Beauty entrepreneur, stylist, and inveterate collector Linda Rodin details her 40-year hunt for the perfect bandage.
I think the collection started in 1986. My parents had passed away, and I decided to treat myself to a vacation. I was in Bath when I cut my fingers and went to the pharmacy to get bandages. I found these gorgeous royal-blue ones and just thought, Wow, blue, and bought them. Since then, I’ve collected the oddest bandages. I find them all over the place. Whenever I go into a pharmacy, I look for interesting ones. It’s become a game to me. If friends of mine see weird bandages, they’ll give them to me as gifts. I’m not sure if other people really notice, but the odd person will say, “Oh, that’s nice. What a great color.”
My bandage collection fits right in with my apartment, which is very eclectic. If I were to put them on my walls, they wouldn’t look out of place. Some really look like Pop Art. And I’m really careless. I open an Amazon box and all of a sudden I’m bleeding. We all use our hands constantly, so if I have to look at a bandage all day, I may as well look at something sweet.
I love anything that’s planetary, lunar, or related to outer space. I don’t remember where I got these, but they come in a black box with stars on it. I still need to check if they glow in the dark.
I’m very particular about how bandages attach: They should be secure but easy to pull off. These are. Since COVID, I wash my hands 50 times a day, and these sort of hold up to that — or I just change them.
I saw these in a store and thought they were funny. They’re flimsier and not as reliable as fabric Band-Aids — but they’re tie-dye and I’m from the ’60s, so how could I resist that?
I also have neon ones. They come in lavender, which is exquisite; a deep turquoise; acid green; and acid orange. There was a certain moment when I was wearing neon-orange nail polish and one of the neon-orange bandages. Someone said, “Oh, you’re matching your nail polish to your bandage. What’s this all about?” And I said, “I don’t know. I just have these orange bandages, and I have a cut. It’s not like I’m trying to match.” These come in a knuckle shape, which wraps around your hands better.
I ordered a box of these felt mermaid bandages from Etsy recently. I’m a lover of anything aquatic — pictures of fish, the ocean, shells, whatever. I’m a Pisces, so I’ve always thought I’m like a mermaid.
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