Playa Names

Dusty Nipples was not given to me. I chose it.

I adorned Tittimans wall at BM0? (my 3rd burn I think) He asked me to sign my name to my tittie paint blots, and I stood there with a fingerful of paint, a clean fresh pink exposed body, and a paint splat of my tits on a wall... ready to sign. I've always loved my nipples, and there they were in bright dayglo paint. I started to sign my name 'Kim' and it just felt so... blah. For no known reason, I signed 'Felonia Nipples'.

My campmates were like 'who the fuck is Felonia Nipples?'. We had a good laugh at my new imaginary 70's hooker alter ego. That night, just for fun, I used the name out loud. Of course, it didn't take long for people to call me Felatio Nipples. Of course, that wasn't gonna fly.

Over the course of the week, the whole nipples theme kept creeping back to me. At some point, there was a conversation where 'Dusty Nipples' was introduced. It wasn't a memorable moment, obviously. I almost forgot about it. Many months later, I moved to a new city. I got online to make new friends. I needed a screen name, and Dusty came to mind, so I used it. But in real life, I was Kim. I am Kim. I made new friends, and was invited to a regional. I was new, didn't really know anyone. I went by Kim, but there were a few moments where 'Dusty' slipped into the vocabulary.

Again, I almost forgot about it.

Then, at the next regional, I'm walking along and hear someone yell out 'Hey Dusty!'. I looked around and realized they were talking to me. It felt good, it felt like home.

My next Burningman I camped with a new camp, my 'sponsors' were the wonderful people I met when I moved here... who first met me online as 'Dusty Nipples'. They introduced me Dusty, and it just continued from there.

It's not an exciting story. No great 'playa name' memorabilia to offer. And I suspect there are a lot of playa names that just came to be somehow without a fab story behind it. Some are uber entertaining, some are just screen names, some are silly, some are self made, some are heartily earned. It's not a contest, it doesn't define 'coolness', it isn't necessary, it does bring color to our world.

Okay, turning on the keyboard breathalizer now. You might not hear from me again tonite :-)

In 2000, I was chatting with several others around a burn barrel. We began discussing man's relationship with animals for whatever reason. I pointed out that "everyone loves monkeys." Really Drunk Guy(soon to be his playa name,) after chewing on it a bit, started chanting, "he loves monkeys, he loves monkeys," which soon became, "loves monkeys" and then, inexplicably, " love monkey." My camp mates called me that the rest of the week.

Yeah, I wish there was a better story, too. Still, it yielded a name I'm known by in many circles almost 8 years later.

Thanks Really Drunk Guy.

>It then makes sense when introducing yourself to use your screen name so people "recognize" you.

Yep. It's also kinda useful to have an avatar that looks like you, you're more likely to be recognized. I use HeatherLyn on Tribe, and at Burning Man too, it's just my first&middle names. Since I'm from Southern California originally, I can't quite get rid of the Valleygirl when I say my Valleygirl-esque name (OMG LIKE TOTALLY MY NAME'S HEATHER!), so I initially started using HeatherLyn because it sounds less Valley coming out of my mouth.

Every time I think about changing my tribe name, I end up at an event where 2 or 3 folks come up to me and go "Hey, you're HeatherLyn from Tribe!" (funny side note, I get this more often at Burner parties where I'm dressed in a pink wig, or painted green, etc.... but I have felt like a minor celebrity to be stopped on the street in Berkeley by someone who recognized me in "street clothes", and randomly when I walked into an ATT wireless store here in San Francisco. Dude!)

> "Thanks Really Drunk Guy."
...*L* I like "love monkey". and at least you didn't get dubbed "really drunk guy". ;)



and I like "Bobzilla". it sounds somewhat ominous, like you might suddenly break free and destroy Tokyo or something. or like you're so much Bob you're Bobzilla. ;)


and it just occurred to me from some of these stories that in one way bestowing a playa name on someone is a bit like a cautionary tale, some kind of behavioral modification through example. Don't act like an ass or a poseur boys and girls or you'll end up with a name like Gerbil or Reall Drunk Guy. ;) Like how you get people to eat their vegetables and clean up their room and pick up their moop and play nice with others. ;)

My original tribe name was nikibean, which was given to me by my second boss evar, with whom I was totally in love (becky, sigh)... who flicked a coffee bean at me, which turned into "dude, look, I just flicked the bean" which turned into "flickibean" and then we looked at each other... "Nikibean!"
We just about fell over laughing. Ah, too much caffeine too early in the morning...

But Star is my name now. That evolved when I actually made it to the Playa. When I was little, I was really REALLY stubborn (like I'm not now). For about 3 months, I wouldn't answer to anything but "Star" or "Crystal" when I was 4 years old - one of my parents' *favorite* stories to tell others. I wanted so desperately to be something else, something sparkly and magical.
I told this story to my boyfriend and to other friends of mine in '06, when I first made it out to BRC. Roofus, my bf, looked at me and asked, "well, which do you feel is more sparkly, Star or Crystal?" I picked Star. He told me to say it with a pout. He approved...
We laughed, and yep, I became Star.
Works well as a Playa name and a sub name.
The best, though, was having a Burner and his kids in my boat on the Tuolumne this past summer- he had been at Otter Camp for the past 8 years, and he called me Star the entire trip after we exchanged Playa names. I felt like I was home, but still out on the river. Awesome.

In other places, I go by Nicole.

LOL!

i just tried it ,the generator went for "alter boy"......somehow i can,t see me changing from twatrick to alter boy.........booooooooooooooooopbooooooop bing bong boooooop are we there yet ?,are we there yet?

> To which the guy said "oh great-- that's what we need, a Doctor who's too apathetic to pronounce his whole name. Sounds like the guy I'd want to call when I need an operation!" <

*L* that's fantastic. :)