Tattoos are hardly just ink, they are an artform

Ink is all over cam­pus, but some peo­ple are so opposed to tattoos.

Tattoos are viewed by some as being dis­re­spect­ful to your body. Others might go so far as to call it a form of self-mutilation. Others see it as an art form, and an addict­ing one at that.

People have been mark­ing their bod­ies with tat­toos since the dawn of time. The word itself is derived from “tatu,” which means to mark.

Exposure to tat­toos usu­ally occurs at a young age. I was in ele­men­tary school when I heard the term scar­i­fi­ca­tion, as a young girl. I put into my mind that scar­i­fi­ca­tion is just another way of say­ing tattoo.

American tat­toos were orig­i­nally made by hand; how­ever, in 1891 the first elec­tric tat­too machine was issued a patent from the United States Patent Office to Samuel O’Reily(tattooarchive.com). He began a par­lor in New York City.

By the mid 1990s, accord­ing to U.S. News & World Report, tat­too­ing had become one of America’s fastest grow­ing cat­e­gories of retail busi­ness. There are now an esti­mated 15,000 tat­too stu­dios in oper­a­tion. The once-taboo prac­tice of body mark­ing con­tin­ued to gain broader accep­tance and pop­u­lar­ity through­out main­stream society.

People have now finally started appre­ci­at­ing the artis­tic merit of tat­too­ing. Tattoos are fre­quently used to express per­sonal and reli­gious beliefs. Tats are now seen as a part of fash­ion and our gen­er­a­tion, in par­tic­u­lar, has gone ga-ga over the art form.

Watch your favorite sit­com and you may notice a tat­too on the lead star. Watch the real life expres­sion of the art on LA Ink and Miami Ink. You have many actors and actress such as Ben Afleck and Angelina Jolie. Rappers such as Lil Wayne and Trina, and Basketball Players such as Lebron James and Allen Iverson are cov­ered with Tattoos.

This art form has come so far that even gov­ern­ment agen­cies rec­og­nize it, as both an art form and a pro­fes­sion. Tattoo-related art­work is the sub­ject of museum, gallery and edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tion art shows across the United States.

I have five tat­toos myself. I received my first tat­too my junior year here in Big Rapids. The sec­ond through the fifth, and soon to be sixth, can be attrib­uted to my tat­too artist in Detroit.

Getting over my fear of the pain of tat­too­ing has allowed me to be able to express myself through my tat­toos. All of my tat­toos are spe­cial to me and have dou­ble or triple meanings.

Tattooing ulti­mately is just another form of self-expression. The rea­sons behind get­ting “tat­ted up” are often the same as those that would lead some­one to color his or her hair, have a unique style of dress, or even get a cer­tain Facebook appli­ca­tion. A tat­too is a mark­ing on your body that gives you the free­dom to decide what, where, or how you want to express words, pic­tures, or sym­bols that mean some­thing to you.

With the com­bi­na­tion of tech­nol­ogy, his­tor­i­cal aware­ness and artis­tic abil­ity the art of tat­too­ing has been taken to new heights never imag­ined before. Tattoo art is grow­ing so fast today that there is hardly any coun­try untouched by this form of art. Although there are still some peo­ple who con­sider tat­toos to be wrong, I imag­ine that their opin­ion is one that our gen­er­a­tion, and those to come, does not share.

With Hispanic Heritage Month begin­ning, Multi-cultural Student Services has lined up the Latin group Mr. LAC y El OSO to perform.

Mr. LAC y El OSO will be per­form­ing a free event for all dur­ing the Ferris Hispanic Festival on Wednesday Sept. 16, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the quad, or the Rankin Center Dome room in the event of inclement weather.

Mr. LAC was born in Guatemala and El OSO was born in Mexico so they both grew up lis­ten­ing to Latin music.

Both Mr. LAC and El OSO have been sep­a­rately per­form­ing for a num­ber of years. They com­bined their musi­cal tal­ent in 2006 to form the group.

This duo’s music is described as Spanish-Urban music. Mr. LAC y El OSO is con­sid­ered to be the best Latin duo in their genre accord­ing to myxer​.com. They can play a vari­ety of music from Spanish Hip-Hop to the Salsa and Meringue.

