http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/2...70334/-1/NEWS04 for some pictures.
The Des Moines woman with no fewer than 20 "SpongeBob SquarePants" tattoos knows she's a little bit crazy.
She fully understands that most fans of the cartoon don't have hand-painted SpongeBob bowling pins and SpongeBob nesting dolls and a 4-foot SpongeBob plush toy. She knows her collection, which fills more than 50 plastic storage bins, is unusual.
But she can't resist.
"How do I stop? How do I not get that one thing that I don't have?" said Jennifer Jones, 30, whose obsession landed her an interview with CNN a few weeks ago. "I'd say it's an addiction, but it definitely makes me happy. That's all that matters, I guess."
She isn't the only one who's hooked. As the world's most famous animated sea sponge celebrates his 10th birthday today - the first season began on July 17, 1999 - millions of fans will tune in to Nickelodeon to watch the 50-hour "Ultimate SpongeBob SpongeBash Weekend," which begins with a new episode at 7 tonight.
All the hullabaloo may come as a surprise - but it shouldn't.
After all, "it's a SpongeBob world. We just live in it," first lady Michelle Obama told Time magazine last fall. A few months earlier, her husband told TV guide that SpongeBob was his all-time favorite cartoon character because he watches it with his daughters.
The Obama girls are two of the reasons, in fact, why the show has ranked No. 1 among kids ages 2 to 11 for seven consecutive years, drawing an average of 70 million viewers every month. Nickelodeon has soaked up huge profits with everything from SpongeBob underwear to SpongeBob yogurt, as well as a 2004 movie that earned $118 million.
Needless to say, no one expected the porous little critter to get so big. When the show's creator, the marine biologist-turned-animator Stephen Hillenburg, pitched the idea about a cheerful invertebrate and his friends - a grumpy octopus named Squidward, a brainless starfish named Patrick and stingy Mr. Krabs - network executives were skeptical.
"In general, there was bemusement at the prospect of this being a viable show," according to an e-mail from Brown Johnson, the president for animation at Nickelodeon and the MTVN Kids and Family Group. (He's the guy behind Nick Jr.'s "play to learn" philosophy, which underlies animated hits such as "Blue's Clues" and "Dora the Explorer.")
After a few minor changes, though - including a new name for what Hillenburg originally called "SpongeBoy" - producers gave the show a green light. They soon discovered that its multi-layered silliness appealed to a broader audience than initially expected.
"Early ratings for the show were showing there was interest from college-age kids who had just grown out of the Nickelodeon demo," Johnson wrote, adding that a test run of merchandise at the suburban punk emporium Hot Topic also exceeded expectations. "That's not your regular kids' store, so clearly the show was tapping into a wider audience."
The show's early ripples swelled into tidal waves, and SpongeBob's empire now reaches 171 media markets in 25 languages. (In Germany, it's "SpongeBob Schwammpkopf," or "SpongeHead"; in Japan, "Suponji Bobu.")
Hillenburg, who expected the show to be canceled after the first season, once said the fact of its worldwide appeal didn't really sink in until he spotted a girl with a pink SpongeBob backpack - in a remote village in Sumatra.
Musical groups from Pantera to Avril Lavigne have contributed songs for the soundtrack, and all sorts of celebrities have provided voices for guest characters, including Ernest Borgnine, Johnny Depp, Will Ferrell, LeBron James, Whoopi Goldberg and Gene Simmons.
There's an even longer list who count themselves as fans.
"That's one of the only cartoons I can stomach," Jack Nicholson told the New York Post, after someone caught him humming the theme song.
Scarlett Johansson went even further.
"Oh, I love SpongeBob," she told Allure magazine. "We had a brief affair, but after he skipped out on a few dinner bills, I had to break it off with him. There is just something about a man with a yellow hue."
Nobody, however, loves SpongeBob more than Des Moines' own Tattooed Lady.
"He's hilarious," Jones said. "I love watching him and Patrick. I don't know what makes it so funny to me, but I can just sit there and laugh out loud."
Jones, a 10-year staffer at the Polk County Courthouse, started collecting all things SpongeBob in 2000 without any big plans. But friends and family members started giving her SpongeBob gifts for birthdays and holidays, and before she knew it, her collection was huge.
"I have everything," she said. "My whole bathroom is in SpongeBob: the toilet seats, the shower curtain, the towels, the toothbrush holder, the soap, shampoo, everything."
There's the SpongeBob quilt from her grandmother's friend, the SpongeBob crocs and the SpongeBob sweater for her 2-year-old cat, Sassy SquarePants.
There's the $150 set of SpongeBob golf clubs she reluctantly gave to her niece, and the SpongeBob hat with her name stitched in Arabic, which someone brought back from Iraq.
There's the yellow SpongeBob TV. And the SpongeBob DVD player. And the SpongeBob remote control.
"When you change the channel," she said, "SpongeBob comes on with different faces."
Most of her collection is in storage because she recently moved to a new rental home on the north side. She'd eventually like to buy her own home with more room for displays.
Her current roommate, Sarah Smith, doesn't seem to mind the SpongeBob decor.
"He's kind of cute," she said. "He makes me smile, too."
During a visit last week, Smith pulled out a photo of Jones in the SpongeBob costume she wore last year to a Buccaneers hockey game. The Nickelodeon marketing team had loaned it to a friend of hers, who figured she'd get a kick out of it.
"It was actually kind of heavy," she said, adding that she rode around the ice in a convertible Mustang between periods. "I wanted to steal it, but that didn't go over."
A costume, of course, can be removed, and a collection can be auctioned off on eBay.
But tattoos? Does she ever have any regrets about those?
"No," she said. "None at all."
Although she has a few older tattoos, the first SpongeBob characters showed up on her arm about three years ago. Others followed, and now, underwater scenes splash across both arms. There's SpongeBob's pineapple house and the restaurant where he makes Krabby Patties. There's Squidward and Mrs. Puff and Gary the Snail. SpongeBob and Patrick race around her right arm on a pair of motorcycles, and then again in race cars.
"I used to try to do a tattoo once a year and then it got to be six months and then . . . ," Jones said with a shrug.
She figures the entire inky collection cost between $1,000 and $1,500. The artist, Rick Gray at Eastside Ink Tattoo and Body Piercing, has drawn many of the characters by hand.
"He doesn't charge me as much because I keep going back," she said.
By now, there isn't much space left on her arms, and there aren't many knickknacks she doesn't already own.
The only thing left on her wish-list, in fact, is a paint job for her navy blue Scion XB. She bought it two years ago, partly because its boxy profile reminded her of a certain you-know-who.
"I want somebody to paint the whole thing SpongeBob," she said. "All I want is the car painted. That's all I want."
For now . . .
:P :) 
