FROM SALON (HTTP://WWW.SALON1999.COM)

Defacing Ourselves A hippie can cut his hair, but a tattooed mug's forever

At a body-piercing studio on Berkeley, California's, Telegraph Avenue, a grimy, dreadlocked, pierced, 18-year-old punk named Brian is about to make a lifelong commitment to social deviance. Brian is tattooing his face.

Black bars will soon cut horizontally across Brian's cheeks, forming a geometric pattern with three black dashes that already adorn his goatee zone. The war paint-like lines will set Brian apart from other urban primitives, most of whom advertise their dedication to their subculture on body regions that don't require 24-hour exposure: the upper arms, torso, back or legs.

Body modifications like tattoos and body piercing, once associated with bikers, inmates and others at the lower end of the social scale, have become mainstream fashion statements. But tattooing the face remains taboo. Even the most hard-core, in-it-for-life tattoo artists refrain from indelibly marking their own mugs... --By A. Clay Thompson

FROM STIM (HTTP://WWW.STIM.COM)

Skanky Chicks A historical appreciation of a special type of woman

Consider some of the women we're supposed to believe are sex symbols: Sandra Bullock, Michelle Pfeiffer, Elizabeth Hurley. Boring, right? Even the cruelest Melrose Place vixens look like Ivory girls. Yeah, they may be pretty--beautiful even--but no real guy actually lusts after these stars. Fortunately, the fresh-scrubbed mid-'90s has a disturbing, sexy undercurrent. It's a current that has been flowing steadily throughout history, bubbling nastily and seductively beneath the surface. I'm talking about the type of chicks who can affectionately be called "skanky." If the phraseology offends you, you're not one of them.

Who are these skanky chicks? Think of Jennifer Jason Leigh playing a caterwauling, messed-up rocker in [the movie] Georgia. Think of Juliette Lewis playing a caterwauling, messed-up rocker in Strange Days. Think of Courtney Love... --By Daniel Radosh

FROM WORD (HTTP://WWW.WORD.COM)

Big History Is Auschwitz really the best place for a shopping mall?

I heard laughter down the hall and the clanky sound of German voices.

"Nein, nein, nein!" a girl squealed, and footsteps thumped outside my door.

Normally I wouldn't have really minded. But this night I was lying in a hard bed in what was once an SS barracks, and just outside my window, a dark shadow against the stars, was Auschwitz...

It had been a surprise for me that there were sleeping accommodations at Auschwitz. The dormitory is above a restaurant, just outside the barbed-wire fence. It's mostly for student groups, but an exception was made for me after I insisted I wouldn't mind the spartan conditions. I don't know why I wanted to spend the night at Auschwitz. I don't know for a fact that any of my relatives perished there. But it seemed important. It seemed like something I had to do... --By David Lazarus

FROM SALON (HTTP://WWW.SALON1999.COM)

Wordplay Maven A bouquet of doubly rewording bilingual puns

Punning is a rewording experience. And bilingual puns are twice as rewording. Some of the bonniest of bons mots have a French twist:

Why do the French need only one egg to make an omelet?

Because in France, one egg is un oeuf.

Have you stayed at the new luxury hotel in town?

It's a site for soirees.

Have you heard about the student in Paris who spent too much time sitting in a hard chair studying?

She got sore buns.

A company tried to manufacture prosthetic devices for feline amputees, but found there was no market for the product. You might say that they committed a faux paw.

A class of second-graders inadvertently came up with a French pun. After an especially trying day, the teacher sighed aloud, "C'est la vie."

With one voice the children called out, "La vie"... --By Richard Lederer