Since 2006, the duo has released two albums, the first one released in 2006. Their sec­ond album, titled Original & Versatile, fol­lowed in 2008. This album was the key to their suc­cess with all orig­i­nal tracks recorded and pro­duced by Mr. LAC.

This suc­cess has led to a tour around the U.S. with stops in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis.

With the tour being a hit among fans, Mr. LAC y El OSO had the oppor­tu­nity to per­form with many other big names includ­ing Xtreme and Yung Jeezy.

They are cur­rently work­ing on a new album fea­tur­ing artist Prospect Da Child, Giggles, and many more. The release date is still uncertain.

Mr. LAC y El OSO believes they have found music to be their long-term career.

For more infor­ma­tion on Mr. LAC y El OSO visit myxer​.com or myspace​.com/​m​i​s​t​e​r​lac.

The Ferris State/Grand Valley State foot­ball rivalry has seen its share of win­ning streaks, but has been one sided this decade.

Grand Valley cur­rently is on an eight game win­ning streak that started in 2000, with the clos­est game in this decade being a 20–21 loss dur­ing the 2000 sea­son. Last year, the Bulldogs lost to Grand Valley 31–13 in Allendale. Grand Valley leads the all-time series with a 24−12−1 advantage.

Despite being behind over­all in the most recent fig­ures, Ferris State has enjoyed some suc­cess in the past.

Ferris won the first ever meet­ing between the two teams with a lop­sided 57–0 win dur­ing the 1971 sea­son. Ferris con­tin­ued its dom­i­nance dur­ing the 1970s by post­ing a 7–3 record dur­ing the decade.

Following their dom­i­nance of the series in the 1970s, Ferris State was on the los­ing side of the rivalry dur­ing the 1980s. Grand Valley dom­i­nated the decade with a 9–1 record against the Bulldogs. Ferris State had trou­ble with most teams dur­ing the 1980s as the Bulldogs only posted one win­ning record that decade with a 6–4 sea­son in 1985.

The Bulldogs enjoyed their most suc­cess­ful streak against the Lakers dur­ing a span from 1992–1995, with a 3−0−1 record against Grand Valley with the one tie dur­ing the 1993 season.

The series became slightly more bal­anced dur­ing the 1990s with Ferris post­ing a 4−5−1 record against Grand Valley.

This decade has belonged to Grand Valley, with Ferris State los­ing all eight con­tests. Though the Bulldogs had only two los­ing sea­sons this decade, Grand Valley has been a trou­ble­some team for the Bulldogs to face.

The Bulldogs will have the oppor­tu­nity to end Grand Valley’s cur­rent streak at Top Taggart Field on Sept. 19 at 7:00 p.m.

Founder Roger Card adds another ten species to the cur­rent col­lec­tion of critters

The Card Wildlife Education Center now has 195 ani­mals set up for dis­play. Founder Roger Card added ten new ani­mals to the vari­ety of spec­i­men from around the world Monday.

Card, an alum­nus of FSU, opened up the cen­ter in May 2000, along with his late wife Debra.

“I was a for­mer Building Contractor in Mt. Pleasant. Some of these ani­mals were in my office and peo­ple liked look­ing at them,” said Card. Card men­tioned that he wanted peo­ple to be able to view the ani­mals up close. He also won an award known as the Safari Club World Hunting Conservation Award.

“It’s for an accu­mu­la­tion of 250 species from around the world,” said Card of the award. “We are going to dis­play a beau­ti­ful bronze statue over here.”

The newly added ani­mals include an Armenian sheep, Iranian Mouflon, Big horned sheep, Nyala from Africa, Ostrich, African Porcupine, Lesser Kudu, Waterbuck, Gobi Argali and a Red Sheep.

“He brings in new ani­mals every now and then, he’s still hunt­ing,” said cur­rent Director of the Card Wildlife Center and Professor of Biology Dr. Joseph Lipar.

Lipar said he thinks that just being able to view the mul­ti­tude of ani­mals from around the world helps peo­ple gain an appre­ci­a­tion. Lipar said Card donated every­thing that is in the museum. It is a part of his col­lec­tion of ani­mals he donated over the years.

Current exhibits also include spec­i­mens from Michigan and North America, Central America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Lipar said we have peo­ple com­ment­ing on it about how much they love it. He men­tioned the cen­ter had 8,900–9,000 vis­i­tors in the last year.

