Linus
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Posts posted by Linus
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Finished @BomberPatās book last night and I can thoroughly recommend it. It is strongest in the early chapters, delivering almost unbelievable tales of shady characters but Patās fluid writing and view through the window of kayfabe make even the more familiar (to me) later stories an entertaining and interesting read.
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Volume 2 of BLOOD & THUNDER, the history of the Japanese independent wrestling scene promotion by promotion, is OUT NOW! Featuring W*ING, WAR, Michinoku-Pro, and 6 others* (including a full index)! You can buy it in hard copy here: tinyurl.com/yc8msckr and as an eBook here: tinyurl.com/5n887cft
Ā* Oriental-Pro, Network of Wrestling, Pro-Wrestling Crusaders, Heisei Ishingun, Social Pro-Wrestling Federation, and Go Gundan!
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I PROMISE that Blood & Thunder vol2 is IMMINENT but in the meantime you can buy the 2nd edition of vol1 either in hard copy (https://t.co/SlCjWMXH9K) or as an ebook (http://amzn.eu/d/dR1R259).Ā
I've also made Wrestling Can Be Anything vol1 - a collection from the first 5 issues of my 'zine and some stuff from STARBURST magazine - available to buy as an ebook for the first time: https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CJLT5T81! Hard copy also available here: https://lulu.com/shop/alan-boon/wrestling-can-be-anything-vol-1/paperback/product-6zm86y.htmlā¦!
Both books come with a YOU LEARNED SOMETHING! guarantee!
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You could do worse than run through Botchamania from the start. I think theyāre available as a free leech on XWT.
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My book on the history of Japanese independent wrestling is now available as an eBook from the Kindle store:Ā https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WQCZC4W
Here's the blurb: "In 1983, as the result of a dispute between the executives of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan for over a decade was formed. This set off a chain of events that heralded a new era for the sport, sparking a revolution that took pro-wrestling in a thousand new directions. Featuring histories of the UWF, FMW, RINGS, and more, this is the story of the first 10 promotions of the independent era and the men who created themā¦"
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This was the Combat Wrestling Federation. I want to say that Poisonās name was Sam but my memory isnāt what it used to be! Last I heard he was living in Nottingham and well out of the business. It was purely his show, and he contacted Zandig and Wifebeater to bring them over for just this show. It must have cost him a bomb and thereās no way the 100 or so fans in paid that bill.
The rest of the card was Kev OāNeillās Sovereign Championship Wrestling guys, some of the bigger UK names like Ricky Knight (the ? Is his son, Zebra Kid), Doug Williams, the UK Pitbulls, Jodie Fleisch, and Guy Thunder.
I was trying to make it as a travelling indy worker but didnāt have much talent and even less drive. Still, as two of the few who were doing that, me and Andy Hogg got booked, matched with Carnage of SCW. Come the day of the show, we had planned an ordinary three-way but being put on after Zebra Kid and Doug Williams panicked us and we went the hardcore route.Ā
We picked up some barbed wire en route - Zandig was visibly disgusted when he saw me clipping the more ragged barbs off beforehand - and weād all planned to blade but in the end only I did. The finish of our match saw me wrapped in barbed wire and attempt a (bad) moonsault onto Carnage, only for Hogg to pull him out of the way and then frog splash me for the win. I got interviewed by a magazine that covered the show (I can probably scan it for you.
The main event was Poison vs Zandig and it went south quickly. One of them got a sanitary towel stapled to their head and then Poison made an ill-advised comment about prison bitches, leading to Zandig grabbing a pint glass off a table and smashing it over Poisonās head. They went to the finish, with Zandig winning, and then Wifebeater - who hadnāt been announced and was hiding in the back - came out and attacked Zandig with a weedwhacker. I donāt think they had an actual match - the plan was to bring them back to main event the next show but there was no next show.Ā
ĀAt the time, only EWW in Oxfordshire and AIWF in Stoke-on-Trent did any kind of hardcore stuff but Icemanās north east stuff soon popped up.
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Issue 14 of the UK's premier* wrestling fact 'zine is out NOW! Featuring a history of wrestling mummies, Tiger Mask(s), the early days of Brian Christopher, and the story behind the first wrestling action figures in the US!
(* only)
44 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS
You can get a copy posted to your house by sending Ā£3.50 (Ā£4.50 for anywhere outside the UK) through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can use the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p! I also do PDF copies for Ā£1 each!
