Zed A. Shaw, Painter

I am an oil and pastel painter, and I also develop real film photos in my bathroom, all of which involve toxic solvents and pigments. I wear gloves because my skin is already sensitive and there's usually always some kind of crack somewhere. Guess how much paint gloves stop?

100%. All of the paint stays off my hands, never gets under my nails, my cuticles, in any cracks, and wearing the gloves keeps me from touching my face and clothes. Who gives a fuck if the gloves get infected as you walk around? That's the fucking point. The *gloves* do.

In addition, frequent repeated hand washing weakens the protective nature of your skin by causing irritation. If you just wear gloves you keep your skin healthy and have an additional protection. I ran into this bizarre anti-glove attitude with painters and lead paint.

Lead is a toxic metal that has NO safe level. None. That means *any* amount of lead is harmful. It's not like deadly, but it's really not good for you and permanently damages little kids. These jackasses though would paint with lead paint, get it on their hands, and "wash".

One fucking idiot was an actual doctor. He slatherS fucking lead paint on his hands, and I point this out and he goes "I'm a doctor I know what I'm doing." I ask him what's the safe level of lead and he looks at me blankly.... THIS GENIUS DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT "LEVEL" WAS.

I point out to him that no matter how much he washes his hands he'll never get lead out from under his fingernails or from between his cuticles. Since lead has zero safe levels, and it's a heavy metal, it will say in there and get in his food and on his clothes.

Now this is lead white paint that a *doctor* could see, and that mofo still couldn't get all of it off no matter how hard he tried. But suuurrrrrrrreeee, you're gonna get all the infection off your hands and avoid embarassing yourself by not wearing gloves.