“It’s a dream come true to have the Card Wildlife Center,” said Card. He also said that it is really spe­cial to have so many peo­ple com­ing in, look­ing at them.

There is also a book on sale Card wrote enti­tled “A Hunter’s Journey”. The book costs $20. All pro­ceeds from the book will go to the Card Wildlife Education Center. Anyone inter­ested in pur­chas­ing a copy can visit the Card Wildlife Education Center and put their phone num­ber on a list.

Card said it’s spec­tac­u­lar to have this in a small com­mu­nity. He also men­tioned that peo­ple have told him they have not seen any­thing like it.

“I’m proud of it,” he said.

The Card Wildlife Education Center is located in the Arts & Sciences Commons Room 011. The cen­ter is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday with free admis­sion. Organized tours are avail­able for school groups. In order to arrange an orga­nized tour group, call 231−591−5387 or 231−591−5633 or visit fer​ris​.edu/​c​ard.

“We want peo­ple to come and see what we have here,” said Card.

Campus out­break expected to be mild

In the com­ing weeks the Ferris cam­pus is expected to undergo a mild to mod­er­ate out­break of the H1N1 virus that has been sweep­ing across the nation.

College cam­puses are expected to be among the hard­est hit areas in the nation. Ferris has not yet recorded a case of H1N1, but has seen some basic influenza cases thus far in the fall semester.

Paul Sullivan, Ph.D., the direc­tor of the Birkham Health and Counseling Center on cam­pus, recently shared some infor­ma­tion on what he expects will occur and how the school will react if there is an outbreak.

“We think that we will have a mild out­break of H1N1 in the next few weeks,” said Sullivan. “It has affected all cor­ners of the coun­try except for the Great Lakes states, and it’s mov­ing towards us.”

The uni­ver­sity antic­i­pates an out­break involv­ing sev­eral dozen to 200 stu­dents who may expe­ri­ence symp­toms for five to seven days. The poli­cies and course of action that will be taken by the uni­ver­sity are in com­pli­ance and will fol­low the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control.

As Sullivan out­lined, the num­ber one pri­or­ity is pre­ven­tion, and then how to han­dle it once it hits. In a university-wide notice released on Sept. 1, stu­dents were urged to prac­tice good hygiene, res­pi­ra­tory eti­quette, to know the signs and symp­toms of the flu, to stay at home if you have a flu or flu-like ill­ness and to talk to your health care providers about whether or not a vac­ci­na­tion is in order.

Some of the symp­toms to be aware of include: fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body ache, headache, chills and fatigue.

In regard to the vac­ci­na­tion, Sullivan said that because it is a com­pletely dif­fer­ent vac­ci­na­tion than the sea­sonal flu, the H1N1 shots will not be avail­able until October. If there is only a small sup­ply avail­able when it does come out, it will only be admin­is­tered to high risk groups.

These groups include preg­nant women, peo­ple who look after chil­dren who are under six years old, and health and emer­gency work­ers on cam­pus. Another group that will be high on the list is stu­dents who have a weak immune sys­tem and car­diac or lung problems.

Students who con­tract the virus or who have influenza like ill­ness (ILI) are urged by the health cen­ter to stay home and not attend classes. Sullivan also said that a diag­no­sis can be done over the phone, but stu­dents are always wel­come to come in if they please.

While it is rec­om­mended to stay iso­lated if ill­ness does occur, instruc­tors can­not bar stu­dents from attend­ing class. Also, the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs has decided to pre­pare by request­ing an H1N1 Swine Flu Instructional Contingency Plan (FICP) from all fac­ulty for all classes.

For more infor­ma­tion on pre­ven­tion and antic­i­pated sta­tis­tics, check the Birkham Health Center web site.