Also, my book is still available if you want the full (and I mean FULL) story of Japanese independent wrestling - bit.ly/BldThndr
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I do not understand why this is the video for this song but I appreciate it nonetheless - "Loverboy" by Billy Ocean
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1 hour ago, Tommy! said:
Is it fairly equal coverage per company, or does one or two of more note get the majority of depth?Ā
FMW gets more than any other company because, well, come on! Here's the contents page:
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3 hours ago, Mattf1983 said:
Are you uk based? If so best to order off the site?Ā
Itās only available from the Lulu.com store - they print and dispatch in the UK. (Or the US if youāre in the US!)
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So I wrote a book, the story of the first 10 promotions of the Japanese independent wrestling era, featuring the histories of the UWF, FMW, RINGS, UWFi and more. 500 pages! If you've got any interest in pro-wrestling, or are just curious about weird scenes, this might be the book for you! Just Ā£15 + p&p! Physical copies only for now but digital to follow!Ā
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We're back! Issue 13 of Wrestling Can Be Anything is chock-full of the usual FACT FUN, including a career retrospective of Jushin Thunder Liger, a run-down of all the times Superman and wrestling have collided, and a look at the various gimmicks of Ron "The Yetay!" Reis. Throw in the story of lucha's Nazi teen idol and Big Daddy's assault on the charts and you have an issue for the ages!
40 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS
You can get a copy posted to your house by sending Ā£3.50 (Ā£4.50 for anywhere outside the UK) through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can use the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p! I also do PDF copies for Ā£1 each!
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Here's something I wrote for my 'zine in March 2020 (spoilered for length):
SpoilerWrestling gimmicks can be very simple things. A wrestling plumber, a wrestling cowboy, a wrestling clown. But the best gimmicks ā apart from the clowns, obviously ā are those which arenāt very simple at all. Yes, you may be able to distil them down to a few words or phrases, but that doesnāt capture the heart of just why this thing on your television, or at the local show, is so damned awesome.
One of my favourite gimmick wrestlers at the moment can be described by four things: face paint, teeth, no swearing, and āTequila!ā But that doesnāt get anywhere near to explaining the absolute charisma of the man known only as Danhausenā¦
A VERY NORMAL PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER
Donovan Allen was working a very normal job when a new co-worker announced that heād like to train to become a professional wrestler. Intrigued, Allen joined his new pal Woodrow at Truth Martiniās House of Truth wrestling school, in Detroit, Michigan, where he was trained by Martini and former Ring of Honor World champion Jimmy Jacobs.
Graduating on to the local independent wrestling scene, Allen made his debut ā as āKid Gorgeousā Donovan Danhausen ā in October 2013, on a Metro Pro-Wrestling card that also featured a young Quinn Ojinnaka (now better known as Moose), and New Japan Pro-Wrestling star KUSHIDA. With a decent physique, Danhausen played a stereotypical, vain muscleman, but his skills earned him repeat bookings with Metro-Pro, and pretty soon he was branching out all over the Midwest.
By 2015, he was a regular at Inspire Pro-Wrestling in Austin, Texas, DREAMWAVE Wrestling in central Illinois, and for St Louis Anarchy in the south of the state, breaking into Chicago by the end of the year with both Freelance Wrestling and All-American Wrestling. In the spring of 2016, he caught the eye of former-ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky, now running the World Wrestling Network, who brought him to Florida to work for Full Impact Pro, where he worked the likes of Dezmond Xavier, Jason Cade, Fred Yehi, Martin Stone, and Lince Dorado.
FIP was where Danhausen won his first title, winning a four-way contest for the vacant Florida Heritage Championship in May 2016, before losing it the next night to Stone. After a re-match two months later, which he also lost, Danhausen only worked one more show for FIP, but by that time he had plenty of other work in Florida, where heād relocated, for promotions such as FEST Wrestling, Platinum Pro-Wrestling, and REAL Pro-Wrestling.
In the summer of 2017, Danhausen moved back to the Midwest, and became a regular at Rockstar Pro-Wrestling in Dayton, Ohio, owned by Jake & Dave Crist, and at Black Label Pro-Wrestling in Crown Point, Indiana. He also began getting bookings in Canada and in Virginia, and turned up back in DREAMWAVE once more, where he joined the Deep Six stable led by Arik Cannon.
