They’re Opening Wide to Teeth Tattoos

For the past year, Albert Apkarian has had his foot in his mouth. But the Canoga Park podiatrist doesn’t lack tact. The foot is actually a flesh-colored dental “tattoo,” handpainted on his left bottom molar.

It’s the handiwork of Daniel Materdomini, a Canoga Park dental ceramist who said he has applied “a few hundred” tooth tattoos over the past 10 years.

While tooth tattoos aren’t for everyone, Materdomini said they’re especially popular with celebrities and sports figures. He said he’s tattooed some famous people, but is close-mouthed when pressed for names.

The most popular design, he said, is a heart with an arrow and lovers’ initials, although he also gets a fair number of requests for the Star of David, a butterfly, the Playboy insignia and company logos. “My attorney has the scales of justice on his tooth,” he added.

The tattoos--which are done on a cap, a veneer or dentures--are handbrushed on with undiluted metal oxide stains (the same materials used in diluted form to color teeth) and then baked on the surface of the tooth, he said.

“It’s a novelty, a personal thing,” Materdomini said. “And the tattoo usually doesn’t show. People often have it done on their upper back molars. You can’t see it unless they lift up their lip to show other people.”

Materdomini’s tooth tattoos cost $50, plus whatever extra fees a dentist may charge for fitting the cap, veneer or denture. And what if the initials on that heart should change? Not to worry. The tattoo can easily be ground off, Materdomini said, and the tooth repolished.

All Together, Now: Run!

The second annual City of Los Angeles Marathon on March 1 promises to be a hairier race for some entrants than others. Take, for example, the 16 competitors who will run the race together as a human centipede.

Dubbed the Chilopod Express, the human centipede team will dress in matching black and yellow shoes, socks and running tights. A 105-foot-long black and yellow silk-screened costume will link the runners, most of them members of the Hughes Aircraft Co. Running and Track Club.

Team member Steve Morgan explained the costume further: “There will be slots for our heads and the costume will drape over the shoulders and end about mid-thigh, depending on how tall you are. There is about 6 feet of space between each runner.”

A shorter centipede, composed of eight runners, competed last year. Come March 1, members of the Chilipod Express are hoping their training sessions will help them best last year’s time of 3:35. “We did a dry run at the Super Bowl 10 K (in Redondo Beach),” Morgan said, “and we meet on Saturday mornings and go on long runs.”

In the offing, perhaps, is a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. “(This year) we called and checked with Guinness,” Morgan said, “and they said there’s no record that exists right now of a (human) centipede completing a marathon.”

Look Up and Say ‘Cheese’

The photographer will be seeing double on Feb. 28 when 400 or so pairs of twins gather at Charles R. Drew University in Los Angeles for a heart-shaped group picture.

The giant aerial-view photo will be a “thank you” to twins who have served as subjects in the university research program during the past few years, and a welcome to any twins willing to help launch new studies on high blood pressure.

Besides nominal payments and commemorative T-shirts, the twin volunteers--who may be any age--reap the benefits of close personal medical attention, said Rex Malcolm, a spokesperson for the American Heart Assn., a financial supporter of the research. “When the study is over, the twins will know if they have high blood pressure and be able to take steps to correct it,” he said.

Twins should gather by 10:30 a.m. at parking lot G, 1621 E. 120th St. For more information, call (213) 563-5927.

Thumbs Up on the Roses

Thomas Cairns calls it “traumatic landscaping.” The hilly yard of the Studio City home he shares with Luis Desamero includes about 800 rose bushes--roughly 300 hybrid teas and 500 miniatures. “It certainly slows down traffic,” said Cairns, who explained that motorists zooming down curvy Laurel Canyon Boulevard often deaccelerate to gaze at the blooms.

Recently, the green thumbs of Cairns, a biochemist, and Desamero, an accountant, also earned them the attention of the Shreveport, La.-based American Rose Society, whose exhibitors’ committee named the team “Exhibitor of the Year.” The duo gathered 9,525 points in 14 rose shows during 1986, more than any other competitor. They’ll travel to the society’s national convention in May in Charlotte, N.C., to claim their certificate.

The two began competing in rose shows five years ago. “The first time out, we won two trophies,” Cairns said. “We never got to be novices.”

A Lot of Talking Helps

What’s the secret of a successful long-term marriage?

Talking, and lots of it, claim Josie and Luis Villaescusa, who will celebrate their 67th married year Sunday with about 50 family members at the Pasadena Holiday Inn.

“They sit and talk with each other an awful lot,” said eldest daughter Henrietta Villaescusa, 66. “There’s constant communication between them.”

“We’re alone now and have a lot of time for talking,” added Josie, 82, who said she’s still “madly in love” with her spouse.

She met Luis, now 85, when he began working as a boilermaker for Southern Pacific Railroad in Los Angeles. Soon after Luis began stopping for meals at the boarding house run by Josie’s mother, he fell for young Josie.

Over the strong objections of both families (who thought the couple too young), they married on Valentine’s Day, 1920. Since then, they have raised six children (two are now deceased), and have become grandparents to 16 and great-grandparents to 14. “We had a rough road on the way,” Josie said, “but now it’s pretty smooth.”

That’s not to say it’s all wine and roses. Asked if they ever get angry with each other, Josie answered quickly. “Oh, yes!” Her husband agreed. “There are a lot of things we don’t agree on,” Josie said.