Campus Fun

Sept. 14–18

Global Prints on the Quad, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Quad

Sept. 16

Bulldog Bonanza, 4 p.m. – 7 p.m., Wink Arena

Sex and the College Student, 8 p.m. – 9 p.m., IRC 120

“Getting a Job in Corporate America,” 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., Business Rm. 111

Blood Drive, 12 p.m. – 5:45 p.m., Recreation Center

Ferris Hispanic Festival, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., Quad

Sept. 17

Comedian Alex Thomas, 8 p.m. – 9 p.m., Rankin Center Dome Room

Global Reflections, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m., IRC 120

Sept. 18

Novelty Event: Personalized street signs and 3D flip cards, 12 p.m. – 4 p.m., Rankin Center and Recreation Center

Sept. 19

Blues and BBQ, 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Lot 36 Across from Taggart Field

Sept. 22

Sex and the College Student, 7 p.m. – 8 p.m., IRC 120

Academic Success Fair, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Rankin Center Dome Room

Hispanic Heritage Month: Hispanic Meal, 11 a.m. – 1:45 p.m., The Rock Cafe

Off Campus

Sept. 17

Bonnie Jo Campbell: Book Talk and Signing, 3 p.m. – 4 p.m., Great Lakes Book Supply

Sept. 19– 20

Relay for Life, 9 a.m. – 9 a.m., Crossroad Charter Academy’s Mitchell Creek Field

Concerts/Shows

Sept. 20

Tuba Bach Concert 2: I Got the Blues: Part 2, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m., Big Rapids High School Auditorium n

Project Runway uses news­pa­per in tomorrow’s episode

Project Runway on Bravo has made a habit of chal­leng­ing up-and-coming design­ers with com­pli­cated mate­r­ial to cre­ate high-end fashion.

Tomorrow’s episode charge’s the cast with mak­ing clothes out of news­pa­per. With the often sour finan­cial state of the news­pa­per indus­try and the need for clothes, the Torch has pro­vided this step-by-step guide to using your paper for some­thing other than read­ing. In the word’s of the show’s host, Tim Gunn, “Make it work.”

Think you’ve got the best hat of them all? Send your pho­tos in to fer​ris​.edu/​t​o​rch for a chance to have them printed and pub­lished online.

Bulldog Bonanza

On Sept. 16 stu­dents can learn more about what area busi­nesses, reg­is­tered stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions, and FSU ser­vice depart­ments have to offer. This free event will take place in the Wink Arena Sports Complex from 4 to 7 p.m. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Teresa Fogel at fogelt@ferris.edu or call x5936.

Hispanic Festival

Ferris’ Hispanic Festival will take place on Sept. 16 as part of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 through Oct. 15). The event will take place in the cam­pus quad from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students can expe­ri­ence tra­di­tional dancers, crafts and authen­tic Mexican cui­sine. The band “Mr. LAC y el OSO” will also per­form. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact the Office of Multicultural Student Services in FLITE 159.

Red Cross Blood Drive

The American Red Cross is hold­ing a blood drive on Sept. 16 in the Student Recreation Center from 12 to 5:45 p.m. In order to give blood, donors will need a photo ID. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Emily Burley at burleye@ferris.edu
.

Comedian Alex Thomas

Entertainment Unlimited will fea­ture the com­edy of Alex Thomas on Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. in the Rankin Center Dome Room. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact eu@ferris.edu or call x2610.

Blues and BBQ

From 4:30 to 6:30 p.m on Sept. 19 Student Government will host its sec­ond annual Blues and BBQ. The event will include all-you-can eat ham­burg­ers and hot dogs and will fea­ture the music of Big Daddy Fox and the Krewe. Tents will be in Lot 36 (directly across from Taggart Field). Admission into the event will be $8 for Ferris stu­dents and $10 for adults. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact FSU Student Government in the Rankin Center or by call x2611.

Academic Success Fair

This free event put on by the Academic Support Center will take place on Sept. 22 in the Rankin Center Dome Room from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will fea­ture intere­ac­tive ses­sions on test and note tak­ing tips, mem­ory skills, read­ing com­pre­hen­sion and more. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Julie Urick at Julie_Urick@ferris.edu.

The Bulldog vol­ley­ball team is cur­rently on a four game win­ning streak and has won seven of its last eight matches.

Ferris has a 9–3 over­all record, includ­ing a 2–0 record in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC).

One of those vic­to­ries came against fifth-ranked Nebraska-Kearney.

Nebraska-Kearney was unde­feated prior to the con­test, and won the first set against the Bulldogs. Ferris then went on to win the next three sets in con­vinc­ing fash­ion to pull off the upset. Senior mid­dle hit­ter Sarah Lark went said going into the match they had a refuse to lose mentality.

