are real issues in Japan, but for the women workaholics of the Asakara business district, in Tokyo there is a place where they can go relax and restore their energy – the Quska Sleeping Cafe. This ingenious concept offers patrons the chance to get a quick shut-eye either during their lunch breaks or in between their constant hours of overtime. It charges ¥150 ($1.60) for ten minutes of sleep in their comfortable facilities, but have even more affordable rates for clients looking to buy four-hour slots (¥3,120, around $33) or more. Now, you may think 10 minutes makes no difference if you’re ready to drop to the floor from fatigue, but various studies have shown that brief naps (10 -15 minutes) improve a person’s alertness and overall performance without the negative effects of sleep inertia associated with longer sleeping periods. Japanese companies are well-known for their productivity, and one of the reasons for this may be the power nap. For years, they’ve actually been encouraging their employees to take naps during work hours, and sleeping cafes like Quska provide the perfect environment.

Unlike other sleeping salons in Tokyo, Quska caters to women only, using aromatherapy to increase the relaxing effects of the power naps, and boasting specially designed spaces with cosmetic supplies, where business women can freshen up before heading back to the office. According to the cafe’s official website, a power nap in their facilities can raise efficiency by up to 20%. To make sure they don’t oversleep, Quska staff give nappers a wake-up call through special earphones provided on arrival.

Power naps have been part of Japanese work culture for many years, and during that time they got the process down to a science. Japanese researchers have conducted several studies, and even came up with the unorthodox practice of drinking coffee before a nap, to prevent people from going into a deep sleep and awake feeling even more tired. The effects of caffeine take about 20 minutes to kick-in, so they act as a natural wake-up call for the napper. It’s a good way to increase productivity, but as William at Japan Trends notes, it does “little to improve the Japanese working culture, the insane beast that gave birth to a new word, karoshi (death by overwork).”

Power nap cafes and salons are definitely not the weirdest sleeping venues in Japan. Just a few months back we covered the Soineya Cuddling Cafe, which offers patrons the chance to nap in the arms of a young girl, for $80 an hour.

Women-Only Sleeping Cafe Opens in Tokyo was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

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