2018 AD
Absolute Intense Wrestling, run by John Thorne and the late Chandler Biggins out of Cleveland, Ohio, has gained a reputation for pushing the envelope. A place where talent can stretch themselves, it was the perfect place for Donovan Danhausen to tweak his wrestling character into something a bit different, and the reason he did it was very simple indeed.
āMy character came from the frustration of trying to please everyone else by trying to be something Iām not, he told the Fansided website. āI was sick of just being a guy who wrestles, I didnāt care anymore what people thought of me, I just wanted to make sure I was enjoying what I loved doing again.ā
Initially calling himself Danhausen AD, he joined a stable led by Eddie Only, known as The Production, but the development of the Danhausen character meant he was growing in a different direction to his stablemates, and the more he was true to his vision of what he wanted to be as a wrestler, the more popular he became, with bookings with Bizarro Lucha and Glory Pro-Wrestling in Indiana, Beyond Wrestling in Massachusetts, Limitless Wrestling in Maine, and Southern Underground Pro in Tennessee added to his regular schedule.
The change to the Danhausen that has become so popular was stark, but gradual at first, with face paint ā a bizarre cross between The Joker and a kabuki mask ā and tights supplanting the trunks and clean cut look, and a short cape for his entrance thrown in for a retro-60s horror movie host vibe. Billed as āvery nice, very evilā, Danhausen is announced as standing seven feet tall and weighing in at almost 350lbs, and has an almost pathological hatred of swearing, although he does occasionally grant a Free Swear pass to opponents and friends, enabling them a curse in his presence. He also doesnāt like alcohol, which he calls āspicy waterā, declaring it on the few occasions he is made to imbibe it in-ring as ātoo spicy!ā
TEETH & TEQUILA
No Danhausen appearance is complete without a mid-match incursion from The Champsā 1958 hit āTequila,ā inspired by the scene in Pee-Weeās Big Adventure where Pee-Wee Herman performs a dance to the tune to placate a bunch of angry bikers. Initially performed, like Pee-Wee, on a bar during a match against the giant PB Smooth at the Winchester Music Tavern, in Lakewood, Ohio, the spot usually happens when Danhausen is on the apron, and may ā or may not, depending on how much heat is needed ā end with a kick to his opponent on the arena floor.
Similarly, the introduction of a jar of human teeth has also become a staple of a Danhausen match; carried to the ring in a jar marked āteeth,ā the contents are poured into the mouths of his opponents as a prelude to a superkick, sending teeth ā and who knows their provenance by this point ā flying into the air. This particular dental development came as a result of a Twitter post, a photo of Danhausen golding Bobby Beverlyās mouth open, captioned āI want to eat my opponentsā teeth!ā
Danhausen told Fansided that āteeth gross me out,ā adding that he wants his enemies to share his disgust, but refuses to divulge where the teeth are sourced from, save that he is a regular haunter of curiosity shops on his wrestling travels. That such a vital, creepy part of the Danhausen character should come from social media is apposite ā he now has over ten thousand followers on the website, and fans (and hipster adoptees) canāt resist adding āhausen to their Twitter handles or, indeed, to everything.
One of a number of larger-than-life character on the US independent scene, which also includes gay idol Effy, and the very metal Warhorse (which whom Danhausen has formed tag-teams, called Gaytanic Panic and Warhausen, respectively), and a feature of shows broadcast on the Independent Wrestling TV streaming service, the stage was all set for Danhausen to break out over Wrestlemania weekend, which was as usual accompanied by a full slate of independent shows, which outperform the main attraction in every conceivable way.
WRESTLEVANIA
After the success of Joey Janelaās Spring Break in 2017, New Jerseyās Game Changer Wrestling have broadened their scope with every subsequent āMania, and last year formed The Collective to brand a variety of shows under the same umbrella. At this yearās Collective, Danhausen and Warhorse were set to present WrestleVania, a horror and heavy metal-themed event, which had a main-event of the Gaytanic Brood (Danhausen, Effy, and former WWF vampire Gangrel) against the WARHORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (Warhorse, and WWE-escapees The Ascension), but the Coronavirus put paid to those plans and we may have to wait a little longer to see such devilish fun.