“We have a mad-dog atti­tude that we will con­tinue to show as the sea­son goes on,” said Lark.

Ferris defeated Northwood in their last match as they swept the Timberwolves, 3–0 (25−22, 25–22, 25–21). The Bulldogs had a .278 hit­ting per­cent­age as they won their sec­ond con­fer­ence con­test in a row. This is the fifth sweep the Bulldogs have recorded this season.

Much of their suc­cess is con­tributed to how well they have played as a team over­all. Lark said she sees that all the girls on the team work hard and com­mit them­selves to being a top-caliber team. Co-captain Dana Ruttle is also able to tell how close this unit has become.

“We have 19 girls all work­ing hard every day to make them­selves bet­ter, push each other to become bet­ter, sup­port­ing each other,” said Ruttle.

The team has set very high goals for itself and is so far on its way to accom­plish­ing them. Sophomore out­side hit­ter Aly Brecht said the team’s expec­ta­tions are to sim­ply “win the GLIAC.”

The Bulldogs hope to have con­tin­ued con­tri­bu­tion and hard work from every­one as the sea­son progresses.

Ruttle is pleased with how well the team is play­ing as a unit.

“Our team is the true def­i­n­i­tion of the word team,” said Ruttle.

Ferris looks to keep its win­ning streak intact as the Bulldogs take on nation­ally ranked Grand Valley State on Sept. 15. Grand Valley is 5–5 over­all and 1–1 in the GLIAC, fol­low­ing a 3–1 loss to Wayne State.

Athletics can inter­fere with stu­dents’ class sched­ule and study time

Athletes often miss class due to trips for their sport and that often leads to prob­lems in the classroom.

Throughout any ath­letic sea­son, teams travel to other schools to com­pete. Occasionally, these con­tests are out­side of the state in which the team’s home games are played. The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (GLIAC) is com­prised of teams across three states and many of the schools are sep­a­rated by long dis­tances, up to 692 miles apart: the dis­tance between Michigan Technological University and Ashland University.

The effect on the amount of class time attended and a student’s grade in that class is usu­ally a direct cor­re­la­tion. In most classes, pro­fes­sors tell stu­dents to spend two hours or so study­ing out­side of class time for every one hour of class attended.

For many, the prob­lem with miss­ing class is that stu­dent ath­letes are forced to do extra work to make up for the missed classes.

Missing a class for an ath­letic event is excused through uni­ver­sity pol­icy, pro­vided the stu­dent turns in a signed excused absence form before­hand. Men’s and women’s ten­nis coach Alex Palladino said ath­letes are treated the same as all other students.

“They are not allowed the lux­ury of a lighter work load than any other stu­dents in the same class,” said Palladino.

The amount of class time missed depends on the sport as well. The foot­ball team plays all its games on Saturdays, so those play­ers miss only one or two days all sea­son. The vol­ley­ball team will miss only one or two days as well this semes­ter, but the women’s ten­nis and soc­cer teams will likely miss five or more days of classes.

Sophomore Brooke Rodes, cap­tain of the women’s golf team, said the team will miss approx­i­mately eight days of classes this semester.

“We have study table while we are at school for two hours a week and that’s how we stay suc­cess­ful in our classes,” said Rodes.

It is the athlete’s respon­si­bil­ity to put in enough study time to make up for missed classes. On long trips, stu­dents have the oppor­tu­nity to study dur­ing the ride to their con­tests. Senior vol­ley­ball player Katie Edwards said stu­dents often take advan­tage of lengthy trips.

“On long bus trips, we will have a study ses­sion which is nor­mally two hours,” said Edwards.

Professors also fac­tor into the equa­tion as well. They have to either give dif­fer­ent tests after­ward or make the ath­letes take the exams before they leave. Palladino said it all depends on the pref­er­ence of the professor.

“Some require them to take quizzes or exams early and oth­ers will allow them a later date,” said Palladino.

Edwards believes that facil­i­ta­tors have the stu­dents in their best inter­est and help them when they can.

“Professors at Ferris are very under­stand­ing and will­ing to help ath­letes keep up in their classes,” said Edwards.

While some ath­letes pur­sue careers in pro­fes­sional sports, the major­ity of them do not. Athletes, no mat­ter how tal­ented they are in a given sport, are stu­dents first.