Pre-Flight Checklist - Spartan
| Leather Speedo |  |
| Cloak, Shoulder Harness and Brooch | |
| Bronze Greaves | |
| Bronze Vambraces | |
| Bronze Helmet | |
| Bronze Aspis Shield | |
| Spear | |
| Falcata Sword | |
| Sandals | |
| Battle Totem to make a Persian soil his loincloth | |
| Muscular Definition (enough for me!) | |
| Mediterranean tan |  |
I asked JJ for the aspis shield later in the costuming process, so I didn't expect to get it with the rest of the stuff. It took us a while to find shield blanks in the right size and shape for an accurate recreation. I'm a patient guy. The upside is I'm also getting a Boromir shield at the same time! Woo-hoo!
But the tan ... Ahhhh. Now that presents a problem. You see, I am light-complexioned and tend to burn, rather than tan. SPF15 is my friend. Not nordic pale, nor fish-belly white (thank God!), but if I take off my shirt, you can see the considerable difference between my face and hands and the rest of me. (Does this, then, make me a type of redneck?) The color in my face, hands and lower arms is a pale gold.
My friend Mike is just the opposite. He's got a light olive complexion, but if he spends one lousy hour in the sun, he's got a killer tan that lasts for weeks. Damn him.
There's no way I'd go to a tanning salon - I have no intention of developing melanoma. Also, I don't want to prematurely age my skin, either.
And over-the-counter aerosol or rub-on tans are also something I wouldn't consider. I don't want to look like a variegated carrot with nicotine-colored palms. After all, if I spent this amount of time and effort to look like a Spartan, I'm not going to ruin it by getting a cheap tan.
That leaves me with a professional airbrush tan. I pass by this one place - the Spa Meridian - every day to work, so I decided to do some Googling and see if there was any reviews for them. It turns out they are basically a glorified nail salon that tries to do everything and winds up doing nothing well.
Some other information that I came across while looking for a reputable place was something called "sculpted airbrushing" - this involves using some slightly different tones to "accentuate the positive" - one guy on Yahoo! indicated that the place he used added the illusion of a slightly flatter stomach and hints of a six-pack. Nice ... Just what I'm looking for...
My Google search led me to Sundara Sunless Tanning. This is all that they do and they are listed as a 5-star establishment from New York Magazine. Sundara (which means "beautiful" in Sanskrit) does a customized color match to your skin - with me, I'd most-likely need a more golden color, rather than reddish-brown. I'd also be looking for something a bit more subtle than the picture to the left - I'd probably take the day off for the paint job and if I came in the next day with a savage tan, everyone would know something was afoot. I need to go in to Sundara for a consultation - I do have some questions that I'd like answered:- Given my proclivity to eye infections, how is the spray applied to around the eyes?
- What about the normal face and neck shaving? Isn't this going to take the tan off quickly? Do they offer a take-home touch up for guys?
- Do I need to exfoliate all over first, or is that something that Sundara offers as part of the prep?
Addendum:
I've updated the checklist to include the aspis shield which I received on December 24!!
