A good idea gone scratchy

kw: observations, musings, apparel

Several years ago I began cutting the labels out of my undershirts because they irritate my back. One day my wife brought home some new ones that had the label printed inside. I've been wearing some of them for a year or two.

Recently I noticed a drawback. Some of them were irritating my back even more than the old fabric labels. I felt back there, and the ink was very scratchy! Here is an image of the label printed inside the back of the shirt. If you look closely (try clicking the image for a larger version), you can see white lines through the ink. That is spots where it broke. The ink is actually rather thick. Once it breaks, it tends to curl, making lots of sharp edges. I actually developed a couple of sores where the larger letters rub.

Here is a closeup of part of the label. The breaks are quite evident (particularly on the larger version a click will show you), even in the finer type. Prior to the ink breaking, these have been very comfortable. So what did I do about it?

I now wear them inside out. I don't wear thin, light-colored shirts over them, so I don't expect anyone to notice. I wonder if anyone else does this, or is this too much of a throwaway culture for that?!