Does Tom Tom suffer from Vitiligo???

Just looking at Tom Tom.

He wears a grey t-shirt.

His head is pure white.

His arms, hands and chest are a faint blue.

He isn't wearing gloves so why is his head a different colour. It doesn't look like one of Felix's masks.

Does he have Vitiligo? - the Michael Jackson pigment/skin condition???


Yaboot

I'm sorry, I just noticed this post. Yaboot. You. Are. So. Goofy.

ROTFL

I don't know if he does...but I do. : (
and it is neither fun, nor funny. : (

awww, tallarino, I am sure Yaboot meant no disrespect at all, and neither did I. My mother actually has Vitiligo as well.

And by going through all the threads and reading about this amazing deck, we have seen how anything is possible in this Phantasmagoric world... perhaps this representation was on purpose.

Either way, I apologize for my own contribution here if you felt that the thread was in poor taste, but I am absolutely positive it wasn't meant in a mean spirit.

I appreciate your apology, and I am sure it was not meant in a mean spirit, but...do we write about other handicaps? Hey does The Emperor have cancer, he's got a big mole on his nose, why is The Hermit under a hood, oooo, his left shoulder is higher than his right, does he have a congenital bone deformity? and so forth...
Vitiligo is difficult to live with, as you may well know, by your mother. It is a handicap, it can lead to alopecia, pernacious anemia, diabetes, skin cancer and so forth. I cannot go out in the sun for more than a minute or 2 at a time, yes, even with sunblock. People look at me funny, they say, Hey you forgot to wash your face, it looks dirty. Not to mention the psychological aspect on a single girl, dating and so forth. Yes I am sensitive about it, because it is on my face as well as other parts of my body. AND YES, my face is a different color than other parts of my body, my hands are two different colors, etc.
I do believe, altho not meant to harm, that post was in very poor taste.
Now that I have educated you all, I am done.
Karen

Tallarico

I had absolutely no interest in poking fun or making any bad taste comments when I posted this post; hopefully, you will see from all of the other posts in my history here, that I am a sensitive kind of guy.

I am also educated in Vitiligo (my mother also suffers Molly), which is why I noticed this in Tom Tom. I am currently having a really bad time with exthma and psoriasis so understand how uncomfortable and unattractive a person can feel with these conditions. However, if someone had mentioned that a character in a particular deck may have also suffered from these conditions, I don't think that I would be offended; more intreaged.

Finally, I really did not mean to offend you and if I have (or have offended anybody else with this post), please accept my apologies since it was not intentional.

One last word - greetings to yourself and all other newer Phantasmagoric readers on the boards. This deck really is staying alive on Aeclectic and that is great.

Best wishes to you all

Yaboot

Hi Yaboot,

I took your question with perfect seriousness. I tried looking up Graham Cameron on the 'net and, other than this deck, I can find no mention of him. Maan doesn't seem to have ever gotten a reply from him, either. It is natural to wonder why such a talented person is not more accessible, and I when you brought up Tom Tom's possible Vitiglio I wondered if maybe Graham suffers from it. He certainly seems to have empathy for less than perfect bodies/faces. He seems to have drawn them their own world where, while their own inner turmoils may temporarily isolate them, their superficial features do not exclude them from a sense of belonging.

less than perfect bodies/faces

hello what are you implying here. why don't we just drop this thread.

Not fair to ask what I'm implying and then to ask to drop the thread, as though what I was implying were obvious. I was referring to the cultural ideal we are all constantly exposed to; the movie star/magazine model ideal. I myself fall far short of it, and resent it's use as a standard against which everyone is measured. However, many tarot decks seem to use this ideal for their figures; I find it refreshing that Graham does not.

There's no such thing as perfection, except as an ideal. Even models and movie stars, these icons that we must aspire to be, are far from perfect. Many models are so thin they are unattractive and unhealthy, and the most talented movie stars tend not to be the ones that people watch for their bodies. How many people go to see, say, Jennifer Aniston (who is beautiful, if extremely skinny) for her acting skills? Cinemas will fill with people wanting to watch Kevin Spacey act, even though he doesn't fit the stereotype of the "perfect" leading man. He has talent.

People become far too obsessed with what people look like, and less interested in how people act. Who cares if someone's gorgeous, waif-like, sophisticated, with perfect health, if they're also a horrible person? I would not be interested in any kind of relationship, friendship, romantic or any other, with someone who was like this.

And as someone who has spent her life working with people who have major physical and mental disabilities I can say with all honesty that you don't see the disability or illness, just the person. A close friend of mine for several years was brain-damaged and quadriplegic, and that is not how I saw him at all. He was funny, warm, intelligent, generous, a terrible flirt and ladies' man, and a great listener. I was surprised that so many people couldn't see past the fact that he was in a wheelchair and couldn't communicate 'normally'. This is an extreme example, but serves to show how when you have an open mind, what someone looks like doesn't matter.

I don't have vitiligo, and just for the record, I'm a size 10 (UK), 5'5" blonde, and I think that this is an incredibly offensive thread. I don't own the Phantasmagoric Tarot, but if TomTom is shown in many different colours, perhaps this relates more to the meaning of the card than to the artist's interest in drawing "imperfect people". All the cards in the deck are bizarrely drawn, and this adds to the beauty of it, but if you start thinking "What could be wrong with this individual?", you enter the realms of farce rather than intelligent educational discussion. I appreciate that the original comment was not intended to be offensive, but perhaps everyone involved in this thread should recognise that offence was taken by several people and just drop it.

If I've caused anyone offence by this post, I apologise, as that was not my intention. I merely wished to express my views on this issue.

Thank you, Luv, Fi. xxx