Looking after your nails is a bit of a chore, especially if you're a woman. People expect your hands to look pristine at all times, but it takes a lot of hard work, maintenance, and plenty of polish. All that clipping and filling, or chewing if you like that bad habit. It almost makes you wish that you could just skip the whole process and leave them be.
But the funny thing is, that's exactly what a middle-aged woman who survived breast cancer did - she left her nails alone to grow to gigantic proportions, and now runs a successful business selling bespoke fetish videos of her fingernails and toenails over the internet.
Arinda Storm Weaver, who hails from the town of Columbus in Ohio, first broke into the fetish community after she got a Myspace account to reconnect with old friends. She'd just been through a double mastectomy and was feeling lonely and isolated. One day, on a whim, she took a few snaps of her overgrown nails and posted them to her blog. She was then promptly inundated with messages from men from the obscure 'long nail community’ who thought that Amanda was something of a pin-up.
Amanda's business of flogging commissioned videos of her nails to clients was soon doing so well it became a full-time job. Now her nails are so long that she struggles to find appropriate footwear. In fact, they're so long that she has long since given up measuring them. Now Amanda states that complete strangers come up to her and ask her about her nails.
Commenting on her unusual business, she stated: "One day, when I repolished my nails, I took about half a dozen pictures and posted them on my blog. After a few weeks of doing that, two guys from Spain asked to be my friend ... There was another guy who had a profile picture and was in the Netherlands, so I messaged him out of curiosity. When he asked me, ‘Did you know there is a fetish for long nails?’ his question changed my life. I’d been posting pictures because I loved my nails – but not in the way these guys did!"
"I was a chat room host for a while, but I was placed in a dungeon category, which I wasn’t happy about. I didn’t want to be in a place where I felt pressure to take my clothes off. That was a line I wouldn’t cross. I still do some one-on-one Skype calls with people I have known previously, but I do mostly custom nail videos and they are mainly of my feet.
"Sometimes my clients send me things to make videos with. One man sent a mannequin head and I videoed my feet touching it. I’ve also videoed myself popping bubble wrap with my toenails. Dirty feet tend to be quite popular, too, but they are pretty innocuous."
She added: "Finding footwear can be very difficult. I’ve had a pair of soft sole sheepskin slippers and I found a pair of sweater-type clogs, but they need to be a few sizes bigger than my feet, to allow room for my nails. Provided there’s no snow, I go out with sandals on, because it’s just so much easier. I have had to stop wearing anything with buttons, because I just can’t do them up and I don’t drive anymore. When I did, I really struggled with the petrol pump. I think for most other things I have learned to adapt.”
So there you have it. If you're ever out of a job in future, then maybe just let your nails grow out, video them, and then upload the footage - you could end up making some serious dough.