Even if my mom will never believe that my brother's psoriasis wasn't caused by the discreet, classic Mr. Met on his upper arm, it's pretty much acknowledged that tattoos are not the cause celebre they once were (save, that is, in D.C. offices and Orthodox cemeteries.) Indeed, says the Washington Post, "almost 40 percent of Americans 18 to 40 have at least one tattoo."

And in Hong Kong, where ink has long been the exclusive province of triad gangs, tattoos are on the (discreet) rise. Says the Sydney Morning Herald, "Some men in Hong Kong do not accept their girlfriends having tattoos...But people are more open now — the tattoo is losing the bad-guy status it once had." And parents are still liable to be shocked, making one woman's secret "hand-sized portrait of her surgeon father at work" both touching and subversive.

And that double-standard may not be restricted to other cultures. As my mother said to me the other day, "Well, it's bad enough that Charlie would do that...but you never would, would you? It's completely different!" That depends on whether I can find an artist to do her full justice, of course.

In D.C. Area, Tattoos Are Largely Taboo From 9 To 5 [Washington Post]\
Hong Kong Women Shrug Off Tattoo Taboo [Sydney Morning Herald]

[Hong Kong, October 6. Image via Getty]

A woman walks past 'The Importance of Elsewhere - The Kingdom of Heaven' by Damien Hirst in Hong Kong on October 6, 2009. The work is part of a sale of Asian and Western art with an estimated value of US12 million to go for auction on October 7. AFP PHOTO/MIKE CLARKE (Photo credit should read MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Hong Kong, September 29. Image via Getty]

Girls covered in body paint work during a promotion to encourage retail sales at a shopping centre in Hong Kong on September 29, 2009. According to statistics released by the government, the value of total retail sales in August 2009, provisionally estimated at 22.7 billion Hong Kong dollars, (2.9 billion USD) decreased by 0.2 percent when compared with a year earlier. After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales decreased by 1.0 percent in August 2009 when compared with a year earlier. AFP PHOTO/ Antony DICKSON (Photo credit should read ANTONY DICKSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Since her history-making, Ashley-Judd-bashing resignation speech, Sarah Palin has received 950 invitations to bring her dead-fish metaphors and MacArthur misquotes to audiences around the country. She'll get a six-figure fee for paid speeches, but will also work pro bono for Christian groups, military families, and families of special-needs kids (look out for lots more talk about death panels). Palin has also received requests for appearances from 120 candidates for state and national office, who clearly think a mix of incoherence and misinformation is a recipe for success. Worked for Bush!

The Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents Palin, will start responding to invitations this week. But Palin won't be accepting any of the (shudder) TV pundit jobs she's been offered until after she finishes her book, which is supposedly about 85% done. According to her dad Chuck Heath, the book will discuss Palin's storied career as a point guard. He says she's been emailing him with questions about "trivial things like maybe a basketball game, ‘How many points did I score here?' ‘When did we go to the Boston Marathon?' … Mainly sports." She also asked him, "Oh, what happened on June 13, 1978?"

We figure Sarah Palin's talking about, say, some teenage fun-times here, and not Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon — but she is boning up on foreign policy. Kind of. The AP says she'll be traveling to Hong Kong on September 23 to speak before the CLSA Investors Forum, "a well-known annual conference of global investment managers." Of course, Palin isn't an investment manager, but organizer Simone Wheeler says, "Our keynote speakers are notable luminaries who often address topics that go beyond traditional finance such as geopolitics." So not only is Palin now a "notable luminary," but her resignation as an Alaska politician has freed her up to be a geopolitician. And her Hong Kong visit suggests she's doing exactly what supporters hoped she would — traveling the world to get more exposure and experience in order to bolster a possible 2012 presidential run. If only she'd stuck to sports.

Sarah Palin Making First Trip To Asia In September [AP, via Washington Post]
Sarah Palin Gets 1,070+ Invitations [Politico]
Sarah Palin's Dad Says Palin's Busy Writing Her Book [Politico]

[Hong Kong, August 28. Image via Getty.]

HONG KONG - AUGUST 28: A model showcases designs by Thakoon on the catwalk during the Mastercard Luxury Week Hong Kong 2009 at The Four Seasons Hotel on August 28, 2009 in Hong Kong. (Photo by Victor Fraile/Getty Images)

[Hong Kong, August 27. Image via Getty]

HONG KONG - AUGUST 27: A model showcases designs by Diane von Furstenberg on the catwalk during the Mastercard Luxury Week Hong Kong 2009 at The Four Seasons Hotel on August 27, 2009 in Hong Kong. (Photo by Victor Fraile/Getty Images)

[Hong Kong, July 31. Image via Getty]

Young fans of anime and comics pose in their costumes during the Ani-Com and Games Hong Kong (ACGHK) fair at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on July 31, 2009. Cosplay, which combines costume and roleplay based on characterisations in Japanese manga, graphic novels and video games, is popular among youngsters in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. AFP PHOTO/LAURENT FIEVET (Photo credit should read LAURENT FIEVET/AFP/Getty Images)

[Hong Kong, June 11. Image via Getty]

A masked girl sits with a classmate at a kindergarten in a residential estate in Hong Kong on June 11, 2009. Hong Kong authorities on June 11 ordered all primary schools in the city to be closed for two weeks after the first cluster of local swine flu cases was found. The move came after 12 pupils at a city secondary school were found to have contracted the A(H1N1) virus, chief executive Donald Tsang told reporters. AFP PHOTO/MIKE CLARKE (Photo credit should read MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Hong Kong, May 13. Image via Getty]

