If you're as obsessed with nails as I am, you probably spend hours of your life looking at photos that nail techs have posted online of their own work, or that clients post online of their own nails, or — now that I know what Pinterest is and how it works — pics that people have pinned and repinned of nails they just plain like.

I know I've mentioned in the past that it makes me crazy to see photos of nail art that are displayed "upside down" — with the fingertips pointing straight up to heaven. I think you should always present nail art in the manner it was created. Most of the time that means with the nails pointing downward, the way you look at them when you are doing them.

But here's another way to present your work: The Claw!

I get it. I understand that this "pose" — as it were — allows all five nails to get in the picture, thumb included.

But it's so not a flattering look. For starters, it rarely results in a photo where any of the five nails can be seen clearly, making the inclusion of the thumb nail a moot effort. It also looks horribly uncomfortable. It gives me hand cramps just looking at these photos. And whenever I hold my fingers like this for demonstration purposes, my poor little digits ache.

Also, it makes me think your client is in the process of attacking you. Possibly that your client is a zombie. That sometime during the service your client has gone through some mutative process, become a flesh-hungry zombie, and is now trying to claw your eyes out and eat your brains while you are trying to snap a photo of the nails you are so proud of. 

Each time one of my Facebook friends posts such a photo, I cower in terror and worry for her safety until I see a new post from her to prove that she wasn't viciously slain by her zombie client.

Or maybe I'm seeing posts by a growing number of zombie nail techs who just want to keep in touch?