schoolpix

[moominmolly]

Looking over school photo packages in preparation for picture day tomorrow, I discovered the following items I could get my kid's mug on:

• Fake magazine covers (fashion, sports, science, art)
  
• Strange thematic cardboard items
  
• temporary tattoos (I bet those are a really unpleasant hit in middle school)
  
• Fake IDs
  
• ...as well as magnets, wall decals, doorhangers (?!), and more! (though not, in fact, a mug)
  
  Seriously, temporary tattoos? Who does that?

Comments

[ocschwar.livejournal.com]

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or on the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

– Rev. 13:16–17 (RSV)

[beah.livejournal.com]

At my cousin's bat mitzvah, there were bowls on every table filled with custom M&Ms with a baby pic and a recent pic of her. They just kept screaming to me, "Eat my head!" Amazing what people think it's fine to put their child's face on.

[kcatalyst.livejournal.com]

My MiL got Seth M&M's with his name and picture when JJ was born. He was completely thrilled. They're small enough that it's not creepy the way anything you'd have to cut up would be.

[beah.livejournal.com]

That's sweet. Different from feeding my cousin's face to hundreds of people - that seemed creepy to me.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Wow, yeah, those temporary tattoos are really creepy. Can you imagine being a kid and coming home to find your whole family wearing them?

[eestiplika.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Remember when the only thing to riot for was the "laser" background?

(Trading cards? I am pretty sure it is awesome that you can order something called an "abstract funpack," though I am not sure this is the most awesome iteration thereof.)

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

WE DIDN'T EVEN GET THE LASER BACKGROUND!!! I'm so jealous.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

We did get the laser background one year. And the "Reflections" option, which seemed creepy to me even then...

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

The best one we had was, the year of Halley's comet, we had a background with the comet, as though we had fortuitously been photographed as it happened to be going behind us.

I loved that one.

We also got the laser background at one point.

(We is me and my little brother.)

-E

[safetybitch.livejournal.com]

But surely she's old enough for her first fake ID? I mean, surely she's old enough to send on booze runs for you now?

And why on earth haven't they started marketing the life-size cardboard cutouts of your child yet? You could send them to grandparents to leave in their living rooms, and really freak guests out!

(We've refused to do the school package of pictures at all for the last couple of years, on the grounds that they were getting too silly.)

[kcatalyst.livejournal.com]

I would totally get my mother in law a life-size cut-out of our kids! That would be hilarious. You're right, I can't imagine why these aren't already standard. Maybe the schools don't want to have to deal with sending them home?

[dot_fennel]

The Atari 2600 retro stuff is wow.

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the temporary tattoos are freakish. So send one to me if you get them, ok?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I am entirely tempted, just because it is so wrong. I promise to send you one if I do.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

I am not comfortable with anyone marketing anything, retro looking or otherwise that says "input secret code to enter" and has a kids picture on it. UR DOIN IT WRONG.

[eestiplika.livejournal.com]

I want to hear more about the doorhangers.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Sadly, there is no picture of those. But WHAT ARE THEY FOR? I can only imagine some kind of not-at-all-subtle boarding school hanky code dorm room thing.

[beah.livejournal.com]

Ha! So much better than tying a sock to the doorknob.

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

The temporary tattoos do kind of blow my mind. I can't really imagine wanting anyone's photorealistic face stuck to my body.

Maybe it's for use as a deterrent for post-children sexual activity/reminder to grab some birth control? Like, you could slap one on your belly as if to say, "hey, we already have one of these?"

Then again, that may not have been the use they were thinking of.

Personally, though, if, as a kid, someone had offered me nerdy bookmarks with my own picture on them, I would've thought that was freaking awesome.

Hell, I kind of want some, now.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, so, actually me too on the bookmarks. :)

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one totally freaked out by the fashion-mag cover? (and unshocked that it's a girl on fashion and art, and a boy on science and sports). I mean, the articles include "Great Birthday gifts under $200 ...?!?

[ceo]

See icon.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Not the only one!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh, no -- I'm definitely freaked out by many of these things, in different ways. The magazine covers were the most egregious. There was also an "art" magazine that featured an Asian girl, and a "music" one that featured a round-faced white boy, but I included the three I did because the gender split in them was entirely inevitable in a depressing way.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

WITWCT!!
(What is this world coming to?!!)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I could see the tattoos being part of some totally badass middle/high school class president campaign. But I am not the person who could have pulled it off.

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

That is WAY WAY WAY more options than we had when I was a kid!

I Heart You

[baronet.livejournal.com]

In middle school, the temporary tattoos could be used to shwo you really love the person you're going out with. Just like getting his/her name tattooed on your arm does for adults. The advantage of the temporary tattoos is that the tattoo is likely to last only a little longer than the relationship.

Which makes me think that it would be umm something to have "I Heart" tattooed on your arm followed by a small patch of white board that you could write in the current answer. Someone should invent dermal white board paint.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Oh wow...somewhere, there's a creepy stalker with 30 temporary tattoos of Taylor Swift's head all over his body.