september 19, 1990

wy

BASIC BLACK: When the
going gets tough, the
tough get a bike. Two-
wheeled transportation
is @ great way to get
Ground says Arthur
Black from the back of
@ basic fai-tired CCM -
Page 2.

GOLDENROD: That stop
at the top of the ferris
wheel is a thrill, says Ivy
Kent. She remembers

. the good old days at

the couniry fair where
good times only Cost a
quarter - Page 9.

SILVER SCREEN: If sex,
smut and crude lan-
guage offend you, you
wont want to read
what David Ryland has
TO say on Page 12, let
alone see the movie he
reviews for his column.

Saving postage stamps
helps SPCA stamp out
unwanted pregnancies

By CHUCK RUSSELL
This Week Staff
ach morning Shirley Paris sits in the boardroom
of the Victoria branch of the Society for the

postage stamps from used envelopes.

Paris, an SPCA volunteer, sits amidst a collection of
grocery bags and plastic garbage bags. They contain
stamps which arrive at the Napier Lane clinic every week.
The stamps are donated by individuals and groups to the
Save Old Stamps Program.

The SPCA has operated their SOS program for 25 years
as a means off subsidizing the society’s Spay Neuter Pro-
gram for cats and dogs. The stamps are sold at $3-7 a
pound, depending on the market price, to Victoria Stamp
Auction.

When enough stamps are collected, junior SPCA mem-
bers, volunteers and staff sit sorting and cutting stamps
from old envelopes.

“When our storage room is overflowing, staff will sit
during their coffee breaks and lunch clipping stamps, said
office manager Sylvia Holitnay. “We have a guy who takes
big black garbage bags full of stamps to the buyer.”

The stamps are sorted by the buyer with the more valu-
able ones being sold individually while the common ones
are marketed in packages of assorted stamps.

“In order for us to keep the spaying and neutering price
down,” she said, “we use the money from the stamp pro-
gram and from donations people make specifically to keep
the animal population down. Continued on Page 7

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), cutting —

KIN

Tattoo parlors
coming out
of the alley

By TONY KANT

This Week Editor
en many of us
hear the word
tattoo, we im-
mediately con-
jure up visions of the
drunken sailor who stag-
gers into a grimey, dimly-
lit parlor where a
stubble-faced, beer-bellied
man imprints anchors and
eagles on the arms of his

customers.

That's the old stereotype, of
course. These days, the modern
tattoo parlor is more apt to be
tastefully decorated in pastel
colors with comfortable furni-
ture and piped-in music. And
more often than not, the cus-
tomer is a young woman who
chooses a delicate, tasteful
image that is applied in a dis-
creet location. And the tattooist
is inclined to insist that he or she
is an artist.

Geoff Briggs is definitely of
that ‘mindset. He takes great

DEEP:

pains to point out the images he
leaves on the skin of his clients
are “art”.

Victoria has only three estab-
lishments that apply tattoos —
Briggs’ Crystal Image Tattoo-
ing, the Tattoo Emporium and
Tiger Mountain. Then there are
any number of “scratchers” -
amateurs who use a device
made form a Walkman motor, a
Bic pen and a sewing machine
needle.

Tattoo parlor customers have
been changing in recent years,
said Briggs, after fielding some
questions from two young
women who are inquiring about
the cost ofhaving “bracelets” tat-
tooed around their ankles on a
recent afternoon.

“These are the people I'm after
- the office girls, the white-collar
and blue-collar workers — not
your typical tattoo wearer.”

Briggs said the stereotyped
tattoo wearer - sailors and
bikers - make up a very small
part of his business. Of the four
or five customers he does on
average each day, very few
would fit that mold. He said he
has had only about a dozen
stereotypical tattoo wearers in
his shop since opening his
Windsor Court salon July 1.

Continued on Page 3

SPCA VOLUNTEER Shirley Paris cuts stamps from envelopes
saved by provincial government employees

Photo by CHUCK RUSSELL

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