I was thinking about the injuries and other odd things I’ve received while costuming, thought I would chronicle them!
1. Sperrets!
I’ve had three costumes that have given me odd sperrets – the first was Yuffie. Wearing fishnets on one arm/hand and one leg led to some odd designs on my skin afterwards, mostly on my arm. My whole right arm, from my hand up to nearly my shoulder, had a diamond, snake-like design on it for a couple of hours after each wearing. I always thought that was pretty cool. The next was Anna – I could never wear a mid-riff bearing costume right after wearing Anna, because the corset would etch each wrinkle from the shirt or undercorset into my waist. I looked so weird! And they lasted forever, I swear. I remember at Dragoncon 2004 I tried everything I could think of to get them to go away – because I wanted to wear battle Padme – nothing worked! LOL
The funniest one was my Queen Amidala parade dress. The tiara left dots all over my forehead, everytime.
2. Massive Headaches
Belldandy’s Manga Dress wig, my Morrigan wig, and my Belle wig all gave me massive headaches. To the point I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. With both Belldandy and Morrigan I had to leave, go take the wig off in a bathroom, and just have a few moments with it off so I could get some relief. My Belle wig was so heavy, it gave me a huge headache backstage at Dragoncon. I learned my lesson, and bought clips to hold it in place the next time I wore it.
3. Bleeding for your hobby
This didn’t really happen while I was wearing the costume – because it wasn’t my costume! – but while putting the grommets in Cath’s Cinderella corset, I cut my finger and bled all over the inside of it. Oops.
4. Trapped in my costume
Due to time constraints, I made my Eowyn vest just a pull-over deal, instead of a corset. Unfortunately the fabric had no stretch at all, so it was a hassle getting it on and off. I had to always have help getting it off over my head. Monday at Dragoncon 2003, we were already checked out of my room, and I was going to change out of Eowyn in the public bathroom. I went in to change, and my friends were hanging out around the sinks – I expected they were going to help me, since they knew about how I couldn’t get in and out of the vest easily. I was almost to the point of getting the vest off, when I realised they were gone. I struggled for quite a while and probably dislocated my shoulder, but finally got it off, packed into my bag, and went out to my friends… and they asked what took me so long.
5. Good-bye, Tan
I decided that I would get a spray-tan the day before leaving for A-Kon 2004, since I was going to be wearing Hild and her skintone is decidedly darker than my own. It did fine, and looked decent while I was in the costume. However, when I went to take the dress off, the tan came off with it. I have to use double sided tape to keep the top on, obviously, and the tape actually pulled off my tan. So all the way from my bellybutton to my neck, I had two nice white stripes.
6. Bruised Feet
I have always been fairly lucky with costume shoes than some people I know – I’ve only had one incident. Again with Hild at A-Kon 2004! Those shoes are THE most painful shoes I’ve ever worn. After wearing them for several hours, the bottom of my feet were bruised.
7. The Ross Syndrome
If anyone is familiar with Friends, you might remember the episode where Ross decides to wear leather pants – unfortunately for him, after sweating in them, then going to the restroom, he can’t get them back on. He tries everything he can find in the bathroom to help get them back on, but all the products he tries creates a paste. Lina Inverse vinyl pants – Otakon 2002.
8. Green Arms
At Dragoncon 2002, two of my major costumes were my Padme Lake dress, and Ocha (who has green skin). I used liquid latex to paint myself green for Ocha, then once I was done with that, I wore my Padme Lake dress. My armbands with that version were brass rings, and just barely fit on my arms – they were so tight! Well, I guess the brass armbands from Padme had some kind of reaction from some of the green paint – because when I took the armbands off a couple of hours later, I had huge, discoloured lines where they had sat (and not just sperrets, either). That never happened when I wore the armbands afterwards (and I wore them many more times) – all I can guess is that it had something to do with the green paint. Maybe not, but for almost two years afterwards I could still see faint lines on my arms where the armbands sat that day. They eventually faded, but it was definitely one of my weirder experiences.
9. Hot Glue
I almost didn’t finish She-Ra in time for MidSouthCon 2002. I had to put the dress on and have my mother hot glue the front piece I had made onto the dress where I was wearing it. (not how I had originally wanted to attach it!) I had red marks on my stomach for weeks afterwards.
10. Stormtrooper Bruises
I’m sure every person who has worn their stormtrooper armour for the first time has experienced this, but the first time I wore my TK at MidSouthCon 2006, my thigh piece on the right side was biting into the back of my knee, with every step. I didn’t pay it much mind at first, but when I had to go out to Ash’s car (a long ways away), and carry a tub back to my room, while wearing my TK – with every step the pain was worse. By the time I got it off, I had a huge, nasty bruise that was beginning to border on a cut in the worst spot on the back of my knee. I went prepared to Comic Con – even though by then we had cut down my armour a little more so it wouldn’t bite me there – I took gauze and big bandaids and covered the back of my knees.
11. Boning
The boning in my Yuuko top had managed to work its way out of its channel in between A-Kon 2005 and MTAC 2006 – at MTAC 2006, the edge of one piece was sticking out, and left an icky red mark on my stomach. Not so bad, but highly uncomfortable while wearing it.
12. Making Things Worse
My Cammy (2001) gloves were extremely tight, especially the part that sat on my upper arms. Unfortunately, right before MTAC, I had gotten a nasty cut on my arm – right in the spot where that arm piece sat. I only wore Cammy for maybe two hours, because of the pain of the glove rubbing against that cut. I think the cut would have healed fine if it hadn’t been for the glove making it worse – I still have a scar on my arm where that cut was.
13. Scar on my Leg
I put my new Slave Leia boot tops on before Dragoncon 2006 – they were buggers to get onto my boots, but they look fantastic! I thought I had the prongs on the inside bent over well enough, but apparently not – when I wore it saturday, one of them rubbed a bad spot on my leg. I didn’t pay it much attention, but when I went to put my boots on when I wore it again sunday night, I put a piece of tape over that spot on the inside of the boot, to keep it from happening again. When we got back to the room and I took the boot off – the spot was much worse – even just the padded spot rubbing against it had irritated it. Now, almost four months later, I still have a scar there. A few more months and hopefully it will fade!
I’m avoiding work. I guess I have to work now that I’m done with this list.