In the meantime, Danhausen is getting everywhere, even turning up in Ring of Honor, where heās yet to win a match but did get to take part in a twenty-man battle royal for the number one contendership to the ROH TV title, and continues to appear for Black Label Pro (he holds a share in the tag-team championships with Ethan Page and Swoggle), AIW, and Freelance, where heās a highlight of their IWTV broadcasts.
In his most recent outing, for the Minnesota indy F1RST Wrestling, he stepped into the ring for a dream match, against Orange Cassidy, something heād wanted for a while after fans on Twitter started calling him the ādark universe Orange Cassidy.ā Before they could really throw down, however, they were attacked by Darin Corbin and Heavy Metal Lore, and formed a dream tag-team instead.
Itās very easy for pro-wrestling purists to dismiss a character like Danhausen, but heās out there proving Wrestling Can Be Anything, and backing it up with a solid set of wrestling skills to match his comical, macabre personality. Men in trunks are a dime a dozen in this business, but itās a rare gimmick that stands out from the crowds; Danhausen is the manhausen.
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SCREAM FOR ME, LONG BEACH! The VERY METAL issue of WCBA is here, with the full run down on ALL of WCW's heavy metal gimmicks, the lowdown on WARHORSE, the disaster that was the WWF's collaboration with Chaos! Comics, and the collision of wrestling and GWAR!
44 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS
You can get a copy posted to your house by sending Ā£3.50 (Ā£4.50 for anywhere outside the UK) through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can use the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p! I also do PDF copies for Ā£1 each!
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Issue 11 of the ongoing scientific study to prove that Wrestling Can Be Anything dips into the NOW! with a look at the Marvel Comics/AAA lucha crossover, and then travels back in time for a story that involves Nazis, fake Nazis, champion boxers, skyscraper-heisters, and ghoststoppers, as well as finishing up the histories of W*ING & Kevin Sullivan!
44 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS
You can get a copy posted to your house by sending Ā£3.50 (Ā£4.50 for anywhere outside the UK) through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can use the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p! I also do PDF copies for Ā£1 each!
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It's (almost) Christmas! And what better way to celebrate than with a look at some of the horrible ways that wrestling and Santa have combined, along with more on W*ING and Kevin Sullivan, AND a look at the brief lucha career of Los Thundercats! Bumper 52-pageĀ issue!
52 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS
You can get a copy posted to your house by sending Ā£3.50 (Ā£4.50 for anywhere outside the UK) through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can use the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p! I also do PDF copies for Ā£1 each!
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BAME - which can be and often is pronounced as a word - is used in the same way as LGBTQ+. You'd never describe an individual as LGTBQ+ but you'd refer to the "community" or an officer/spokesman of such in a political party. Individuals are black, or Asian, unless they tell you otherwise, in which case you use what they ask you to use.
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$hill: If you're excited about the announcement, you should get issue 7 of my 'zine, with a deep, deep dive into the history of the AKI engine used on No Mercy and others... http://wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com
Non-$hill: I haven't bought a wrestling game since No Mercy and this might be the one to bring me back in. If only they could back-engineer it for the N64...
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Finally someone has juxtaposed the early history of the world wrestling championship with Little House on the Prairie, and you can read about it in WCBA #9! There's also some Star Wars, some Transformers, the greatest wrestling movie never seen, and the story of W*ING hits monster town! All this AND part 1 of a look at the career of "The Prince of Darkness" Kevin Sullivan!
44 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS
You can get a copy posted to your house by sending Ā£3.50 (Ā£4.50 for anywhere outside the UK) through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can use the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p! I also do PDF copies for Ā£1 each!
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19 minutes ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:
Wait hold on? WHAT?!
Am I reading this right? Did Linus / @indysleaze do some sort of post where they admitted to sex pest / nonce behaviour?!Three years ago, on Twitter,Ā I had seen lots of men expressing surprise at the amount of women saying theyād had #MeToo experiences and I was trying to say that just because we didnāt consider some of our sexual interactionsĀ to be non-consensual - I was particularly referring to those handful ofĀ times in the mid-90s when Iād āpullā at a club, and weād both be drunk - doesnāt mean that the women since that time might not have changed their opinion.
I made a big mess of the tweet and everything that came after it, and thereās not a day since that I donāt think about it and regret it.
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This is a complicated topic that I almost never speak on because, well, I'll a straight middle-aged man, and also because it's really hard not to offend even when you have the best of intentions, and because of that I obviously wonāt say anything here because thereās no point.
