Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 483
June 3, 2016
Untangling and Unboxing Hair Wreaths and Hair Art
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
In This Episode
Still tipsy from last week’s brandy-infused royal wedding fruitcake? Sober up with this creepy memento mori.
Today: Human Hair Wreaths
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Family Hairlooms
In the Victorian era, wreaths were made from the hair of the deceased and their relatives. These wreaths were placed on the coffin during funeral services and later hung in the family home…but, don’t get too creeped out. Not all hair art is as dark or as morbid as this—it was actually quite popular!
Families would take locks of hair from each member and braid it into interesting designs and display it prominently in the home—sometimes under glass, sometimes as a free standing structure, sometimes even as jewelry! By the time the 1800s rolled around, hair art was so common that it was regarded as tasteless trash.
Trash? What!
Today, Ripley’s has welcomed plenty of kooky hair artists into our dysfunctional family!
Hair-raising insect by Adrienne Antonson
Artist Adrienne Antonson from Asheville, North Carolina, bends and weaves real human hair into remarkably detailed insect artworks. On her praying mantis, moths and flies, she uses glue to mold the hair and to hold it in place. Adrienne collects locks of different-colored hair from close friends and family, and is interested in using her creations for art therapy, working with people who have lost their hair through illness.
This curly character is a “B”!
Mayuko Kanazawa, a design student from Tokyo, Japan, created her own bizarre font by photographing the hair on her friend’s leg, arranged to look like letters of the alphabet. Mayuko came up with the idea after her class was challenged to make a font without the aid of a computer, to ensure no digital trickery was involved!
Hair you wear!
Dress designer Thelma Madine and hair stylist Ryan Edwards, both from Liverpool, England, teamed up to create a dress made from 820 ft. of human hair. It took 300 hours to make, weighs 209 lbs. and uses hair extensions containing more than 10,000 individual hair wefts. The $75,000 dress also features 1,500 crystals and 12 underskirts!
To Be Continued…
Don’t even get us started on dog hair art—coming to an unboxing episode near you this summer!
The Cat’s Meat Man Does Not Sell Cat Meat
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
In Victorian-era London, there was a job for “Cat’s Meat Man.” It was like the Ice Cream, but with giving away fresh meat to cats.
A cat’s meat man sold chopped meat to cat owners
The meat was usually horse scraps from local slaughterhouses
They had regular routes and clients, just like a milkman
When he’d walk his cart up to his regular street, the cats would run out to meet him and brush up against his legs
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
June 2, 2016
Karen Schoeve Turned to Craigslist to Sell Her Bison
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Bullet sometimes made her way inside
Bison are known to be wild, dangerous, and unpredictable. They may appear to be lazy and unconcerned, but at a moment’s notice, they can charge and use their horns and hard heads to great effect. But in the case of Karen Schoeve’s bison, Bullet, nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s not that Bullet is a pet. Karen has worked with rehabilitating animals long enough to know that a wild animal is a wild animal, but she is domesticated. She’d been imprinted onto humans well before Karen ever got her, and once that familiarity with humans is established, it can be hard or impossible to break.
Hearing Karen describe her time with Bullet is like listening to someone talk about their time with their favorite lap dog.
She really does like people. She likes to be scratched, and when I come up to her, she’ll turn her back end around and want me to scratch by her tail. And she’ll lower her head so I can work around her horns and her eyes. She has her favorite places she likes to be scratched.
The Hard Choices
As is often the case, things changed in Karen’s life, and the time and attention she was normally capable of devoting to Bullet wasn’t really there any longer.
When that happened, she was faced with a choice: how to go about finding Bullet a good home? And like so many others, she turned to Craigslist. Why Craigslist?
I didn’t lose faith in mankind, and I really felt like it is a good platform and their variety is just immense.
Luckily, Bullet was right at home amongst the other things being sold on Craigslist, and it didn’t take long for Karen to start fielding offers for her bison.
Looking for a Buyer
The important thing to note is that selling Bullet was never about the money. Karen, sadly, found herself in a position where she could no longer care for Bullet the way she deserved. So not just any old offer would do.
When asked what factors she took into consideration while she was fielding offers, Karen was clear that she wanted someone who had a pasture big enough to suit Bullet’s grazing needs, but not too big that she’d get lost within it and lack the human contact she also needs. She was very confident in what she didn’t want.
I had to have a connection with the people and feel that their goals were like mine. And I didn’t want somebody to make her into a roadside show.
She’d heard about a small place in Fuel City, TX where Bullet would become something of an attraction. Someone also suggested she sell her to Ted Nugent. Luckily for Bullet, Karen had no intention of following either of those leads.
Now Bullet lives on a farm that Karen passes on her way to work, and she can drop by to see her whenever she has time.
Bullet’s New Home
Bullet now lives on a farm featuring 60 acres worth of land. She’s also got horses and a couple cows she can make friends with once she gets acclimated.
In fact, there’s one cow there who seems to have taken a special liking to Bullet.
It was like love at first sight. This is a one-year-old Jersey male cow, and he was just star struck; he could not get enough of Bullet. He would follow her everywhere […] and come and touch noses with her. And the other cool thing is he picked up a tiny branch that had leaves on it, and he laid it in front of her like a peace offering.
So things seem to be off to a good start for Bullet. Karen still gets out to see her fairly often. And she seems to be adjusting to the change in her living situation. It’s not every day you sell your 1,100-pound housebroken bison on Craigslist, but when you do, I can hope you have an outcome as positive as Karen’s.