A sculpture to advertise Art HK 09 is displayed outside an exhibition at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on May 13, 2009. The Art HK 09 event, taking place May 14-17, will bring together over 110 international galleries from 24 countries to buy and sell art. AFP PHOTO / Philippe LOPEZ (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

[Hong Kong, May 1. Image via Getty]

A mother and daughter wear masks while riding on the Hong Kong MTR system, the city's underground network, on May 1, 2009. Hong Kong authorities said on April 30 that two women admitted to hospital with flu-like symptoms had tested negative for swine flu as the city stepped up measures to prevent the spread of the disease. AFP PHOTO / MIKE CLARKE (Photo credit should read MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images)

[But] I fell in love with Los Angeles! I found it to be a cultural treasure chest, with fabulous museums, architecture, and entertainment. And the weather was so sunny and sublime that I actually began to long for a cloud to pass by. Furthermore, I embraced the city as a pedestrian and greatly respected the jaywalking enforcements, which I wish were in place in my dear home of New York, because it makes navigation so much safer and civilized. Finally, everyone should experience Ralph's, a fabulous food emporium that's unlike anything that we have here in New York. I shopped there every day. It was my therapy!

Tim Gunn is a man of many talents. For one, he's a gleeful user of the word "celadon," and a correct pronouncer of sturm und drang — but he's also apparently a crack travel guide. I can't argue with his suggestions for a night in Hong Kong (view the city from the Peak, cross the harbor to Kowloon, shop) other than to add, kit yourself out in a 1960s sheath and pretend you're Maggie Cheung running around the city in the rain in In The Mood For Love at least once. Gunn's got some stories — he extra-politely describes a Chinese herbal "medicinal gruel" offered for his cough in Kuala Lumpur as "odiferous" — and, I'll bet, a tastefully-appointed apartment full of international treasures.

But if there's one thing this USA Today article made me want to do, it's ride the A train with Tim Gunn up to Fort Tryon Park to visit the Cloisters, the medieval art annex of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "I go there to depressurize and reenergize," Gunn explains. I bet, under the terms of our imaginary museum-based friendship, he wouldn't even mind dropping some knowledge about the history of medieval tapestry, or discussing iconoclasm and gardening in the herb patch — which, in an inspired touch on the part of the Met, actually contains living examples of all the plants depicted in the art inside. Tim and I would talk about all the other museums we like, and the differences in landscaping style between Frederick Law Olmstead and Frederick Law Olmstead Jr., and whether Washington was a good general or not, anyway. Then he'd impart to me a complete working knowledge of 20th century fashion history with a single nod. At last, as the sun was setting over the New Jersey palisades, we'd walk through the park back to the A station, and he'd farewell me on the downtown platform before disappearing, pouf, like a trim, silver-haired whirling dervish of taste.

No, the interview does not contain any new information about when, if ever, we are likely to see the already-taped Project Runway season six. I checked. But go to the Cloisters, or Hong Kong, anyway.

Traveling With The Stars: Tim Gunn [USA Today]

Clothing stores such as Prada, Burberry, and Zara use their American and European ads featuring white models in Asia, and according to Royce Yuen, chair of Hong Kong's Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies, it's not just so they can reuse the same ads. "I think it's a conscious effort that they are featuring Caucasian models," says Yuen, "it gives people the impression that they're more international and more premium." A survey found that 38 percent of women in Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan used skin-whitening chemicals and every major cosmetics company offers a whitening cream. Many of the creams contain hydroquinone, a pigment-altering agent that is linked to cancer and may cause liver and kidney damage. The chemical is banned in the U.K., but Virginia P'an, a business analyst and CEO of China Pacific Partners, still claims the ideal of lighter skin is "basically harmless." "A good part of Asia is still an agrarian society. Being whiter-skinned shows you aren't a laborer or a farm worker," she says. "These are cultural trends that are not going to shift overnight." [Women's E News]

Marie Claire's Abigail Haworth treats the issue in classic women's magazine style, presenting it as a semi-titillating cautionary tale of risky sex in an exotic locale. It's set in Hong Kong's "pulsating red-light district of Wan Chai," "a riot of neon-lit sleaze" which "heaves with easily available female flesh." Much of this heaving flesh belongs to "bar girls," legal prostitutes who flirt with Western men and later sell them sex. Haworth visits one nightclub, Neptune II, where "there are no Asian men (rich Hong Kongers have their own red-light area) and not a single Western woman."

Dragon-lady stereotyping aside (horrors! A bar where Asian women prey on white men with not a white girl in sight!), the specifics of the cases are pretty disturbing. Executive Simon Garcia says he didn't intend to leave Neptune II with a strange woman, but the last thing he remembers is dizzily exiting the bar with her on Friday night. He woke up at 2 a.m. on Sunday, minus his cell phone, wallet, and watch. Police found Rohypnol in his urine. And some men, including Finland's former police chief, have died after being dosed with Rohypnol by prostitutes.

But bar girl Juli gives the unsettling flip side to the old "she asked for it" excuse: "of course it's bad news if a guy dies or loses his marriage because his wife finds out, but nobody forces them to come to Wan Chai." She adds, "we've always had to protect ourselves from men. Maybe now it's their turn to start protecting themselves from us."

Dangerous Liaisons [Marie Claire]