One thing that has always interested me, is people who do things to the extreme. Who take a good thing, or an okay thing, and do it to the extent that it becomes bizarre, unwholesome, and endangers health and happiness.

I was drawn to people who tan too much, who tattoo too much, who pierce too much, who work out too much. Those who stretch their ears so they dangle down around chin-level. People who augment their lips, breasts and butts and once they do it a little, they think “just a little more” until they lose sight of how gross it has all become.

Here are a couple of examples.

Tenk you to my family fodda gym membership! It’s been a great six weeks.

That was some party last night! Hope I didn’t do anything I’ll regret…

But what can you say about that, really? We know people exist who do this, and if you’re like me, you’re kind of morbidly fascinated by what people are willing to do to their bodies.

I googled “extreme” and followed that by every letter of the alphabet, trying to find extremes that one might not necessarily think of. I did find one, “extreme eyelashes” that was pretty cool.

Ack! I hate clumpy lashes.

But when I got to the letter “i”, I found something veddddy innnteresting!

Extreme Ironing!

What?!!

Extreme Ironing is for real. I am not making it up. People take ironing boards to remote locations and iron items of clothing. According to The EI folks, Extreme Ironing is the “latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt.”

Here are just a few (there are many more) locations of where Extreme Ironing has taken place:

I have seven questions for our Extreme Ironers.

1. I note that all the pictures of Extreme Ironers are men. Why is this, when we all know it’s women who do most of the ironing?
2. Has the shirt been correctly laundered, i.e. stains removed, fabric softened, color-safe bleached when necessary?
3. Is the ironing board cover clean and in good repair, i.e. no rips, tears or spray starch stains?
4. What about your iron? Do you use steam? Have you flushed it recently with distilled water?
5. What if my shirt is permanent press? Doesn’t ironing become moot?
6. How does it work, when you iron a shirt underwater exactly? Can you do this without getting an electrical shock?
7. Where do you plug in the iron?

Just curious, you understand. I do think it is a very, um, unusual, concept.

The Body Builder by Slim45hady
Body Art by Frederic Poirot
eyelashes by arsenic