Source: Karen Schoeve Turned to Craigslist to Sell Her Bison
Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest Finalists
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com, an online company specializing in providing brides with fiscally savvy tips for a fabulous wedding, teamed up with Charmin for the sixth time to host the 12th Annual Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest.
The contest began on March 7, 2016, with submissions coming in from all over the country.
The rules for the contest were simple:
Contestants had to use Charmin brand toilet paper
They were allowed to use any type of tape and/or any type of glue
They could also use needle and thread
The dress must be able to be worn by a human and be able to be taken on and off
Announcement of the Top 10
Submissions closed on May 15, 2016, and now the Top Ten finalists have been announced! We’ll show you the top ten looks here, and then you can head over to the Contest Website and cast your vote to determine the fan favorite. You can vote for as many dresses as you like, but only once per dress per day. So if you really want your voice to be heard, be sure to go back each day and cast your vote for your favorites.
The finale runway event is on June 16 in Haven Rooftop at the Sanctuary Hotel at 9:20 am. For the first time in the contest’s history, the finale will be broadcast via Livestream, so you can be a part of the show even if you can’t make it out to attend in person.
All of the top ten contestants will be in attendance, and the celebrity guest judge will be Lifestyle Expert and Planner to the Stars Mikie Russo. The grand prize winner will receive $10,000! The second place finalist will receive $5,000, and third place will receive $2,500!
The Top 10 Finalists
Augusto Manzanares of NY
Donna Pope Vincler of Tennessee
Frank Cazares of Texas
Hannah Riley of Mississippi
Judith Henry of Utah
Luis Razo of Chicago
Ronaldo Cruz of Virginia
Susan Brennan of Michigan
Susan Masarek Wilson of New Jersey
Van Tran of Brooklyn, NY
Remember to head over to the website to vote for your favorites, and don’t forget to tune in on Jun 16, 2016, to find out who won!
There’s a Phone Booth on the Lincoln Illinois City Hall Roof
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
If you visit the Lincoln Illinois City Hall building, you’ll see an old phone booth sitting on its roof!
The phone booth was built in the 1960s
It was there for a sever-weather spotter to issue bad weather warnings
The spotter was always the youngest, single firefighter so that if something happened to him, he wouldn’t be leaving a family behind
There wasn’t a payphone in the booth, but a line that went directly to a desk downstairs
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
Source: There’s a Phone Booth on the Lincoln Illinois City Hall Roof
June 1, 2016
Illegal Tattooing is on the Rise in South Korea
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Body modification has been a complicated and contentious subject for a long time. Even though Humans have marked their bodies for thousands of years, cultural opinions in the West about tattoos have only started to shift in the last couple decades. Other countries have been even slower to adjust to contemporary ideas about piercings and tattoos.
In South Korea, it is illegal to give someone a tattoo without a doctor’s license.
The problem with this law is that no one who goes through all the schooling needed to become a doctor is likely to be interested in then practicing tattooing during their off hours. And no self-respecting hospital is going to have a tattoo ward.
Embed from Getty Images
Luckily for young people in South Korea, an underground illegal tattooing scene is gaining a foothold in the country.
A Little Info About the Law
The battle to stop associating tattoos with a slacker or a criminal element is fought across the world. But in Asian countries, tattooing’s links to the Yakuza run deep.
Flickr user Ari Helminen
In Japan, the traditional tattoo technique of Irezumi was outlawed in the 1800s. It wasn’t made legal again until 1948, but by then the damage had been done. The view of tattooing as something only members of the criminal class partook in was set.
It’s easy to see how that idea would move throughout Eastern society. But in Korea, the law is presented as being purely a health concern.
Embed from Getty Images
It’s not illegal to have a tattoo, and it’s not illegal to get a tattoo in the country. However, tattooing is considered an invasive medical procedure. In the same way that a country wouldn’t allow someone to perform surgery in their living room, South Korea isn’t willing to allow people to get tattoos in a tattoo parlor. Not unless it’s administered by a medical professional at least.
The Illegal Tattooing Underground
Embed from Getty Images
As they typically do, young people are working to change the perception of tattooing in their country.
Currently, tattoo artists have to go underground, sometimes literally, to practice their trade. Studios are found in basements, and their locations are only spread by word of mouth.
If caught, tattoo artists face fines and jail time for “violating public health codes.” But that hasn’t stopped these underground studios from existing.
As an increasing number of young people in South Korea are getting inked, and more and more famous figures in the country are showing off their body art, the country is realizing that their attitudes on the subject have to change to keep up with the times. Soon, a person may not have to face being disowned by their parents just for getting a tattoo.
River House
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Now that’s what i call riverfront property!
The Drina River runs the border between Bosnia Harzegovina and Serbia. The Drina is the main kayaking and rafting attraction of the Balkans.
When you go on a river trip, you expect to see beautiful pastoral countryside. What you don’t expect to see is an oddly placed house in the middle of the river!
Is anyone home?
It doesn’t appear that anyone lives in the Drina River House. It would make it kinda tough to get to the grocery store. But that doesn’t answer the question who built it and why?
Why Build a River House in the first place?
The house has stood for over 40 years, surviving severe weather conditions, and regular flooding of the river.
It was built in 1968 when a small group was looking for a place to sunbathe. it soon became clear that the rock on which the house sits would make the perfect spot for a small dwelling.
The one bedroom structure has since become a major draw to tourists.
The next time you’re on vacation, think about visiting the River House. But make sure you’re not there during flood season.
Source: River House
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