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* Theyāre going in on Wardlow, which I like, though I do have my concerns that theyāve sacrificed so many big men to Cody and Mox that heāll just end up another big fella treading water in the upper mid-card. Still, you gotta hope for the best and this was absolutely the right result ā Jungle Boy can take a few losses and still keep his āup and coming hungry young tigerā aura. Wardlow looked decent, too. I mean, he should, heās been wrestling for a decade.
* Eddie Kingston versus Jon Moxley is turning into THE feud of the year so far, and the best thing is that itās got a taste of the real to it. Kingston being mad at Mox for going to WWE is understandable, and for AEW fans thatās a babyface move, but the finesse is that Kingston is mad at Mox because he didnāt take HIM to WWE with him. The promos this pair have been cutting are the best Iāve seen in years, and take me back to much better days, storywise. Good work fellas!
* Did Joey Janela pull himself off the show because of Covid-19 or because heās the smartest man in wrestling? I mean, it was totally the right thing for Omega to win with a squash ā although he could have killed Kiss a tiny bit more ā but Janela saw this one coming. Oh, and I loved Omegaās intro but ditch the sweepy women, Ken, eh?
* Donāt interview Orange Cassidy. Less is more.
* I LOVE Rey Fenix and the Penagon man, and this was shaping up to be one of their best matches together (I mean, theyāve had some phone-in stinkers soā¦) but Fenix was knocked stupid halfway through and itās a mark of just how good he is that they did some major spots with him all loopy. The thing is, though, as they again proved later, the match should have been stopped. He wasnāt in a proper condition to carry on and the refs need to get more assertive with talent, even if it means calling an audible. Sure, Omega versus Fenix would be the better match, but did it really matter if Penta won this?
* John Silver is a wonderful, ridiculous man.
* Hangman Page looked good but did this need to go ā looks it up ā oh. It was only eleven minutes? It felt much, much longer. Huh. Anyway, I was half expecting shenanigans here because thereās no way they should be having Omega versus Page at Full Gear.
* I am excited for Elite Deletion. If it turns out not to be shot on the Hardy compound I reserve the right to rescind that excitement.
* There are some people who will say, quite rightly, that a comedy musical segment has no place on a fighting show. I get it, I really do. But sometimes something happens that should never, ever happen, and itās the best thing ever (for an hour), and when Jericho and MJF broke into song after some ridiculous dinner banterā¦ well, I wouldnāt have been watching anything else. It was so STUPID and sometimes stupid is exactly what I want. Beautiful idiots.
* Britt āKelsi Roxxā Baker did not look as good against KiLynn King as she did against Red Velvet but sheās still very much improved.
* The Bunny is back with her husband. Continuity cop Eddie Kingston strikes again! Now get on the case of why Pac is allowed to sit at home for seven monthsā¦
* The tag-team four-way was kind of a mess but also kind of exciting and I get that thatās what you want out of these kind of matches. Plus, John Silver got to John Silver. BUT. Alex Reynolds was knocked out. And the referee didnāt notice. Worse still, he lay in the ring for two minutes and no-one checked on him. Then his corpse was revived so the Bucks could do the planned spots and no-one stopped them. Then he had to be rolled out of the ring, where he still almost got landed on. Now itās easy to apportion blame, so Iām going to. Rick Knox is derelict in his duty here. John Silver isnāt clear, either, because you look after your partner, first and foremost. Plus, itās a freaking FOUR-WAY so there were two other teams that could have taken those spots and everything would have been fine. It ruined the match and the end of the show for me, and I couldnāt have given a shit about FTR and Tully and a beating and the Bucks winning because Reynolds was unconscious in the ring for two whole minutes. Bad.
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10 minutes ago, BomberPat said:
He's almost certainly going to start out with NXT:UK, which is an odd fit for him as he's never actually worked the UK.
Oof, that's a massive step back. NXT-UK has less eyes on it than a random indy on IWTV.
![Blood & Thunder - volume 1: The Story of the I by [Alan Boon]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410T4IFeY3L.jpg)
Earth Swallowing
in Off Topic
Posted
At work we have this stamp for attending an event and sometimes kids like it on their hands. I stamped one and said, "you can show Dad your first tattoo!" only to get back "Daddy's gone to live at Nanny's and he's not coming back" from the 3yr old as her Mum stood next to her...