"Defacing" Decks

I have a friend who used a sharpie to draw clothing over any nudity in her decks.

Taamar said:

I have a friend who used a sharpie to draw clothing over any nudity in her decks.

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Oh how silly! I mean I can understand (well I can't actually) the odd bit of censorship, on the odd card. I can understand where Grizabella is coming from, but there comes a time when there aren't any children around and I want to deal with the truth. But I would have thought that tarot-readers, with a mind geared towards symbolism and metaphors, might make the equation of nudity equals freedom, lack of deceit, honesty, spiritual freedom, emancipation etc etc. I mean even in the 17th century you see nudity in the World card, and I bet they didn't get their quills out and delete nudity for being "dirty". I always expect more from tarot readers. I always think they should be able to deal with the human experience a bit more unflinchingly.

if I went to a tarot reader with a deck like the one you mention, I would just laugh in their face and not trust anything they said. God knows what else they'd be censoring... I mean, Im an adult and want to deal with truths. Im sorry, but I wouldn't trust someone like that to be a good tarot reader with such a controlling mindset.

If a tarot deck is so offensive, why not just use the Magical Forest or something...

Rant over...

Le Fanu said:

But I would have thought that tarot-readers, with a mind geared towards symbolism and metaphors, might make the equation of nudity equals freedom, lack of deceit, honesty, spiritual freedom, emancipation etc etc.

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Just to play Devil's Advocate, while the reader may be so enlightened, the sitters they read for may not. So a reader may censor the decks they use to read for the public....

rwcarter said:

Just to play Devil's Advocate, while the reader may be so enlightened, the sitters they read for may not. So a reader may censor the decks they use to read for the public....

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mmmm... clever excuse.

But like I said, just use something fluffy. Or something neutered, like a fairy deck, Magical Forest, Animal Lords, Elves or whatever.

I find it amusing to be drawn to a deck with loads of nudity and then be compelled to have to scribble it out.... Sounds contradictory - and slightly suspicious - to say the least.

In terms of the earlier posts, I love the idea of cards with handwriting on them. I could happily do it with some of my playing cards. I think the Meneghello Svizzera has handwriting on it... I love it. Like a message coming down to us across the centuries... the problem now of course, is that cards are so glossy that it is quite difficult to write on them. Certainly with a fountain pen...

ETA; it's not the Svizerra, it's the Besançon! My mistake...

I can relate. I'm not a prude, but I find that I'd like to find a way to cover 'The devil' midsection in the Fourniers Marseille Tarot (the whole cards coloured one), that is horrible looking. I don't know what kind of pen / marker to use on it. I don't want ink stains on other cards.


freddie

I had a bit of a tussle with this last year and I'm very glad that in the end I chose to do nothing. But, I did take a Sharpie to a couple of the extra cards to see if it would smear. I can't remember the decks, but it wiped right off! Then my mind started thinking evil thoughts regarding certain scan sites. My conscience has a very tight grip. Ouch! I'm not, okay?!!!

For years I had a love/hate relationship with my Robin Wood deck. I didn't like the fact that most of the people were blonde (no offense to blondes, but it felt really Ken & Barbie to me). Anyway, there was a lot (at the time) I did really like about the deck. So....I coloured in a lot of the hair brown. Believe it or not the deck felt better. Once I'd started I figured I had nothing to lose... I made a few changes here and there and then I coloured all the borders in black. It kind of had the effect of trimming without actually cutting of the borders. At the time I was terrified of trimming, but I'm definitely over it now. Doing the borders black made the colours really pop out and the deck ended up looking much better than before I started.....in my opinion of course. I never use the deck now and don't even really like it, but it still holds a place in my top ten just because so much effort went into 'defacing' it. I'll upload some scans if I get a chance this weekend, if anyone is even vaguely interested

Im interested Sapienza I'd love to see it I had the same thoughts about the Barbie & Ken deck even tho in some ways I quite like it. Also, being a white border hater I trimmed mine & now I don't like it cus it's too darn small! I'd like to see your black borders

I need to give shorts to 10 of Wands in my World Spirit too! I'm just always afraid I'll mess up...

Sapienza, I would also be interested in seeing some scans of your Robin Wood. I also associated it with Ken & Barbie, but it did not really bother me. The Robin Wood was the first deck I could really read with, and well I still have a crush on the Magician *LOL*. I retired my Robin Wood about 8 years ago, but like for you it remains one of my top favorites for sentimental reasons.

Souljourney ... perhaps you can find a sticker of shorts to put on him ... just a thought. I actually got rid of that deck specifically because of that card. I just could not get passed it and it was forever popping up when I tried to use the deck.