[talkingtab]

Knowing about Japanese Lacquer (aka Urushi) will change the way that you see the world. Urushi is the sap of a tree that is related to poison oak and posion ivy. You can learn to use it by wearing a biohazard suit or by suffering through until you develop an immunity to the urushiol. To call it "the itch" does not do it justice. You do not really know the full depths of being a human until you decide, with full knowledge of the consequences, to go down this road.

Urushi is transformed by curing in a warm and humid environment to something that is food safe and not toxic - for example Japanese rice bowls. Then there are they myriad decorative techniques such as Rankaku - using quail egg shells for decoration.

I've recently seen the word "entanglement" in a completely different context. But Urushi entangles you in nature and your environment in way that is utterly breath taking. For example: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2019/modern-masters-...

[edit for grammar and clarity]

[twic]

If anyone is curious and near South Kensington, there is now a little exhibition on urushi at the V&A [1], which includes a film of a guy who harvests his own sap, processes it into lacquer, and then makes things with it.

That video is not online AFAICT, but there is another one about another artist, which includes some footage of an urushi workshop preparing the stuff, and her using it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeult7lZtbg

[1] https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/urushi-now-contemporary-ja...

[userbinator]

Epoxy resins are usually pretty toxic when uncured too.

[kayfox]

You can also grow up exploring the woods in an area with a lot of poison oak like me and it just does not react on your skin.

[kstrauser]

A dermatologist friend told me there are people who react to poison ivy, and people who do not yet react to poison ivy. He explained to the effect that repeated exposure tends to sensitize people. Poison ivy/oak/etc. has no effect on them, then one day it does.

I grew up playing in woods thick with the stuff and never had a problem. Then I had a hell of a reaction to it in high school, and it’s been cruel to me since then.

[disillusioned]

This article in the WSJ was by an author who decided to induce immunity to poison oak by exposure: eating it. It's... quite the journey, evidently, but possible:

https://www.wsj.com/style/eat-poison-ivy-oak-immunity-3207ec...