Through the course of my education in real life, I’ve been a student at a handful of universities, but hands down, my favorite university experience has been, and most likely will always be, at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. The mascot is a polar bear, and the sports teams are called Nanooks, so you’d hear cries of “Go Nanooks!” at all the hockey games I loved attending, and along the way, I started collecting everything I could find that had a polar bear on it. So that should explain the post title at least once you see my silentsparrow goodies from Melt. And if you’re curious about the word nanook, it’s a form of the Inuit word for polar bear (also spelled nanuq).

As you might guess from that intro, I was really excited to see the items at Melt after reading this quote from Radio Signals. “This project is a study of translations. I presented 25 artists within Second Life with a concept of creating art with these words in mind: Drowning. Melting. Polar bears. Arctic. Culpability. Corporate greed. Inevitability. Extinction.” The designers truly rose to the occasion with a wide array of creative, thoughtful items.

I picked up a number of items, but I thought I’d focus on just a couple of favorites because I’ve been wearing them since I bought them. My love for silentsparrow and hyasynth Tiramisu is no secret, and it was no surprise to me that I had to have her creations as soon as I saw them. When you buy the tattoo, you actually get 3 versions – regular, faded, and iced. I’m wearing the iced version here because the blues bring out the broken icy hearts and spirals and the polar bears drawn in hya’s whimsical style. The tattoo extends all the way down the right leg. I didn’t think about much I was covering with my jeans until I started this post, and I’m sure the tattoo will be shown off more here in the future. The blue of the Fenris leather vest is striking on its own, but the addition of the broken heart and polar bears seen in the tattoo is what made it a must-have for me.

Body
Hair: Exile Carlotta / blizzard
Skin: Tuli Hope goth 07
Eyes: Shine Silent Lucidity Sky (large)

Clothing
Tattoo: silentsparrow iced Ursala Glacies Tattoo
Vest: silentsparrow ursala Fenris Leather Vest
Jeans: Decoy Dana 76 jeans – Dark
Shoes: **DP**yumyum Shoes

Props and Poses
Poses: Reel Expression Shoes 01 – Curvy and Arty V2 02 – Curvy
Backdrop: Frick Winter Scene Skybox