tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-01-30:1957066 asakiyume asakiyume 2022-03-03T16:30:20Z tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-01-30:1957066:988396 2022-03-03T16:24:43Z 2022-03-03T16:30:20Z public 10 At the dentist having my teeth scraped clean this morning, I was thinking about how staining material (like tea, which I drink a lot of) tends to linger in grooves, and I was wondering if the scraping doesn't just create such grooves... and then I got to thinking about making grooves deliberately. About etching designs. You could brush ink over them, and then wipe the ink away, like scrimshaw. I wondered if that's ever been done anywhere. A lazy-quick internet search didn't turn anything up.<br /><br />And then I wondered if any culture ever carved the teeth of the living. The closest I could find was that the Vikings filed horizontal indentations into their teeth. (Many cultures have sharpened or flattened teeth, but I'm not so much thinking of sharpening as of bas-relief carvings.) Trying to carve teeth without modern technology would have been difficult and time consuming and probably painful, and I don't imagine you could get very detailed ... And it probably wouldn't be so great for the usefulness of the teeth, and then there's hygiene... <br /><br />Yes, upon reflection, scrimshaw is the better option. Tattoos for your teeth.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=asakiyume&ditemid=988396" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments